This paper examines the welfare implications of a country joining a currency union as opposed to operating in a flexible exchange rate regime. At the country level, the suboptimal response to domestic and foreign shocks and the inability of setting inflation at the desired level may be offset by...

By employing Lucas' (1982) model, this study proposes an arbitrage relationship - the Uncovered Equity Return Parity (URP) condition - to explain the dynamics of exchange rates. When expected equity returns in a country/region are lower than expected equity returns in another country/region, the...

What are the economic implications of financial and uncertainty shocks? We show that financial shocks cause a decline in output and goods prices, while uncertainty shocks cause a decline in output and an increase in goods prices. In response to uncertainty shocks, firms increase their markups,...