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Optimal Currency Areas: Why Does the Exchange Rate Regime Matter? (With an Application to UK Membership in EMU)

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  • W.H. Buiter
Abstract
Microeconomic efficiency and market transparency argue in favour of UK membership in EMU and for Scotland's membership in the UK monetary union and also in EMU. UK seigniorage (government revenues from money issuance) would be boosted by EMU membership. Lender of last resort arrangements would not be substantially affected by UK membership in EMU. The UK is too small and too open to be an optimal currency area. The same point applies even more emphatically to Scotland. The 'one-size-fits-all', 'asymmetric shocks' and 'cyclical divergence' objections to UK membership are based on the misapprehension that independent national monetary policy, and the associated nominal exchange rate flexibility, can be used effectively to offset or even neutralise asymmetric shocks. This 'fine tuning delusion' is compounded by a failure to understand that, under a high degree of international financial integration, market-determined exchange rates are primarily a source of shocks and instability. Instead, opponents of UK membership in EMU view exchange rate flexibility as an effective buffer for adjusting to asymmetric shocks originating elsewhere. I know of no evidence that supports such an optimistic reading of what exchange rate flexibility can deliver under conditions of very high international financial capital mobility. The economic arguments for immediate UK membership in EMU, at an appropriate entry rate, are overwhelming. Monetary union raises important constitutional and political issues. It involves a further surrender of national sovereignty to a supranational institution, the ECB/ESCB. It is essential that this transfer of national sovereignty be perceived as legitimate by those affected by it. In addition, the citizens of the UK have become accustomed to a high standard of openness and accountability of their central bank since it gained operational independence in 1997. The ECB/ESCB must be held to the same high standard, and, while there are grounds for optimism, there still is some way to go there.

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  • W.H. Buiter, 2000. "Optimal Currency Areas: Why Does the Exchange Rate Regime Matter? (With an Application to UK Membership in EMU)," CEP Discussion Papers dp0462, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    • Handle: RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp0462
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    Cited by:

    1. Giancarlo Corsetti, 2008. "A Modern Reconsideration of the Theory of Optimal Currency Areas," Economics Working Papers ECO2008/12, European University Institute.
    2. Guglielmo Maria Caporale & Davide Ciferri & Alessandro Girardi, 2011. "Are The Baltic Countries Ready To Adopt The Euro? A Generalized Purchasing Power Parity Approach," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 79(3), pages 429-454, June.
    3. J. James Reade & Ulrich Volz, 2011. "When You Got Nothing, You Got Nothing to Lose – Regional Monetary Integration and Policy Independence," Chapters, in: Ulrich Volz (ed.), Regional Integration, Economic Development and Global Governance, chapter 12, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Willem H. Buiter, 2008. "Why the United Kingdom Should Join the Eurozone," International Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(3), pages 269-282, December.
    5. Handler, Heinz, 2013. "The eurozone: piecemeal approach to an optimum currency area," MPRA Paper 67183, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. J. James Reade & Ulrich Volz, 2009. "Too Much to Lose, or More to Gain? Should Sweden Join the Euro?," Economics Series Working Papers 442, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    7. Ronald MacDonald & Research Fellow CESifo Policy Group Munich, "undated". "An independent Scotland’s currency options redux: Assessing the costs and benefits of currency choice," Working Papers 2014_11, Business School - Economics, University of Glasgow.
    8. Soós, Károly Attila, 2023. "Paul De Grauwe: Economics of Monetary Union. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2022, 320 o [Paul De Grauwe: Economics of Monetary Union. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2022, 320 p]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(10), pages 1173-1187.
    9. Dellas, Harris & Tavlas, George S., 2009. "An optimum-currency-area odyssey," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(7), pages 1117-1137, November.
    10. Annika Alexius & Erik Post, 2008. "Exchange rates and asymmetric shocks in small open economies," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 35(3), pages 527-541, November.
    11. Riccardo DiCecio & Edward Nelson, 2010. "Euro Membership as a U.K. Monetary Policy Option: Results from a Structural Model," NBER Chapters, in: Europe and the Euro, pages 415-439, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Dominick Salvatore, 2002. "The Euro, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary System," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 579(1), pages 153-167, January.
    13. Ronald MacDonald, "undated". "Currency issues and options for an independent Scotland," Working Papers 2013_12, Business School - Economics, University of Glasgow.
    14. Mohd Hussain Kunroo & Irfan Ahmad Sofi & Naushad Ali Azad, 2016. "Trade implications of the Euro in EMU countries: a panel gravity analysis," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 43(2), pages 391-413, May.
    15. Martha A. Starr, 2006. "One World, One Currency: Exploring The Issues," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 24(4), pages 618-633, October.
    16. Lars Calmfors & Giancarlo Corsetti & Michael P. Devereux & Seppo Honkapohja & Gilles Saint-Paul & Hans-Werner Sinn & Jan-Egbert Sturm & Xavier Vives, 2007. "Chapter 2: Macroeonomic adjustment in the euro area – the cases of Ireland and Italy," EEAG Report on the European Economy, CESifo, vol. 0, pages 59-72, February.
    17. Salá Rios, Mercé & Farré Perdiguer, Mariona & Torres Solé, Teresa, 2011. "El ciclo económico de Cataluña. Un análisis de la simetría respecto a España y a la UEM/Catalonia's Business Cycle. An Analysis of the Symmetry in Relation to Spain and the EMU," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 29, pages 913(24á.)-9, Diciembre.
    18. Soós, Károly Attila, 2021. "Az optimális valutaövezet két elmélete - aszimmetrikus sokkok és nemzetközi pénzügyi integráció [Principles of optimal currency areas: asymmetric shocks and international financial integration]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(12), pages 1250-1275.

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    Keywords

    European Economic and Monetary Union; asymmetric shocks; national sovereignty;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F3 - International Economics - - International Finance
    • G3 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance

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