IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wsi/medjxx/v02y2010i02ns179381201000023x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Could Gcc Countries Achieve An Optimal Currency Area?

Author

Listed:
  • MOHAMED BENBOUZIANE

    (Faculty of Economics and Management, Tlemcen University, Algeria)

  • ABDELHAK BENAMAR

    (Faculty of Economics and Management, Tlemcen University, Algeria)

Abstract

The main objective of this paper is to test for the possibility of an optimal currency area (OCA) in the six Gulf countries (namely: Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, and United Arab Emirates (UAE)). To constitute such an OCA, however, they must satisfy certain preconditions; i.e., they must have similar economic structures with exposure to symmetric shocks, they must be open, well-diversified economies, and they must also ensure a high degree of factor mobility. The objective of this paper is to assess the degree to which the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) meet the requirements of an OCA. Annual and quarterly data are used in our analysis. Using a multivariate threshold autoregression (MVTAR) model and generalized response functions, the main results are that the GCC countries should be divided, as far as the symmetry of the shocks is concerned, into two sub-groups. The first consists of UAE, Oman, and Bahrain and the second consists of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Kuwait. Thus, the main implication is that the GCC countries are still far away from an OCA. The success of such a union is conditional on a lot of measures including the removal of domestic and cross-border distortions that are regarded as a hamper to trade and foreign investments, the coordination of national policies that ensure macroeconomic stability, the deepening of regional integration, the development of the nonoil economy, and realization of a large degree of political integration.

Suggested Citation

  • Mohamed Benbouziane & Abdelhak Benamar, 2010. "Could Gcc Countries Achieve An Optimal Currency Area?," Middle East Development Journal (MEDJ), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 2(02), pages 203-227.
    • Handle: RePEc:wsi:medjxx:v:02:y:2010:i:02:n:s179381201000023x
    DOI: 10.1142/S179381201000023X
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S179381201000023X
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1142/S179381201000023X?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mr. Russell C Krueger & Ettore Kovarich, 2006. "Some Principles for Development of Statistics for a Gulf Cooperation Council Currency Union," IMF Working Papers 2006/141, International Monetary Fund.
    2. van Wincoop, Eric, 1996. "Erratum Regional risksharing European Economic Review 39 (1995) 1545-1567," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(9), pages 1831-1832, December.
    3. Sturm, Michael & Siegfried, Nikolaus, 2005. "Regional monetary integration in the member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council," Occasional Paper Series 31, European Central Bank.
    4. Hebous, Shafik, 2006. "On the monetary union of the Gulf States," Kiel Advanced Studies Working Papers 431, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    5. Belkacem Laabas and Imed Limam, "undated". "Are GCC Countries Ready for Currency Union?," API-Working Paper Series 0203, Arab Planning Institute - Kuwait, Information Center.
    6. Salvatore, Dominick & Dean, James W. & Willett, Thomas D. (ed.), 2003. "The Dollarization Debate," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195155365.
    7. Mr. Bassem M Kamar & Sami Ben Naceur, 2007. "GCC Monetary Union and the Degree of Macroeconomic Policy Coordination," IMF Working Papers 2007/249, International Monetary Fund.
    8. Mr. Ugo Fasano-Filho & Ms. Andrea Schaechter, 2003. "Monetary Union Among Member Countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council," IMF Occasional Papers 2003/006, International Monetary Fund.
    9. Michael Sturm & Nikolaus Siegfried, 2005. "Regional monetary integration in the member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council," Occasional Paper Series 31, European Central Bank.
    10. Mr. Behrouz Guerami & Mr. S. Nuri Erbas & Mr. George T. Abed, 2003. "The GCC Monetary Union: Some Considerations for the Exchange Rate Regime," IMF Working Papers 2003/066, International Monetary Fund.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Essahbi Essaadi, 2017. "The feasibility of currency union in Gulf Cooperation Council countries: A business cycle synchronisation view," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(10), pages 2153-2171, October.
    2. Ashraf Nakibullah, 2017. "State of Shocks Synchronization among Members of the GCC," Research in World Economy, Research in World Economy, Sciedu Press, vol. 8(1), pages 15-23, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rosmy Jean Louis & Faruk Balli & Mohamed Osman, 2012. "On the choice of an anchor for the GCC currency: does the symmetry of shocks extend to both the oil and the non-oil sectors?," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 83-110, March.
    2. Aamer S. Abu‐Qarn & Suleiman Abu‐Bader, 2008. "On the Optimality of a GCC Monetary Union: Structural VAR, Common Trends, and Common Cycles Evidence," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(5), pages 612-630, May.
    3. Louis, Rosmy & Balli, Faruk & Osman, Mohammad, 2008. "Monetary Union Among Arab Gulf Cooperation Council (AGCC) Countries: Does the symmetry of shocks extend to the non-oil sector?," MPRA Paper 11611, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Rosmy Jean Louis & Faruk Balli & Mohamed Osman, 2012. "On the feasibility of monetary union among Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries: does the symmetry of shocks extend to the non-oil sector?," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 36(2), pages 319-334, April.
    5. Willem H. Buiter, 2010. "Economic, Political and Institutional Prerequisites for Monetary Union Among the Members of the Gulf Cooperation Council," Chapters, in: Ronald MacDonald & Abdulrazak Al Faris (ed.), Currency Union and Exchange Rate Issues, chapter 3, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Louis, Rosmy & Osman, Mohammad & Balli, FAruk, 2007. "On The Road to Monetary Union – Do Arab Gulf Cooperation Council Economies React in the same way to United States' Monetary Policy Shocks?," MPRA Paper 11610, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Nov 2008.
    7. M. Kabir Hassan & Ashraf Nakibullah & Abul Hassan, 2013. "Sterilisation and Monetary Control by the GCC Member Countries," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(12), pages 1566-1587, December.
    8. Emilie Rutledge, 2008. "Is EMU a viable model for monetary integration in the Arabian Gulf?," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 11(2), pages 123-134.
    9. Magda Kandil & Mohamed Trabelsi, 2012. "Is The Announced Monetary Union In Gcc Countries Feasible? A Multivariate Structural Var Approach," Middle East Development Journal (MEDJ), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 4(01), pages 1-18.
    10. Rafiq, M.S., 2011. "The optimality of a gulf currency union: Commonalities and idiosyncrasies," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(1-2), pages 728-740, January.
    11. Abdulrazak Al Faris, 2010. "Currency Union in the GCC Countries: History, Prerequisites and Implications," Chapters, in: Ronald MacDonald & Abdulrazak Al Faris (ed.), Currency Union and Exchange Rate Issues, chapter 2, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    12. Abdelghani, Echchabi & Osman, Sayid & Isares, Mahamad & Khalid, Sorhiran & Zulhilmi, Zulkifli, 2011. "The implementation of Gulf Dinar among the GCC member countries and its possible impacts," MPRA Paper 28245, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Emilie Rutledge, 2008. "Is EMU a viable model for monetary integration in the Arabian Gulf?," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 11(2), pages 123-134.
    14. Rafiq, M.S., 2011. "The optimality of a gulf currency union: Commonalities and idiosyncrasies," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 728-740.
    15. Al-Gasaymeh, Anwar, 2016. "Bank efficiency determinant: Evidence from the gulf cooperation council countries," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 214-223.
    16. Rosmy Jean Louis & Mohamed Osman & Faruk Balli, 2010. "Is the US Dollar a Suitable Anchor for the Newly Proposed GCC Currency?," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(12), pages 1898-1922, December.
    17. Jeffrey A. Frankel, 2017. "The Currency-Plus-Commodity Basket: A Proposal for Exchange Rates in Oil-exporting Countries to Accommodate Trade Shocks Automatically," Working Papers 1111, Economic Research Forum, revised 06 2017.
    18. Faruk Balli & Hatice Ozer Balli, 2013. "On the empirics of risk-sharing across MENA countries," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(23), pages 3370-3377, August.
    19. Lee, Grace H.Y., 2011. "Gold dinar for the Islamic countries?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 1573-1586, July.
    20. Atef Saad Alshehry & Sarra Ben Slimane, 2013. "On the Optimality of GCC Monetary Union: Asymmetric Shocks Assessments," Review of Economics & Finance, Better Advances Press, Canada, vol. 3, pages 49-62, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wsi:medjxx:v:02:y:2010:i:02:n:s179381201000023x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Tai Tone Lim (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.worldscinet.com/medj/medj.shtml .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.