Many public policy decisions require analytical and empirical knowledge concerning the size, growth, causes and consequences of the ‘underground economy”. This paper seeks to clarify the meaning of underground activity, updates various discrepancy and fiscal estimates of its size and growth,...

We place regional industry structures at centre stage in currency union analysis, decomposing differences between regional and aggregate cycles into 'industry structure' and 'industry cycle' effects. The industry structure effect indicates whether a region's industry structure causes its cycle...

If two countries experience similar cycles, loss in monetary sovereignty following currency union may not be severe. Analysis of cyclical similarity is frequently carried out at the overall industry level, then interpreted with reference to regional industrial structures. By contrast, this paper...

What is the optimum quantity of money in a society? This paper answers this question both from the perspective of a utility maximizing model with real balances in the utility function, and employing an inventory theoretic model which focuses attention on the costs of transacting in different...

The size, growth and causes of the US “underground economy” are examined in light of new estimates of foreign holdings of US currency. World dollarization partially resolves the “currency enigma” which refers to the anomaly that roughly 80% of the US currency supply is “missing” and...