This paper evaluates the role of economic integration and democracy in rationalizing differences in real exchange rate misalignments across exchange rate regimes in Africa. To this end, the paper derives competing indexes of misalignment using modern cointegration techniques while accounting for...

A salient feature of the East Asian region is the persistent discrepancy between the progress in de facto and de jure economic integration. East Asia has long been said to be the champion of loose regional economic integration, with deepening intra-regional trade and investment linkages in the...

This paper considers the extent to which the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA) meets the criteria for a common currency area. NAFTA is compared with the EC, a regional grouping for which initial plans for a monetary union are already in place. Most of the anticipated benefits from a...