This study improves the African Regional Integration Index (ARII) proposed by the African Union, the African Development Bank, and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa by providing a ...theoretical framework and addressing shortcomings related to the weighting and aggregation of the indicator. This article measures monetary integration in the eight African Regional Economic Communities (RECs) by constructing an Index of African Monetary Integration (IAMI). It proposes an optimal currency area as a theoretical framework and uses a panel approach to appreciate the dynamics of the index over different periods of time.
The paper looks at the urban dimension of uneven development in the EU during the last two decades, in light of the launch of the Euro and the forceful impact of the Global Financial Crisis (2007) on ...cities. It centres on Portugal, Spain, Greece and southern Italy, as urban regions in these four countries recorded the largest contractions in economic activity in the EU during the last decade. In view of this, the Mediterranean City framework is applied to a theoretically informed empirical study, drawing upon quantitative data, obtained from Eurostat. Analysis is comparative and southern cities are explored with respect to the restructuring and competitiveness record of key cities in northern Europe. Descriptive statistics and cluster analysis are used to examine the urban socio-economic traits and prospects and the changing structure of cities in 13 Northern and Southern European countries. The trends noted in the 80 cities explored underscore the bearing of the north-south dimension of the European urban diversity on uneven spatial development in the EU. They also put the spotlight on the rigid and overall unfit traits of the European economic and spatial policy perspectives in approaching and addressing the emerging challenges.
•Northern EU cities show clear resurgence signs and a strong re-urbanization trend.•Southern cities feature a lagging and path dependent urban restructuring trajectory.•The morphological traits of southern cities reflect power asymmetries in the EU.•The role of producer services is stronger in Northern EU cities.•Touristification is guiding southern urban growth.
This book combines history and political analysis of monetary integration in the European Union (EU) and discusses the main consequences of the euro on both member states' domestic politics and the ...EU’s institutions and policies.
This study investigates the possibility of forming a monetary union across West Africa. This was achieved by employing the structural VAR framework. Data on real GDP, inflation, and exchange rate ...were used to represent supply, monetary, and demand shocks from the period 1986 to 2020. The impulse response and variance decomposition results showed that shocks affecting the West African region are idiosyncratic, while the residuals of the structural VAR were used to compute the correlation coefficient. The correlation coefficient revealed that the demand and monetary shocks were symmetric across WAEMU countries and asymmetric for the rest of the region. The study suggests that the West African region is not ripe for a monetary union. However, the study opined that the WAEMU countries are the closest to forming a West African monetary union and a piecemeal approach may be adopted such that the WAEMU countries are the first to form the union, while the rest may join when they meet the convergence criteria. In essence, West African countries’ central banks need to focus on harmonizing their monetary policies and remove all barriers to factor mobility for the synchronization of shocks and for all countries to meet the convergence criteria.
Plain Language Summary Purpose: This study aims to establish whether the West African region is ripe for a monetary union in light of recent global events affecting the world. Methods: The study adopted the SVAR methodology and correlation coefficients to achieve the objectives of the study. Conclusion: The study concludes that the region is not yet ripe for a monetary union. Implications: The implication of the results is that central banks need to focus on harmonizing their monetary policies and remove all barriers to factor mobility for the synchronization of shocks and for all countries to meet the convergence criteria. Limitations: The limitation of the study is based on the fact that data was gathered from only 14 of the 15 countries within the region. This is due to the data limitation of the only country excluded from the analysis.
In this study we adopt the CAPM-based model of
Bekaert and Harvey (1995) to compare the differences in the relative importance of two sources of systemic risk (world and Eurozone) on Government bond ...returns, in two groups of countries in EU-15. Results show that euro markets are less vulnerable to the influence of world risk factors, and more vulnerable to EMU risk factors. However, they are only partially integrated. For their part, the markets of the countries that decided to stay out of the Monetary Union present a higher vulnerability to external risk factors.
We estimate logit models of housing and stock price bubbles, using panel data for 15 EU countries for the time period 1995–2014, covering a wide set of determinants: monetary, macroeconomic, ...demographic, institutional and those arising from monetary integration. Our key finding is that higher degree of real convergence diminishes the probability of a bubble in the housing market caused by a fall in interest rates after joining the monetary union. Applying these results to three Central European countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland) we conclude that, given the existing economic distance in terms of per capita GDP between the three countries and the top eurozone performers, joining the monetary union would ceteris paribus significantly increase the probability of house price bubbles in those countries. This result suggests that the optimum currency area framework should be broadened to include the degree of real convergence between the monetary union and the acceding country.
This study examines the impact of accession to the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) on foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows in the 11 New Member States (NMS), during the period 2005-2018. Using ...panel regression analysis and the gravity model, the influence of macroeconomic indicators on FDI outflows from 21 industrialised countries (including EU and non-European counties, such as Japan and USA) to the NMS is assessed. The empirical results suggest that favourable macroeconomic indicators in the NMS, such as a stable exchange rate, lower inflation, long-term interest rates and EU/EMU membership, are positively correlated with FDI inflows from NMS. Conversely, rising inflation and exchange rate volatility in the NMS are negatively associated with FDI inflows, while inflation in the FDI origin countries is positively correlated with investment in the NMS. The results suggest that joining the EMU has a statistically significant and positive relationship on FDI inflows to the NMS.
This paper investigates whether the West African nations will benefit from forming the ECO currency union. Using data from 15 countries over the 1999–2018 period, we assess heterogeneity between ...economies in terms of equilibrium exchange rates —i.e., the level of exchange rates consistent with the absence of macroeconomic disequilibria. Then, we address the sustainable exchange rate regime issue by evaluating whether the ECO should be pegged, freely floating, or something in between. We identify two homogenous groups of economies and find that neither a single currency peg nor a freely floating exchange rate regime would be preferable for any country or group of economies. Overall, our findings argue in favor of two ECOs, one for each of the two identified zones. Each ECO would serve as a virtual anchor for the considered group and would be determined by a basket of currencies mainly composed of euro and US dollar.
•We investigate the desirability of the West African monetary union project, ECO.•We identify two relatively homogeneous subgroups of countries within the region.•Neither a single currency peg nor a freely floating exchange rate regime is preferable.•Two ECOs are desirable, i.e., one for each of the two identified zones.•ECOs should be pegged to a basket mainly composed of euro and US dollar.
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