Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/64093 
Year of Publication: 
2008
Series/Report no.: 
Working Paper No. 08-09
Publisher: 
University of California, Santa Cruz Institute for International Economics (SCIIE), Santa Cruz, CA
Abstract: 
This paper studies how capital market imperfections affect the welfare effects of forming a currency union. The analysis considers a bank-only world where intermediaries compete in Cournot fashion and monitoring and state verification are costly. The first part determines the credit market equilibrium and the optimal number of banks, prior to joining the union. The second part discusses the benefits from joining a currency union. A competition effect is identified and related to the added monitoring costs that banks may incur when operating outside their home country, through an argument akin to the Brander-Krugman reciprocal dumping model of bilateral trade. Whether joining a union raises welfare of the home country is shown to depend on the relative strength of investment creation and intermediation diversion effects.
JEL: 
E43
F36
G28
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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