Applying techniques of clustering analysis to a set of variables suggested by the convergence criteria and the theory of optimal currency areas, this paper looks for country homogeneities to assess membership in the existing and proposed monetary unions of the broader west African region. Our...

We verify whether cocoa prices could be a source of inflation in five countries of the West African region within a framework that includes other variables such as migrant remittances to the region and a fiscal policy variable represented by the government budget deficit. Unlike earlier studies...

We verify whether cocoa prices could be a source of inflation in five countries of the West African region within a framework that includes other variables such as migrant remittances to the region and a fiscal policy variable represented by the government budget deficit. Unlike earlier studies...

In this paper, we test the existence of an optimal inflation interval within which, the inflation of the west African countries supports economic growth. Besides this objective, we seek to test the validity of the 5% inflation threshold not to be exceeded, proposed as a convergence criterion for...

The West African Monetary Zone is a proposed monetary union among the nations of The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. A key characteristic for a well-functioning common currency is convergence in inflation rates among constituent members. A failure to achieve convergent...

This study provides country-specific empirical evidence on the optimal inflation-growth threshold in the WAMZ over the period 1996-2021. Although there is large empirical literature on this subject, however, previous studies on the WAMZ economies generally focused on exogenous approaches of...

While previous studies have explored the relationship between inflation and economic growth, the existing literature on threshold effect of inflation on economic growth in the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) predominantly assumes a linear association, neglecting the possibility of...