Suchergebnisse

Inflation differentials in Europe have narrowed substantially since the inception of the European Monetary System in 1979. However, their persistence after more than a decade raises the question of why these differentials are so difficult to eliminate. Some European Community countries systematically use seignorage—financing government expenditures with money creation—while others do not. This increases the difficulty of achieving the convergence of monetary policies and inflation rates required for irrevocably fixed exchange rates in Europe. This paper, utilizing a model of government finance that minimizes the social cost of financing government expenditures, examines monetary finance in the European Community. It rejects soundly the social cost minimization model of seignorage collection.

Results from cointegration and error-correction models for testing the effects of currency substitution in Greece, Portugal and Spain, in light of their upcoming participation in the European Monetary Union, revealed no significant short- or long-run currency substitution behavior in any country, suggesting that joining the union now would offer them no real benefits, unless significant economic convergence is achieved.

The monetary union is an open economy with perfect capital mobility. It consists of two identical countries, say Germany and France. A fiscal expansion in Germany causes an appreciation of the euro. This in turn lowers both German and French exports. The net effect is that German income goes up. On the other hand, French income goes down. And what is more, union income does not change. An increase in German government purchases of 100 produces an increase in German income of 74 and a decline in French income of equally 74. What is needed, therefore, is a mix of monetary and fiscal policy.