Membership in a monetary union (EMU) is likely to imply stronger incentives for nominal wage flexibility in the form of wage indexation and shorter contract length than non-membership. For example, EMU entry may cause a move from a nonindexation to an indexation equilibrium. But more wage...

The paper demonstrates that policy makers have a precautionary motive to undertake more labour-market reform - and hence attain lower equilibrium unemployment - inside a monetary union than outside. The reason is a desire to reduce the utility cost of variations in employment when asymmetric...

We analyze motivations for, and possible alternatives to, the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP). With regard to the former, we identify domestic policy failures and various cross-country spillover effects; with regard to the latter, we contrast an "economic-theory" perspective on optimal...

Everyone studying EMU cites the theory of Optimum Currency Areas: whether a country like Sweden should join the currency union depends on such parameters as the extent of Swedish trade with other EU members and the correlation of Sweden’s income with that of other members. Few economists have...

The paper demonstrates that policy makers may have a precautionary motive to undertake more labour-market reform -and hence attain lower equilibrium unemployment- inside a monetary union than outside. The reason is a desire to reduce utility cost of variations in employment when asymmetric...

A gravity model is used to assess the separate effects of exchange rate volatility and currency unions on international trade. The panel data set I use includes bilateral observations for five years spanning 1970 through 1990 for 1986 countires. In this data set, there are over one hundred...