In contrast to Mundell's inquiry on the optimality of currency areas, this article aims to understand under what circumstances a Pareto-dominant monetary union will be established. Using a multicountry overlapping generations model, we highlight gains from monetary union arising from reduced...

This paper studies the implications of the circulation of interest bearing regional debt in a monetary union. Does the circulation of this debt have the same monetary implications as the printing of money by a central government? Or are the obligations of this debt simply backed by future...

This paper studies the inflationary implications of interest bearing regional debt in a monetary union. Is this debt simply backed by future taxation with no inflationary consequences? Or will the circulation of region debt induce monetization by a central bank? We argue here that both outcomes...

Central to ongoing debates over the desirability of monetary unions is a supposed trade-off, outlined by Mundell (1961): a monetary union reduces transactions costs but renders stabilization policy less effective. If shocks across countries are sufficiently correlated, then, according to this...

This paper studies the effects of monetary policy rules in a fiscal federation, such as the European Union. The focus of the analysis is the interaction between the fiscal policy of member countries (regions) and the monetary authority. Each of the countries structures its fiscal policy...