In light of adopting the euro in the near future, it is important to asses to which extent the Romanian business cycle evolves in a similar fashion with that of the euro zone. The present study is an empirical investigation of the degree of business cycle synchronization between Romania and the...

Monetary integration of developing and transition countries is considered as a monetary strategy for immunization against international monetary instabilities. This paper corresponds to the growing interest in the integration theory and its application to the EMU formation and to EMU...

This paper analyses the monetary consequences of the Latin-American trade integration process. We consider a sample of five countries -Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Uruguay- spanning the period 1991-2007. The main question raised pertains to the feasibility of a monetary union between...

This paper studies to what extent the diversity of exchange rate regimes within Mercosur exerts an influence on the feasibility of a monetary union in this area. A semi-structural VAR model is built for each country, including a set of international and domestic variables. Based on impulse...

The empirical studies analyzing the relevance of the theory on the optimal monetary areas for the ex-communist states reach different conclusions, estimating the economic convergence on the basis of various factors: economic structure, intensity of trade linkages, exchange rate volatility, size...

Although analyzed in terms of criteria for defining an optimum currency area, we could appreciate that EU fulfils certain criteria established within the theory of the optimum currency area. But in comparison with USA or Canada, the EU has less premises to effectively become such an area. The...

Optimum currency area (OCA) theory attempts to define the geographical region in which it would maximize economic efficiency to have a single currency. In this paper, the focus is on prospective and current members of the Economic and Monetary Union. For this task, a self-organizing neural...

This paper analyses the monetary consequences of the Latin-American trade integration process. We consider a sample of five countries –Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Uruguay- spanning the period 1991-2007. The main question raised pertains to the feasibility of a monetary union between...

We present African monetary areas and monetary integration projects with a focus on optimal currency area criteria and endogenous theory of monetary integration. We argue that monetary arrangements provide some advantage in terms of monetary policy?s credibility as the effects of the latest...