| Abstract: | This paper examines credit policy stress in the West African Economic and Monetary Union and provides evidence that a regional credit policy would not suit all the countries that are members of this currency union. Some countries obtain a higher volume of domestic credit when policy is conducted at a domestic level than they would in the context of a single regional policy. Furthermore, there are differences in the country‐specific reaction function to changes in the economic environment. To show the inappropriateness of a regional credit policy within the West African Economic and Monetary Union area, we compute credit stress indicators both for the countries and for the region taken as a whole. The stress indicators represent the gap between the optimal policies conducted at country and regional levels. Our study covers the period from 1980 to 2007. |
