Advanced Search
MyIDEAS: Login

Should African Monetary Unions Be Expanded? An Empirical Investigation of the Scope for Monetary Integration in Sub-Saharan Africa

Contents:

Author Info

  • Xavier Debrun
  • Catherine A. Pattillo
  • Paul R. Masson

Abstract

This paper develops a full-fledged cost-benefit analysis of monetary integration, and applies it to the currency unions actively pursued in Africa. The benefits of monetary union come from a more credible monetary policy, while the costs derive from real shock asymmetries and fiscal disparities. The model is calibrated using African data. Simulations indicate that the proposed EAC, ECOWAS, and SADC monetary unions bring about net benefits to some potential members, but modest net gains and sometimes net losses for others. Strengthening domestic macroeconomic frameworks is shown to provide some of the same improvements as monetary integration, reducing the latter's relative attractiveness.

Download Info

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
File URL: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.aspx?sk=24031
Download Restriction: no

Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by International Monetary Fund in its series IMF Working Papers with number 10/157.

as in new window
Length: 65
Date of creation: 01 Jul 2010
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:10/157

Contact details of provider:
Postal: International Monetary Fund, Washington, DC USA
Phone: (202) 623-7000
Fax: (202) 623-4661
Email:
Web page: http://www.imf.org/external/pubind.htm
More information through EDIRC

Order Information:
Web: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/pubs/ord_info.htm

Related research

Keywords: Africa;

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

References

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
as in new window
  1. Steven K. Buigut & Neven T. Valev, 2006. "Eastern and Southern Africa Monetary Integration: A Structural Vector Autoregression Analysis," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(4), pages 586-603, November.
  2. Tsangarides, Charalambos G. & Qureshi, Mahvash Saeed, 2008. "Monetary Union Membership in West Africa: A Cluster Analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(7), pages 1261-1279, July.
  3. Houssa, Romain, 2008. "Monetary union in West Africa and asymmetric shocks: A dynamic structural factor model approach," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(1-2), pages 319-347, February.
  4. Beetsma, Roel & Giuliodori, Massimo, 2009. "The Macroeconomic Costs and Benefits of the EMU and other Monetary Unions: An Overview of Recent Research," CEPR Discussion Papers 7500, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  5. Michal Hulej & Charalambos G. Tsangarides & Pierre Ewenczyk, 2006. "Stylized Facts on Bilateral Trade and Currency Unions: Implications for Africa," IMF Working Papers 06/31, International Monetary Fund.
  6. Mario Mansour & Michael Keen, 2009. "Revenue Mobilization in Sub-Saharan Africa: Challenges from Globalization," IMF Working Papers 09/157, International Monetary Fund.
  7. David Fielding & Kalvinder Shields, 2000. "Modeling Macroeconomic Shocks in the CFA Franc Zone," Discussion Papers in Economics 00/7, Department of Economics, University of Leicester.
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 in new window

Cited by:
  1. Carlos Vieira & Isabel Vieira, 2012. "Monetary integration in Eastern and Southern Africa: choosing a currency peg for COMESA," CEFAGE-UE Working Papers 2012_03, University of Evora, CEFAGE-UE (Portugal).
  2. Issiaka Coulibaly & Blaise Gnimassoun, 2012. "Optimality of a monetary union : New evidence from exchange rate misalignments in West Africa," EconomiX Working Papers 2012-37, University of Paris West - Nanterre la Défense, EconomiX.

Lists

This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

Statistics

Access and download statistics

Corrections

When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:10/157

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Jim Beardow) or (Hassan Zaidi).

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 references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link 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 profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

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