Empirical Results for Some Monetary Areas According to Optimum Currency Area Criteria

Abstract

The euro area is the biggest monetary union in the World. In post-crisis time, the possibilities of creation a new monetary union are discussed again. The aim of this article is to evaluate, according to OCA criteria, an appropriateness of selected countries for a membership in a monetary union or for creation new monetary union. The second aim is to confront the existing monetary union – the euro area, with two potential monetary areas – NAFTA and MERCOSUR. The criteria are based on the OCA theory and partly on the so called OCA index. According to the results, there are countries (so called core countries) such as Austria or Luxemburg which reach satisfactory values. On the other hand there are countries such as Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Greece or Italy which reach worse values. Quite surprisingly, the values of most indicators (except for DISSIM) have worsened since the crisis in the euro area. It seems to be convenient for both Canada and Mexico to adopt a common currency with the USA. In case of MERCOSUR we could barely find a pair of countries with better values compare with euro area’s all-time average.

Keywords

• monetary union
• monetary systems
• economic integration
• OCA index
• Eurozone
• NAFTA