Fiscal rule frameworks have evolved significantly in response to the global financial crisis. Many countries have reformed their fiscal rules or introduced new ones with a view to enhancing the credibility of fiscal policy and providing a medium-term anchor. Enforcement and monitoring mechanisms...

Drawing on the recent literature and experience on monetary integration in Europe, the paper examines the rationale for establishing regional currency unions in Western Africa. Despite dramatic economic, political and historical differences between the two regions, the analysis indicates that...

This paper develops a cost–benefit analysis of monetary integration and applies it to the currency unions being actively pursued in Africa. While many related studies have highlighted the problems associated with shock asymmetries, very few analyses have attempted to weigh these against...

We develop a model in which governments' financing needs exceed the socially optimal level because public resources are diverted to serve the narrow interests of the group in power. From a social welfare perspective, this results in undue pressure on the central bank to extract seigniorage....