The key conclusions of the Optimum Currency Area (OCA) literature is that for a currency area to be successful, the benefits of joining should outweigh the costs that the loss of monetary policy tools entails for prospective member. To this end, a number of criteria need to be met to reduce the...

The present paper has two aims. The first aim is to test whether six new member states of the European Union (the six Central and Eastern European Countries) form an optimum currency area (OCA) with the eurozone, in an attempt to assess their readiness for euro adoption. The second aim is to...