Skeptic views on EMU are usually cast around three arguments. First, the EU does not satisfy "Optimum Currency Area" (OCA) conditions. Second, heterogeneous economic and financial structures will produce differences in monetary transmission. Third, the shift from domestic to area-wide...

This policy paper underscores the importance of credible currency regimes and their macroeconomic underpinnings for stability in financial systems and long-term economic convergence of developing and emerging market economies. It suggests that for developing regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa,...

Using a New-Keynesian framework, we investigate how far the inflationary processes in member states of EMU cause regional price levels to converge. We fail to produce hard evidence of the present existence of such an adjustment mechanism, notwithstanding that inflation in some countries tends to...

A distinction is drawn between two notions of competitiveness. 'Essential' competitiveness focuses on the inherent developmental potential of an economy while 'apparent' competitiveness is largely determined by the exchange rate's influence on the current account. A currency union leverages...

Despite the widespread use of the notion of a country's competitiveness in public policy discussion, there is some reluctance among academic economists in accepting the concept. The competitiveness notion can be made theoretically acceptable by distinguishing its useful integral part, which...