Trade implications of the Euro in EMU countries: a panel gravity analysis

In this paper, we study the intra-EMU and intra-Eurozone trade effects of the euro adoption on 29 European Economic and Monetary Union countries (including 17 Eurozone economies and Iceland) from the period 1994 through 2011. We employ a generalized gravity model that controls for an extended set of trade theory and policy variables. The gravity model is estimated using the robust panel data techniques that includes times effects, besides country-specific effects. The various econometric specifications of the gravity equation, on the whole dataset of 29 economies, yield positive and significant impact (to be around 14 %) of the euro currency adoption on bilateral trade flows. Next, euro effect on bilateral trade and exports on a smaller dataset is estimated. The estimated results suggest that bilateral trade and exports increase by 20.81 and 18.57 %, respectively, when both the countries belong to the Eurozone. This effect is larger than the one obtained when only one of the two trading partners uses the euro as its currency. In addition, the validity of the assumptions of Heckscher–Ohlin (H–O) theory are checked for the countries under study. The estimated results reject the H–O theory in favor of Modern Trade theories. However, the low value of the coefficient on respective variable suggests that, over the period, the type of trade among these countries has transited from inter-industry trade to horizontal intra-industry trade. This suggests that these developed European economies are on the path of economic convergence via intra-industry trade.     

Macroeconomic policies and output fluctuations in slovakia: Application of the taylor rule

Applying the Taylor rule, this paper finds that real output for Slovakia is positively influenced by real appreciation and world output, and negatively affected by the expected inflation rate, real government deficit, the euro interest rate, and the U.S. federal funds rate. Policy implications are that the Taylor rule works well for Slovakia, that expansionary fiscal policy may crowd out private spending and would not raise output, and that the conventional wisdom of devaluating a currency to stimulate the economy would not apply to Slovakia. (JEL: E52 E62 F41 O52) I am grateful to an anonymous referee for very insightful comments. Any errors are the author’s responsibility.     

The transmission of business cycles: Lessons from the 2004 enlargement of the EU and the adoption of the euro

This paper evaluates the macroeconomic interdependencies of seven Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) with the Euro Area (EA) through trade relationship. We estimate a near‐VAR model and simulate the responses of activity in those CEECs to output shocks for 12 former members of the EA before and after the 2004 enlargement of the European Union. During both periods, empirical results show that spillover effects come through the main economies of the EA: Germany, France and Italy. Furthermore, CEECs were more responsive to output shocks in the EA after 2004 than before (3.3 times more on average). Increases in spillover effects are larger for the three CEECs that adopted the Euro early (Slovenia, Slovakia and Estonia) than the other CEECs but without higher trade intensity with the EA. Our results show that trade effects are positive inside the same currency area but negative for the CEECs without the euro.     

Monetary policy before and after the euro: evidence from Greece

We model Greek monetary policy in the 1990s and use our findings to address two interrelated questions. First, how was monetary policy conducted in the 1990s so that the hitherto highest-inflation EU country managed to join the euro by 2001? Second, how compatible is the ECB monetary policy with Greek economic conditions? We find that Greek monetary policy in the 1990s was: (i) primarily determined by German/ECB interest rates, though still influenced by domestic fundamentals; (ii) involving non-linear output gap effects; (iii) subject to a deficit of credibility culminating in the 1998 devaluation. On the question of compatibility our findings depend on the value assumed for the equilibrium post-euro real interest rate and overall indicate both a reduction in the pre-euro risk premium and some degree of monetary policy incompatibility. Our analysis has policy implications for the new EU members and motivates further research on fast-growing EMU economies.     

Trade and the Euro: effects on bystanders

This article investigates trade effects of the euro focusing on the impact on bystanders. We use data for Swedish firms and examine the impact on exporting firms’ intensive and extensive margins of trade. Our result shows an overall increase in Swedish firms’ exports to the euro area after the introduction of the single currency, indicating that the euro has decreased trade costs also for outsiders. In addition, we find important heterogeneity in the sample, suggesting that it is the large majority of small firms that has increased trade flows with the Eurozone the most.     

欧债危机成因与前景的制度分析

希腊等欧元区国家的主权债务危机可以说是欧洲区域一体化建设中的独特现象,其折射的是欧元区所存在的一个结构性问题：奉行单一货币政策和各国分散的财政政策,集中暴露出了欧洲货币一体化与欧洲福利资本主义的不相容、以及统一货币运行所要求的财政紧缩与欧元成员国经济增长和福利制度之间的矛盾与冲突;欧元不会就此瓦解,但欧债问题的最终解决困难重重;欧元的未来取决于自由与市场的回归欧洲,取决于欧盟的制度完善与欧式福利资本主义改革的成功与否。     

LOCAL VERSUS PRODUCER CURRENCY PRICING: EVIDENCE FROM DISAGGREGATED DATA*

The pricing behavior of firms is a central issue in international macroeconomics. Using the introduction of the euro as a natural experiment I find that year‐to‐year volatility in import prices among Eurozone members diminished by 4% on average after the introduction of the euro. Additionally, I show that the magnitude of the drop was commensurate with the drop in exchange rate volatility. On the other hand, when looking at exports, I find that the introduction of the euro had no impact on export price volatility. The results support the hypothesis of producer currency pricing.     

基于VAR模型的中欧贸易“J曲线效应”实证分析

欧元作为一种新兴世界货币既在全球经济中发挥日益重要的作用,也是人民币汇率形成机制中的重要权重货币,由于欧盟是中国最大的贸易伙伴,故欧元兑人民币实际汇率变动对中欧贸易平衡产生重要影响。本文采用1999—2008年间欧元兑人民币汇率数据和中国与欧元区贸易季度数据构建VAR模型,并运用单位根检验、协整检验和脉冲响应函数的分析方法对欧元汇率变动对中欧贸易相对差额的影响进行实证分析。结果表明,人民币兑欧元的贬值初期会引起中国对欧元区贸易收支的短期恶化,但经过一段时间后由于我国对欧元区出口数量增加,贸易盈余趋于稳定,中国对欧元区贸易存在汇率贬值的"J曲线效应"。     

Revisiting Covered Interest Parity in the European Union: the DCCA Approach

This paper analyzes the evidence of financial integration, with covered interest parity (CIP), for a group of countries that have already adopted the euro and another group of countries that kept their currencies. We use detrended cross-correlation analysis, which allows analyzing the behavior of time series even when they are not stationary. The main results indicate that countries that adopted the euro do not show much evidence in favor of CIP, before joining the Eurozone, which could imply they will not benefit from all common currency advantages. In the group of countries that did not adopt the euro, Denmark, Sweden, the UK and the Czech Republic are the ones presenting better conditions for financial integration with the euro, while Bulgaria has also some evidence of this. Some possible explanations of CIP deviations are agents not considering all countries’ assets as similar and also the underdevelopment of markets and liquidity problems (more pronounced due to periods of turmoil).     

Foreign direct investment and the euro: the first five years

This paper assesses the main influences on foreign direct investment(FDI) flows between the major economies in the first five yearsof economic and monetary union (EMU). Using previously unpublisheddata specially provided by Eurostat, it concludes that the hugewave of FDI that reached the Eurozone after EMU was largelya manifestation of the end-of-century takeover boom, a globalphenomenon of which the euro was only a subsidiary cause. Butmuch of the boom in euro economies' FDI disappears if flowsto and from the Belgium–Luxembourg Economic Union (BLEU)(dominated by transhipment via Luxembourg) are removed. On thatbasis, intra-zone FDI turns out to have been weak after EMU,both in relation to previous trends and as a share of majoreconomies' global FDI flows. However, the euro appears to havegiven a modest stimulus to inflows from other major investingeconomies, while the UK share of the latters' outflows has fallenmoderately in the post-EMU period. The policy implications arediscussed.     

Domestic demand and global production in the Eurozone: A multi-regional input-output assessment of the global crisis

This paper studies the effects of domestic and foreign demand impulses in euro area economies following the Great Recession of 2008–2009 and the Eurozone crisis of 2011–2012. Using a global Input–Output framework we apply a set of metrics to assess spillover effects of international trade in intermediates triggered by the dynamics of final demand. Our findings suggest that while cross-country trade spillovers have played a crucial role during the Great Recession, they have had a moderate impact when compared with the role of domestic sources of final demand during the Eurozone crisis. Hence, a strategy of coordinated fiscal austerity cannot be sustained by empirical evidence.     

欧元:从现在看未来

欧元自诞生以来取得了初步成功,包括促进了欧元区经济一体化的发展,取得了仅次于美元的第二大国际货币的地位。但是,欧元还面临着许多挑战,尤其是欧盟的政治一体化的滞后。今后一段时期欧元还会健康成长。     

Do fiscal responsibility laws matter? Evidence from emerging market economies suggests not

Optimal Currency Area theory stresses the importance of the co-movement of business cycles among Eurozone member states for a successful common currency. In this paper, we show how to decompose economic cycles in a time-frequency framework in order to compare the coherences and phase shifts for Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Germany and France. We find that there has been some convergence on the Eurozone economy at short cycle lengths, but little convergence in long cycles. We argue that this shows evidence of divergence in the Eurozone into two groups: a German cluster and the periphery economies.     

Transitional price rises with the adoption of the euro: aggregate and disaggregate sector evidence

This paper presents a time‐series regression analysis of price inflation at the time of the euro currency changeover in January 2002. Cross‐equation tests on 12 euro countries and three non‐euro EU countries are used to identify significant price changes around that time. For a small number of product and service categories, positive price changes immediately after the euro changeover suggest the possible existence of menu costs, sellers' rounding up of prices or buyers' temporary rational inattention. However, the lack of evidence for reduced inflation immediately prior to the euro changeover suggests menu costs are not important.     

Business Cycle Synchronization in EU: A Time‐Varying Approach

This article investigates the time‐varying correlation between the EU12‐wide business cycle and the initial EU12 member‐countries based on Scalar‐BEKK and multivariate Riskmetrics model frameworks for the period 1980–2012. The paper provides evidence that changes in the business cycle synchronization correspond to major economic events that have taken place at a European level. In the main, business cycle synchronization until 2007 had moved in a direction positive for the operation of a single currency, suggesting that the common monetary policy was less costly in terms of lost flexibility at the national level. However, as a result of the Great Recession of 2007 and the subsequent Eurozone Crisis, a number of periphery countries, most notably Greece, have experienced desynchronization of their business cycles with the EU12‐wide cycle. Nevertheless, for most countries, any questions regarding the optimality and sustainability of the common currency area in Europe should not be attributed to a lack of cyclical synchronization.     

Global models for a global pandemic: The impact of COVID-19 on small euro area economies

We analyse the COVID-19 pandemic shock on small open economies (SOEs) in the euro area in a unified modelling framework: the Euro Area and the Global Economy model. We find strong negative international spillovers affecting each of the modelled SOEs, stemming not only from the rest of the euro area, but also from the United States and the rest of the world. A lower bound on nominal interest rates in the euro area amplifies these spillovers, especially within the euro area. Furthermore, we find some positive spillovers from the fiscal measures implemented in the Euro area to combat the pandemic, including the new Next Generation EU instrument.     

Deleveraging,deflation and depreciation in the euro area

During the post-crisis period, economic performance has been highly heterogenous across the euro area. While some economies rebounded quickly after the 2009 output collapse, others are undergoing a protracted further decline as part of an extensive deleveraging process. At the same time, inflation has been subdued throughout the whole of the euro area and intra-euro-area exchange rates have hardly moved. We interpret these facts through the lens of a two-country model of a currency union. We find that deleveraging in one country generates deflationary spillovers which cannot be contained by monetary policy, as it becomes constrained by the zero lower bound. As a result, the real exchange rate response becomes muted, and the output collapse—concentrated in the deleveraging economies.     

A core–periphery framework in stock markets of the euro zone

The introduction of the euro was expected to have an effect not only on real convergence of economies but also on stock markets. This research compares the dynamics and synchronization of stock market regimes in European markets before and after the euro launch. Countries of the euro zone are found to have different dynamics with regard to switching between bull and bear markets, but the differences become less pronounced after the introduction of the single currency, increasing the overall level of stock market synchronization. Nevertheless, Austria and Portugal reduced the level of regime synchronization with other stock markets. The results delineate a framework of core–periphery stock markets, i.e., a large group of stock markets that share the same market regime, with some others on the periphery characterized by distinctive behavior.     

Does Leaving the Eurozone Mean Leaving the Euro?

Events in the Eurozone have raised the possibility that a Eurozone member departs the currency union. We devise a simulation to examine whether trading firms in the departed country will continue to invoice their product in the Euro or elect another currency denomination strategy. Because trading firms have flexibility in choosing their invoicing currency, they make an excellent case for studying the currency usage patterns of other economic actors that may emerge after Eurozone departure. Results suggest that greater price discrimination leads to more use of the buyer’s currency while firms that set only one price will tend to denominate that price in the U.S. dollar. Low exchange rate volatility between the exiting country’s new currency and the Euro leads to more Euro usage.     

The shrinking endogeneity of optimum currency areas criteria: Evidence from the European Monetary Union—A beta regression approach

The endogeneity of optimum currency area criteria has been widely studied. Literature suggests the existence of a positive relationship between trade intensity and business cycle correlation. Using a beta regression model for the Eurozone we have concluded that trade has a decreasing marginal effect on business cycle correlation.