External trade and monetary policy in a currency area

Martina Cecioni ()

No 738, Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) from Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area

Abstract: For historical and geographical reasons, the member countries of the European Monetary Union (EMU) display different degrees of external trade openness. The paper lays out a model for a currency area composed of two regions. One region is more open to trade with a third country outside the area than the other. Using the utility-based loss function for the currency area, the optimal monetary policy is compared to the one for a homogeneous area. In the model with heterogeneity, the relative competitiveness across regions influences the extent to which shocks are transmitted to the area-wide inflation and output gap. Under a plausible calibration for the EMU, the optimal policy plan exhibits a stronger tendency towards currency area exchange rate stabilization than the one in the homogeneity case. Moreover, it is welfare-improving to forgo some area-wide inflation stabilization to dampen inflation differentials.

Keywords: Monetary union; optimal monetary policy; loss function (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E52 F41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cba, nep-mac and nep-mon
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_738_10

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