A number of papers over the last decade have posited that Optimal Currency Areas are endogenous with respect to business cycle synchronization. The claim is that a common currency will greatly increase trade, and then trade will increase output synchronization. Countries that thus seem...

If there is a high level of synchronization among euro zone country housing markets, the European Central Bank can incorporate the housing sector into its monetary policy decisions. If such co-movement is low, however, the ECB would have a harder time setting policy. Given the importance of...

Results of recent research suggest an increase in co-movement in house prices across countries since the mid-1980s, and this apparent increased synchronization has been attributed to greater globalization in the form of rising trade and financial flows. A similar line of research has indicated...

The East African Community (Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda) has a goal of a currency union, as part of a movement toward eventual political union. A key factor in making a currency union desirable is a high level of business cycle synchronization (BCS) among member countries. In...