Document Type

Journal article

Source Publication

The World Economy

Publication Date

3-4-2018

Volume

Advance online publication

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Abstract

This paper analyses currency union integration by testing whether price levels in member countries possess a common stochastic trend. The trace statistic test for cointegration proposed by (Johansen, 1995) demonstrates the presence of such a trend for most unions. A disaggregated analysis identifies a common stochastic trend for several though fewer than half of country pairs within a union. Some unions such as the Eurozone have small shares of cointegrated country pairs. Yet, the share of cointegrated country pairs is large relative to countries outside currency unions. Comparison to a control group (country pairs where one country belongs to a given union and the other country does not) indicates that the cointegration found within a currency union is a union‐specific trait and not a feature of the individual countries within the union. These results provide an alternative metric to intraunion trade for gauging the extent of currency union integration.

DOI

10.1111/twec.12639

Print ISSN

03785920

E-ISSN

14679701

Publisher Statement

Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Access to external full text or publisher's version may require subscription.

Full-text Version

Pre-print

Language

English

Recommended Citation

Whitten, G. W. (2018). Price‐level co‐movements within currency unions: An alternative integration metric. The World Economy. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1111/twec.12639

Share

COinS