This Paper seeks to trace the impact of monetary arrangements on trade integration and business cycle correlation, focusing on Europe in the late 19th century period as a guide for modern debates. For this purpose, we first estimate a gravity model and show that monetary arrangements were associated with substantially higher trade. The Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy, by many aspects a forerunner of Euroland, improved trade between member states by a factor of 3. Other arrangements, such as the gold standard and the Scandinavian union also impacted trade favourably. To explain this, we argue that monetary coordination, by fostering the correlation of business cycles compensate the adverse effect that the current account constraint has on trade integration. This is found to vastly compensate the negative consequences that trade integration might have on the symmetry of shocks, of which this Paper finds strong evidence, in contrast with recent empirical work.
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Find related papers by JEL classification: F40 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance - - - General N20 - Economic History - - Financial Markets and Institutions - - - General, International, or Comparative
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Kris James Mitchener & Marc Weidenmier, 2008.
"Trade and Empire,"
NBER Working Papers
13765, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Alberto Alesina & Robert J. Barro & Silvana Tenreyro, 2002.
"Optimal Currency Areas,"
NBER Working Papers
9072, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Other versions:
Alberto Alesina & Robert J. Barro & Silvana Tenreyro, 2003.
"Optimal Currency Areas,"
NBER Chapters,
in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2002, Volume 17, pages 301-356
National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
[Downloadable!]