Two seemingly unconnected empirical results suggest an intriguing mechanism. First, economic integration helps harmonize prices internationally, with trade being the primary channel (Rogoff 1996, Goldberg and Knetter 1997). Second, monetary union may greatly increase the amount of trade among...

We develop a methodology that intuitively characterizes the choices countries have made with respect to the trilemma during the post Bretton-Woods period. The paper first outlines the new metrics for measuring the degree of exchange rate flexibility, monetary independence, and capital account...

This paper investigates the changing pattern and efficacy of sterilization within emerging market countries as they liberalize markets and integrate with the world economy. We estimate the marginal propensity to sterilize foreign asset accumulation associated with net balance of payments...

This paper examines the degree to which the learning by doing externality [LBD] calls for an undervalued exchange rate, a policy suggested by recent empirical studies which concluded that mildly undervalued real exchange rate may enhance growth. We obtain mixed results. For an economy where LBD...

The empirical literature in international finance has produced three key results about international price deviations: borders give rise to flagrant violations of the law of one price, distance matters enormously for understanding these deviations, and most papers find that convergence rates...

There is increasing interest in regional trade, investment, and currency blocs, and in the optimal public policies for such blocs. There is also much managerial interest in the co-movement of exchange rates in a region. The Eastern Caribbean Currency Bloc is one of only three (and one of the...

The introduction of the euro in 1999 has led to many initiatives and inquiries in other regions regarding the merits and prospects of currency unions. One of the regions where a currency union has been of interest is the Pacific island countries along with Australia and New Zealand. This paper...

This paper reconciles the persistence of aggregate real exchange rates with the faster adjustment of international relative prices in microeconomic data. Error correction model estimates indicate that a different mix of shocks drives international price deviations at the microeconomic level and...

Due to the global financial and economic crisis, the analysis of the nominal convergence criteria fulfillment in the New Member States of the European Union represents an important point in evaluating the level of readiness of these countries for euro adoption. The global financial and economic...

This paper asks whether external shocks (U.S. interest rates, U.S. industrial production, U.S. stocks prices and world industrial material price) have asymmetric effects on European relative prices (real exchange rates). On 1979-1993 period, the paper finds that two groups of countries may be...