How feasible is the West African eco currency union? A new approach

No Thumbnail Available
Authors
Miles, William
Advisors
Issue Date
2015-06-25
Type
Article
Keywords
Macroeconomic analyses of economic development , Business fluctuations , Macroeconomic issues of monetary unions
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Citation
Miles, William, How Feasible is the West African Eco Currency Union? A New Approach (June 25, 2015)
Abstract

A recent proposal to expand the CFA Franc zone in West Africa would create a currency union that, in terms of population, would rival the Euro. This new currency union would include Nigeria, which would have the largest GDP, and which is also, unlike most other current and proposed members, heavily dependent on oil exports. Synchronization of business cycles across the nations of this new monetary union would be important in assuring its feasibility. In this paper, we apply a recently developed set of tools and find, first, that by some salient measures, the proposed nations in this union exhibit less business cycle coherence than those of the euro zone prior to its launch. Secondly, Nigeria seems especially ill-suited for this new currency. Finally, it does not appear, based on the experience of several nations, that the act of joining the currency union increases business cycle synchronization, contrary to the "Endogenous Optimal Currency Area" hypothesis.

Table of Contents
Description
Click on the DOI link to access the article (may not be free).
Publisher
Elsevier
Journal
Book Title
Series
Journal of Economic Studies;
PubMed ID
DOI
ISSN
0144-3585
EISSN