On the endogeneity of an exogenous OCA-criterion: The impact of specialisation on the synchronisation of regional business cycles in Europe

This paper empirically assesses the impact of specialisation on the synchronisation of regional business cycles in two core countries of EMU, namely France and Germany. Several specialisation indices are introduced and some first stylised facts about interregional business cycle correlations are derived. Second, region pair specific and pooled estimations are enacted and tested for robustness in order to calculate the impact of specialisation on the degree of business cycle synchronisation. However, our regression results confirm the hypothesis of a positive impact only partly, but they underline the problem of a common monetary policy for uncommon regions which has already existed in the DM- and in the Franc-zone before.