terça-feira, 1 de junho de 2010

On the benefits and costs of a monetary union

Ótimo artigo sobre um tema do momento na zona do euro e no bananão. No primeiro em razão da crise, já no segundo devido a insistência do candidato da Nova Direita em atacar o Mercosul. Alias, ele, como já haviamos adiantado neste blog, cada vez mais se posiciona do campo da direita, o que não implica afirmar ser ele de direita, mas que este é o espaço que lhe resta no mercado eleitoral.



Why would countries share a single currency? A
group of partner countries may decide to form,
or join, a monetary union in expectation that
the current and future benefits exceed costs. Yet, there
is no all-inclusive welfare analysis to estimate the net
benefits from sharing a single currency. Rather, a variety
of tools are employed to gauge partial views on diverse
benefits and costs. This gives an opportunity to
supporters as well as sceptics of monetary unions to
cast their arguments by giving different emphasis and
weights to the various benefits and costs. This note
flags some aspects that seem missing in the current
debate on the merits of the Eurozone.

According to conventional wisdom, this analysis is
rather straightforward. The macroeconomic costs of
losing influence over macroeconomic stabilisation, due
to the loss of direct control over monetary policy and
the exchange rate, are set against diverse
microeconomic gains of improved efficiency. In reality,
the benefits and costs from sharing a single currency are
more varied than that. On both sides of the equation
they must be assessed in terms of microeconomic
efficiency, macroeconomic stabilisation, and overall
external effect. They can be quite diverse in nature, time
profile, and on a country-by-country basis.
We must keep in mind that the Eurozone is part of a
broader process of economic, financial, and institutional
integration that started in the 1950s. This 60 year-long
process has political origins and positive economic
effects. There are two implications from this
progression.
. The first is a transformational one. All along,
national economies have had to adjust to the
changing institutional frameworks. Their market
structures have also been transformed. It is fair
to say that the gains for all European have been
enormous. All EU countries are now very
interdependent - each has an increasing stake in
the wellbeing of the others.

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