 THE CONVERGENCE OF THE BUSINESS CYCLES IN THE EURO AREARomanian Economic Business Review, 2012, vol. 7, issue 4, 97-104 Abstract: The Euro Area is confronted with the persistence of the sovereign debt crisis. The financial markets have frequently tested the resistance of the Euro Area, as the countries from the Southern part of the region face a tough macroeconomic adjustment process.The economic divergence is one of the factors that determined the current situation in the European Monetary Union. This divergence (nominal and real) was paid little attention by the financial markets and economists during the last years of the Great Moderation. However, the attitude changed when the Great Recession hit the region. This paper treats the behaviour of the business cycles of the Euro Area (12) member countries during the period 1996-2011. The convergence of the business cycles of the member countries of a currency union is one of the important criteria mentioned by the literature on Optimal Currency Areas. According to the results, the business cycles of the Euro Area (12) countries converged before the launch of the euro (1999) and diverged after 2004. The divergence intensified in the context of the global crisis. Keywords: business cycles; European Monetary Union; Cobb-Douglas; Optimal Currency Areas (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:rau:journl:v:7:y:2012:i:4:p:97-104 Access Statistics for this article More articles in Romanian Economic Business Review from Romanian-American University Contact information at EDIRC. |
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