The authors analyze the CIS countries' potential readiness to establish a currency union. Based on Optimum Currency Area (OCA) criteria that determine the countries' readiness to form a currency union and some particular benefits and costs of a currency union several macroeconomic indicators are...

Potential costs and benefits of a monetary union for the four MERCOSUR countries Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay are compared. Particular emphasis was put on the traditional and new approaches to optimum currency area theory which were reviewed and analyzed with respect to their validity...

In a micro-founded framework in line with the new open economy macroeconomics, the paper shows that more centralized wage setting (CWS) and central bank conservatism (CBC) curb unemployment only if labor market distortions are sizeable. When labor market distortions are sufficiently low,...

This paper focuses on the non linear adjustment of import prices in national currency to shocks in exchange rates and foreign prices measured in the exporters' currency of products originating outside the euro area and imported into European Union countries (EU 15). The paper looks at three...

This paper focuses on the non-linear adjustment of import prices in national currency to shocks in exchange rates and foreign prices measured in the exporters' currency of products originating outside the euro area and imported into European Union countries (EU-15). The paper looks at three...

This Paper focuses on the pass-through of exchange rate changes into the prices of imports made by euro area countries originating outside the area. Using data on import unit values for 13 different product categories for each country, we estimate industry-specific rates of pass-through across...

This is the 2007 Edition of the only book in print in the world about the Single Global Currency, and is the only book in the world priced in 143 currencies (down from 147 in the 2006 edition.).This number is significant, as it's the number of currencies required among the 192 U.N. members to...

This paper considers which currency option would be best for an independent Scotland. We examine three currency options: being part of a sterling currency zone, adopting the euro, or having an independent currency. No currency option is the best when considered against all criteria. Therefore,...

Two seemingly unconnected empirical results suggest an intriguing mechanism. Firstly, economic integration helps harmonize prices internationally, with trade being the primary channel [Rogoff (1996), Goldberg and Knetter (1997)]. Secondly, monetary union may greatly increase the amount of trade...

The effect of exchange rate volatility on trade flows was examined by a 1984 IMF study on G-7 countries. Over the past two decades, many developments in the world economy, such as the currency crises in the 1990s and increasing cross-border capital flows, may have exacerbated exchange rate...