Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-jr42d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T21:10:52.441Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

THE WELFARE GAINS OF TRADE INTEGRATION IN THE EUROPEAN MONETARY UNION

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2010

Stéphane Auray*
Affiliation:
Universités Lille Nord de France (ULCO), EQUIPPE, MESHS, USR 3185 Université de Sherbrooke (GREDI) and CIRPÉE
Aurélien Eyquem
Affiliation:
Ecole Normale Supérieure Lettres et Sciences Humaines, GATE and GREDI
Jean-Christophe Poutineau
Affiliation:
Université de Rennes 1, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan and CREM
*
Address correspondence to: Stéphane Auray, Universités Lille Nord de France, Domaine Universitaire du Pont de Bois–BP 60149, 59653 Villeneuve d'Ascq Cedex, France; e-mail: stephane.auray@gmail.com.

Abstract

This paper evaluates the welfare gains arising from deeper trade integration in the European Monetary Union. To do this, the European Monetary Union is represented in a realistic way by an intertemporal general equilibrium model with incomplete financial markets, sticky prices, and home bias in production. The model is estimated and not rejected by the data. Two main results emerge: (i) an increase in vertical trade (occuring at the early stage of the production process) implies welfare gains whereas (ii) an increase in horizontal trade (occuring at the late stage of the production process) implies welfare losses.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Álvarez, Luis J., Dhyne, Emmanuel, Hoeberichts, Marco, Kwapil, Claudia, Le Bihan, Hervé, Lünnemann, Patrick, Martins, Fernando, Sabbatini, Roberto, Stahl, Harald, Vermeulen, Philip, and Vilmunen, Jouko (2006) Sticky prices in the euro area: A summary of new micro-evidence. Journal of the European Economic Association 4, 575584.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baldwin, Richard E. (2006) The Euro's Trade Effects. ECB working paper 594.Google Scholar
Beetsma, Roel M.W.J. and Jensen, Henrik (2005) Monetary and fiscal policy interactions in a micro-founded model of monetary union. Journal of International Economics 67, 320352.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benigno, Pierpaolo (2004) Optimal monetary policy in a currency area. Journal of International Economics 63, 293320.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benigno, Pierpaolo and Woodford, Michael (2005) Inflation stabilization and welfare: The case of a distorted steady state. Journal of the European Economic Association 3, 11851236.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Camacho, Maximo, Perez-Quiros, Gabriel, and Saiz, Lorena (2006) Are European business cycles close enough to be just one? Journal of Economics Dynamics and Control 30, 16871706.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Canzoneri, Matthew B., Cumby, Robert E., and Diba, Behzad T. (2007) The cost of nominal inertia in NNS models. Journal of Money, Credit and Banking 39, 15631586.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carré, Martine and Collard, Fabrice (2003) Monetary union: A welfare-based approach. European Economic Review 47, 521552.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarida, Richard, Galí, Jordi, and Gertler, Mark (1998) Monetary policy rules in practice. Some international evidence. European Economic Review 42, 10331067.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarida, Richard, Galí, Jordi, and Gertler, Mark (1999) The Science of Monetary Policy: A New Keynesian Perspective. NBER working paper 7147.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coeurdacier, Nicolas (2008) Do trade costs in goods market lead to home bias in equities? Journal of International Economics 77, 86100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Corsetti, Gincarlo (2006) Openness and the case for flexible exchange rates. Research in Economics 60, 121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Demyanyk, Yuliya and Volosovych, Vadim (2008) Gains from financial integration in the European Union: Evidence for new and old members. Journal of International Money and Finance 27, 277294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dotsey, Michael and Ireland, Peter (1996) The welfare cost of inflation in general equilibrium. Journal of Monetary Economics 37, 2947.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Faia, Ester (2007) Finance and international business cycles. Journal of Monetary Economics 54, 10181034.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galí, Jordi (1999) Technology, employment, and the business cycle: Do technology shocks explain aggregate fluctuations? American Economic Review 89 (1), 249271.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galí, Jordi and Monacelli, Tommaso (2005) Monetary policy and exchange rate volatility in a small open economy. Review of Economic Studies 72, 707734.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galí, Jordi and Monacelli, Tommaso (2008) Optimal monetary and fiscal policy in a currency union. Journal of International Economics 76, 116132.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gerlach, Stefan and Schnabel, Gert (2000) The Taylor rule and interest rates in the EMU area. Economics Letters 67, 165171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hairault, Jean–Olivier (2002) Labor-market search and international business cycles. Review of Economic Dynamics 5, 535558.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hansen, Lars P. (1982) Large sample properties of generalized method of moments estimators. Econometrica 50, 10291054.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lane, Philip R. (2006) The real effects of the euro. Journal of Economic Perspectives 20, 4766.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, Karen K. (1996) Consumption, Stock Returns, and the Gains from International Risksharing. NBER working paper 5410.Google Scholar
Peersman, Gert and Smets, Frank (1999) The Taylor rule, a useful monetary benchmark for the euro area? International Finance 2, 85116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ricci, Luca (1997) A Model of an Optimum Currency Area. IMF working paper 97/96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rotemberg, Julio J. and Woodford, Michael (1997) An optimization–based econometric framework for the evaluation of monetary policy. In Bernanke, Ben S. and Rotemberg, Julio J. (eds.), NBER Macroeconomics Annual, vol. 12, pp. 297361. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Rudebusch, Glenn D. and Svensson, Lars E.O. (1998) Policy Rules for Inflation Targeting. NBER working paper 6512.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmitt-Grohé, Stephanie and Uribe, Martín (2003) Closing small open economy models. Journal of International Economics 61, 163185.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smets, Frank and Wouters, Rafael (2003) An estimated dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model of the euro area. Journal of the European Economic Association 1, 11231175.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, John B. (1993) Discretion versus policy rules in practice. Carnegie Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy 39, 195214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warnock, Francis E. (2003) Exchange rate dynamics and the welfare effects of monetary policy in a two–country model with home–product bias. Journal of International Money and Finance 22, 343363.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Wincoop, Eric (1999) How big are potential welfare gains from international risksharing? Journal of International Economics 47, 109135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodford, Michael (2003) Optimal interest-rate smoothing. Review of Economic Studies 70, 861886.CrossRefGoogle Scholar