The six member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)-Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates (UAE)-have laid out a path to a common market by 2007 and monetary union by 2010, based on economic convergence. To monitor convergence and support economic and...

Intro -- Contents -- I. INTRODUCTION -- II. DATA NEEDS OF THE COMMON MARKET AND MONETARY UNION IN THE GCC STATES -- III. THE INSTITUTIONAL SETTING FOR PRODUCING STATISTICS IN GCC COUNTRIES -- IV. THE ROLE OF AFRISTAT -- V. THE ROLE OF EUROSTAT -- VI. KEY LESSONS FOR A FUTURE GULFSTAT -- VII....

The six member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates (UAE) - have laid out a path to a common market by 2007 and monetary union by 2010, based on economic convergence. To monitor convergence and support economic and...

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