This master dissertation deals with broadly discussed topic -- are there really some trade enhancing effects for countries that have adopted the euro? This thesis provides an estimate of the effect of the European Monetary Union on trade, taking into account panel data of 37 economies during sample period 1995 -- 2012. The sample consists of 27 European Union members and 10 non-EU OECD countries. After applying gravity model of trade and controlling for gravity-model-specific influences, the effect of the euro on trade obtained from the results of the estimation is positive and statistically significant 9 per cent.

This paper aims to investigate how the domestic unemployment rate of a nation is affected by joining the European currency union and converting to the euro. This is done through the use of a synthetic control method, as well as an augmented version of the model, where I define the Euro Area countries as the treatment group, and conversion to euro as treatment. In line with the predictions of previous related theoretical frameworks such as the optimum currency area theory, the gravity theory and Matusz’s equilibrium model, the findings in this paper suggests that conversion to the euro leads to a short-term decrease in domestic unemployment. The effect is likely due to the short-term increase in trade, specifically within-union trade, that arises from joining the EMU.

1 Abstract The thesis analyses and critically appraises within a broad context legal disputes concerning the activity of the ECB during the European debt crisis. The analysis is based on legal norms regulating the European monetary union and the political and economic circumstances of their creation. The thesis consists of seven chapters. The first chapter concerns the history of genesis of the Economic and Monetary Union. The second chapter portrays the institutional status, objectives, tasks and instruments of the ECB. It also depicts the components of ECB independence as its key atribute. The third chapter adds some economic thought and theories connected to monetary unions. The theory of optimum currency areas is introduced as well as the costs and benefits of membership in a monetary union. The fourth chapter contains a brief account of the beginnning of the European debt crisis and the measures taken by Member States and the ECB in response to it, particularly the EFSF and ESM mechanisms of financial stability and non-standard monetary policy measures of the ECB. The fifth, sixth and seventh chapters are dedicated to specific proceedings conducted before the CJEU. These are the Pringle, Gauweiler and Weiss cases in which CJEU confirmed that the actions of Member States and the ECB were in accordance...

This master's thesis analyzes the impact of euro implementation on corporation finance of a particular company. Czech Republic's accesion to the monetary union will entail positive and negative changes that will affect all entities in the economy. In this thesis, these impacts are analyzed and their expected net effect on the company is determined. The conclusion is focused on the evaluation of the impact of the single currency on the company, identification of the main risks associated with the necessary transformations and suggestion of the recommendations that will help the company to a successful transition to the euro.

Yes / After Brexit, EU national leaders can no longer escape the need to implement structural reforms and improve Eurozone governance. Since the start of the crisis, considerable progress has been made to stabilise EMU, but the current status quo is not an adequate answer to the challenges ahead. As in other domains of European interest, lack of initiative and reform is only fuelling populism. The ECB has contributed greatly to making up for the lack of policy coordination, insufficient structural reforms, and lack of progress in Eurozone economic governance. But its policy impact has been limited by these shortcomings and it has frequently been under fire for having had to take extraordinary measures. This paper, first, considers the initial flaws of the monetary project and the progress made since an EMU a minima was launched in 1999. Second, it examines the measures needed to make the long-term functioning of the euro area sustainable, and analyses the range of issues and choices that policymakers and political leaders need to face to stabilize EMU whilst addressing the often structural lack of competitiveness encountered among Eurozone members. Finally, it formulates recommendations on how to improve the workings of EMU without further postponing action.

The submitted thesis focuses on the Economic and Monetary Union and its stability or instability with respect to theory of optimal currency areas. The aim of the thesis is to evaluate whether the current euro area is the optimal currency area, what possible ways of reducing the costs of the common currency exist and what are the economic consequences of a potential breakdown of the Economic and Monetary Union. The analysis of the theory of optimal currency areas is the subject of the first part of this thesis and its criteria are evaluated in the second part. The second part then deals with the economic implications of this theory in practice.

The study deals with the theory of optimal currency areas complemented with the EU's Maastricht criteria in order to investigate how today’s Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union can be divided into smaller unions with countries that are more homogeneous based on said criteria compared to the current larger currency union. To investigate this, we use cluster analysis as the method easily enables analysis of similarities and differences between countries. The results show that the optimal number of clusters for the nations in the EU in 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2015 is ten and that the optimal number of clusters in 2019 is seven. We also observe a relatively distinct division between western and eastern countries, which splits the countries in two clusters. These two clusters are consistent over the studied years, however not considered the most optimal according to cluster analysis. Nonetheless, with respect to political, geographical, and cultural aspects, we conclude that having two different currencies within the European Union being the most realistic. / Studien behandlar teorin om optimala valutaområden, kompletterat med EU:s Maastrichtkriterier för att undersöka hur den nuvarande ekonomiska och monetära unionen i EU kan delas in i mindre unioner med länder som är mer homogena utifrån nämnda kriterier jämfört med dagens större valutaunion. För att undersöka detta använder vi oss av klusteranalys eftersom metoden på ett enkelt sätt möjliggör analys av likheter och skillnader mellan länder. Resultatet visar att optimalt antal kluster för länderna i EU under åren 2007, 2008, 2010 och 2015 är tio och att optimalt antal kluster under år 2019 är sju. Vi observerar också en relativt tydlig uppdelning mellan de västra och östra länderna, som delar länderna i EU i två större kluster. Dessa två kluster är enhetliga över de undersökta åren, men inte helt optimala enligt klusteranalysen. Trots detta, så bedömer vi att dela in den Europeiska unionen i två valutaunioner är den mest realistiska slutsatsen utifrån politiska, geografiska, och kulturella skillnader. / Die Studie behandelt die Theorie der optimalen Währungsräume, ergänzt durch die Maastricht-Kriterien der EU, um zu untersuchen, wie die heutige europäische Wirtschafts-und Währungsunion in kleinere Unionen aufgeteilt werden kann. Diese Unionen sollten auf der Grundlage dieser Kriterien homogener als die heutige größere Währungsunion sein. Um dies zu untersuchen, verwenden wir Clusteranalyse, da diese Methode die Analyse von Ähnlichkeiten und Unterschieden zwischen den Ländern leicht ermöglicht. Die Studie zeigt, dass die optimale Anzahl von Clustern für die EU-Länder in den Jahren 2007, 2008, 2010 und 2015 bei einer Größe von zehn liegt und dass die optimale Anzahl von Clustern im Jahr 2019 bei sieben liegt. Wir finden auch eine ziemlich deutliche Aufteilung zwischen westlichen und östlichen Ländern. Diese zwei Clustern sind über den studierten Jahren durchgängig, aber laut der Klusteranalyse nicht völlig optimal. Dennoch finden wir, die Europäische Union in zwei Währungsunionen verteilen, die am meisten realistische Schlussfolge laut politische, geographische, und kulturellen Aspekten ist.

This paper investigates a new category of influential factors on business cycle synchronization (BCS), so far hardly regarded in the BCS literature: It provides an empirical assessment of the impact of macroeconomic imbalances, as monitored by the European Commission by the scoreboard indicators since 2011, on BCS in the Euozone. We use a quarterly data set covering the period 2002-2012 and estimate the direct and indirect effects of macroeconomic imbalances in the pre- and post-crisis period in a simultaneous equations model. Business cycle correlation between EA members is measured by the recently proposed dynamic conditional correlation of Engle 2002 which can better identify synchronous and asynchronous behaviour of BC than the commonly used measures. We find that appearing differences between EA members in the current account, in government deficit and public debt, in private debt and unit labor cost developments have reduced BCS in the EA, even more in the post-crisis period than before. Moreover, these explanatory factors of BCS, generally reinforce each other and are also influenced by other critical macro imbalances. Since BCS is essential in a monetary union, this paper provides clear support that a stronger, common economic governance would be important for the functioning and survival of the Eurozone. (authors' abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

In October 1999 the European Commission published the second progress report on the state of convergence of the Central- and Eastern European candidate countries (CEECs). The report encompasses an assessment, which is based on the three Copenhagen criteria. From an economic point of view, a country must have a functioning market economy and be able to withstand the competition on the European single market. In this paper we present a synthetic performance measure which helps to assess the economic preparedness of the ten Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) to become members of the European Union (EU). With the aid of the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) we construct a best practice frontier, which is supported by the best performing EU-countries and which serves as a benchmark for the candidate countries. The preparedness of any CEEC is measured as the relative distance to this frontier. The results confirm that the macroeconomic performance of most of the CEECs lies far behind the EU standards, in foreign trade some of the CEECs already perform better than some EU countries. Interestingly, we find out that some CEECs are already better prepared for the EMU than many EU member states. (authors' abstract) / Series: EI Working Papers / Europainstitut

This diploma thesis deals with the nominal convergence and adoption of the single currency in Slovakia and Czech Republic. The first chapter briefly describes the formation of the Economic and Monetary Union. The second chapter concentrates on the Slovak and Czech Republic and their fulfilling of nominal convergent criteria. The third chapter describes and evaluates Slovak process of euro adoption. The forth chapter deals with the Czech Republic and euro and provides also opinion of various subjects on euro introduction.