This paper analyzes the costs and benefits for an emerging economy to formally adopt dollarization. The magnitude of the costs and benefits involved in this process will not be the same for all countries and depend on the particular characteristics of each economy as well as its relationship...

This paper presents the theoretical and empirical aspects of a monetary union between Brazil and Argentina based on the concept of Optimal Monetary Union. The behavior of some Brazilian and Argentinean macroeconomic indicators such as total debt, public deficit, interest rate and inflation rate...

The paper investigates the export behavior of German small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in response to the introduction of Euro and the subsequent fall in trade costs. Based on a testable prediction derived from Helpman et al. (American Economic Review 94:300–316, <CitationRef CitationID="CR20">2004</CitationRef>) and Helpman...</citationref>

The paper critically considers the endogenous Optimum Currency Areas (or e-OCAs) theory, focussing initially on early studies having identified a relevant link between the creation of a monetary union and an upgrading of trade intensity between member countries, on the one hand, and the increase...

This paper studies a multi-country currency union of small open economies. Demand-side disturbances hamper monetary union stabilisation unless participating countries’ business cycles are perfectly synchronised. In the face of country-specific supply shocks, a currency union of small open...

I provide a framework for understanding debt deleveraging in a group of financially integrated countries. During an episode of international deleveraging world consumption demand is depressed and the world interest rate is low, reflecting a high propensity to save. If exchange rates are allowed...

Das Kernelement der Europäischen Integration, der „Binnenmarkt“, feiert heuer das 20-jährige Bestehen. Österreich hat seit dem Beitritt zur EU im Jahr 1995 an allen vertiefenden Schritten der EU-Integration teilgenommen. Nicht nur politisch ist Österreich durch die EU-Mitgliedschaft...

We show that the welfare costs of business cycles in a monetary union can be higher under incomplete financial markets than under complete markets. A monetary union with home bias, sticky prices and country-specific shocks is a second-best environment in which the structure of financial markets...

Business cycle synchronization represents a condition for the successful implementation of the common monetary policy within the Economic and Monetary Union. There is a tight relation between business cycle synchronization and the economic convergence of the Member States of the Monetary Union....