The Impact of the EMU on Channels of Risk Sharing between Member Countries

We estimate the amount of income and consumption smoothing (risk sharing) between countries in the European Monetary Union (EMU) and between other developed countries during the period 1970–2003. In particular, we examine if EMU countries display different patterns of risk sharing than other developed countries in the period leading up to and following the formation of the EMU in 1999. We find that income smoothing from international factor income has increased in the EMU since the introduction of the EMU and that consumption smoothing from procyclical government saving has declined steeply in the EMU since the signing of the Maastricht treaty.