According to the traditional ‘optimum currency area’ approach, little will be lost from a very hard peg to a currency union if there is little reason for using the exchange rate in response to economic shocks. This paper takes a different approach and highlights the fact that high exchange...

According to the traditional 'optimum currency area' approach, the case for adopting a common currency is stronger if the countries are subject to relatively similar output shocks. This Paper takes a different approach and highlights the fact that high exchange rate volatility may as well signal...

Evaluating the costs and benefits of exchange rate stability, requires a different approach to Mercosur than to the European Union (EU). Trade integration within Mercosur is much more limited; currencies are driven by other factors such as confidence in the ability to serve external debt and the...

The official view of the European Commission for the Central and Eastern European Countries on their way to the euro is: first join the EU, then converge to the Maastricht criteria, then join the ECB. However, some CEES still aim at fixing their currencies to the euro. Why does the ECB oppose so...

It is widely assumed that a common currency makes it desirable to have also a common fiscal policy. However, if fiscal policy is a source of shocks, independent national fiscal policies are generally preferable because they allow risk diversification.

Evaluating the costs and benefits of exchange rate stability requires a somewhat different approach for Mercosur than for the EU. EU member countries are highly integrated in terms of trade in goods and services. By contrast, trade integration within Mercosur is much more limited, intra-area...

This paper analyses the monetary policy interdependence between the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Federal Reserve (Fed) for the period 1999– 2006. Two models are specified: a partial Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) and a general VECM. In the partial VECM, we look for a long-run...

This paper examines the effect of government ideology on monetary policy in a quarterly data set of 15 OECD countries in the period 1980.1–2005.4. Our Taylor-rule specification focuses on the interactions of a new time-variant indicator for central bank independence and government ideology....