We show that, with benevolent policymakers and fiscal leadership, monetary unification reduces inflation, taxes and public spending. These disciplining effects of a monetary union, which rise with the number of fiscal players in the union, are likely to raise welfare. Joining an optimally...

In the context of an overlapping generations model with intragenerational inequality and majority voting, I study how the taxation of the old and retired generation is affected when the population growth rate changes. A fall in the birth rate leads to two opposite effects. On the one hand, the...