Recent developments in the business cycle empirical literature for the developed economies show that there is an increasing synchronization of the cycles in the sense that cycles are of approximately equal wave length, and exhibit similar lead-lag patterns and decreasing volatility over time,...

We use wavelet analysis to investigate to what extent individual U.S. states' business cycles are synchronized. The results show that the U.S. states are remarkably well synchronized compared to the previous findings w.r.t. the Euro Area. There is also a strong and significant correlation...

This paper examines the synchronization of business cycles across the G7 countries during US recessions since the 1870's. Using a dynamic measure of business cycle synchronization, results depend on the globalisation period under consideration. On average, US recessions have significantly...

This paper assesses the level of readiness of Romania to adopt euro, based on nominal and real convergence criteria evaluation. We used the optimal currency area criteria in order to assess the real convergence process in Romania. The main conclusion of the paper is that more progress is...

This paper investigates whether the East African Community (EAC) constitutes an optimum currency area (OCA) by estimating the degree and evolution of business cycle synchronization between the EAC countries. We also investigate whether the degree of business cycle synchronization has improved...

This paper explores the impact of country size on labor market flexibility in a monetary union with a common monetary policy as conducted in EMU. I apply a Barro-Gordon framework and test its result empirically for EMU. Results confirm that small countries demand higher labor market flexibility...

The effect of income inequality on savings and consumption has remained an open empirical issue despite several decades of research. Results obtained in this study indicate that income inequality and private consumption are both I(1) nonstationary variables that are cointegrated, and inequality...

We investigate the effects of fiscal policy on private consumption and investment in the European Union. A certain consensus has aroused that fiscal impulses have expansionary Keynesian effects on the economic activity. However, the existing empirical literature has concentrated on few...

Out of 11 questions included in the EU harmonised consumer questionnaire, it is possible to construct 2 047 different consumer confidence indicators. We search through all these indicators in order to find the single indicator that has the highest correlation with private consumption growth....