Recently, there has been a broad discussion regarding the timing of joining the Euro zone. The mainstream opinion is that the sooner the Czech Republic joins, the better. However, as this thesis indicates, especially the econometric model, the Czech Republic is not ready for doing so. Hence, an early accession may not be beneficial.

The main target of this thesis is to investigate and compare influence of changing nominal interest rates of ECB on GDP and its main components: investments and consumption and find out how the mometary policy influences real convergence of Slovakia and Estonia comparing to eurozone countries.

The aim of this thesis, thats title is "The monetary policy of the Czech national bank and the prospects of euro adoption. Meeting the Maastricht monetary criteria and possible complications.", is answer the question whether the Czech Republic is ready now to adopt the common european currency (euro) or not. This thesis is divided into three parts. The first part pays attention to the monetary policy of the Czech national bank in connection with the entrance of the Czech Republic into the euro area and other parts deal with the convergence of the Czech Republic to the euro area. The second part discusses the convergence from the perspective of meeting the Maastricht monetary criteria and the third part deals with the real convergence. My conclusion is that the Czech Republic is not ready now to adopt euro and should wait with the adoption of a common european currency till the moment when is prepared better.

The thesis is aimed at the evaluation of preparedness of the Czech Republic for acceptance of the common currency. Preparedness according to the convergence criteria and the state of the real convergency is evaluated in the thesis. Within the convergence criteria a state of the public finance is discussed in detail and the necessity for undertaking reforms. The real convergency is rated in the thesis according to the value of the GDP per capita, flexibility of the labour market, competitiveness and openness of the economy. In the end the recent progress in the EU is discussed, mainly in the Euro-zone. An outlook of the impact of the current events on the future of the EU is proposed.

The subject of thesis the Comparison of economic development of Slovakia and Estonia before and after the entry into euro zone, is a comprehensive analysis of the economic development of Estonia and Slovakia throughout the course of the integration process in the euro zone from 2004 to 2011. The first chapter reviews the theoretical bases of the work and discussed the theoretical bases of the processes of nominal and real convergence. In the introductory part is defined the concept of nominal convergence in the context of monetary integration and introduce each of the Maastricht criteria and its own set of macroeconomic indicators, on the bases of which ought to the development of Estonia and Slovakia in the analytical part of the work. The second part of the work is focused on the evaluation of the development of nominal and real convergence of the Estonia and Slovak economy to the states of the euro area and with each other on the basis of the development of selected indicators. The third part of the work deals with the final summary and comparison economic development ongoing nominal and real convergence in Estonia and Slovakia and assessment of the decision the timing of entry Estonia and Slovakia into the euro area.

The aim of this thesis was to analyze, if the Czech Republic is ready to adopt the Euro and to evaluate benefits and risks of this step. The analysis is comlemented by evaluation of Maastricht criteria, and there is a short view of their fulfilling in the future. The problem of real convergence is discussed in the following chapter. I paid attention to business cycle synchronization in selected countries, to the situation on the Czech labour market and the fiscal policy. Both of them could play the important role after transition to commom monetary policy as other adjustable mechanisms. These mechanisms would help to absorb asymetric shocks our economy after joining eurozone. Finally I explain the dilemma of exchange rate mechanism ERM II and I mention the impact of global crisis on decision on adopting Euro in the Czech Republic.

The aim of the work is to evaluate the process of nominal and real convergence in Slovakia. Furthermore, the introduction is addressed the macroeconomic development since the beginning of the separate state and evaluates it in the context of the accession to the euroarea. After posttransformating stabilization Slovakia was unable to start the successful economic development. Thanks to the adoption of restrictive measures and several reform steps since 1998 Slovakia managed to achieve a gradual healthy economic growth and improvement of macroeconomic indicators, which culminated in 2008. However in the end of the year hit Slovakia the first sign of cooling due to global economic crisis and because of this fact the work offers a short view of the fortcomming uncertain future. Nominal convergence represents within the European union the Maastricht criteria, Slovakia fullfilled them in March 2008 with caution. The real convergence is evaluated in the light of the indicator of GDP per capita in purchasing power parity, which development has seen in recent years a remarkable increase in Slovakia. Adoption of the common european currency does not mean to meat the formal Maastricht criteria but also requires the adoption of the various substantive aspects, such as Slovakia National Plan for euro.

The thesis covers the topic of nominal convergence in terms of Maastricht convergence criteria applied to Baltic States, followed by multicriteria analysis of real convergence.

L’objectif de cette thèse est d’approfondir l’analyse du processus de convergence et des moteurs de la croissance économique dans la Zone Franc (ZF). En premier lieu, l’utilisation du test de racine unitaire en panel avec prise en compte des chocs structurels de Carrion-I-Silvestre et al. (2005) a mis en évidence une convergence stochastique uniquement dans l’UEMOA. L’analyse complémentaire en termes de β-convergence dans cette dernière a montré un processus de rattrapage du Burkina Faso et du Mali, une convergence du Togo vers la moyenne communautaire et des divergences du Niger et du Sénégal de cette moyenne. Ensuite, nous avons estimé l’impact de la ZF en comparant les pays membres à d’autres pays en développement analogues. L’estimation en panel à effets aléatoires a montré qu’en moyenne les pays de la ZF avaient une croissance inférieure à celle de leurs contrefactuels. Cette infériorité a d’ailleurs été favorisée par les politiques d’inflation, de dépenses publiques et de crédits bancaires mais atténuée par les politiques d’investissement. Finalement, l’utilisation de l’estimation bayésienne itérative et la comparaison de ces estimateurs a révélé que la ZF et les regroupements économiques et/ou monétaires africains n’ont pas introduit de spécificités dans la convergence et les moteurs de la croissance économique. Au-delà de la ZF, cette approche a mis en exergue la prépondérance des dotations naturelles pour les processus de convergence et de la croissance économique des pays Africains. En définitive, les résultats de cette thèse suggèrent des réflexions supplémentaires sur le mode de fonctionnement de la ZF. / L’objectif de cette thèse est d’approfondir l’analyse du processus de convergence et des moteurs de la croissance économique dans la Zone Franc (ZF). En premier lieu, l’utilisation du test de racine unitaire en panel avec prise en compte des chocs structurels de Carrion-I-Silvestre et al. (2005) a mis en évidence une convergence stochastique uniquement dans l’UEMOA. L’analyse complémentaire en termes de β-convergence dans cette dernière a montré un processus de rattrapage du Burkina Faso et du Mali, une convergence du Togo vers la moyenne communautaire et des divergences du Niger et du Sénégal de cette moyenne. Ensuite, nous avons estimé l’impact de la ZF en comparant les pays membres à d’autres pays en développement analogues. L’estimation en panel à effets aléatoires a montré qu’en moyenne les pays de la ZF avaient une croissance inférieure à celle de leurs contrefactuels. Cette infériorité a d’ailleurs été favorisée par les politiques d’inflation, de dépenses publiques et de crédits bancaires mais atténuée par les politiques d’investissement. Finalement, l’utilisation de l’estimation bayésienne itérative et la comparaison de ces estimateurs a révélé que la ZF et les regroupements économiques et/ou monétaires africains n’ont pas introduit de spécificités dans la convergence et les moteurs de la croissance économique. Au-delà de la ZF, cette approche a mis en exergue la prépondérance des dotations naturelles pour les processus de convergence et de la croissance économique des pays Africains. En définitive, les résultats de cette thèse suggèrent des réflexions supplémentaires sur le mode de fonctionnement de la ZF.

This paper estimates the determinants of exchange rate variability for 21 developed economies in 1980-1998. The results show that traditional criteria implied by the optimum currency area (OCA) theory, such as business cycle synchronisation, trade linkages and economy size, determine to a large extent bilateral exchange rate variability. Using the ordinary least squares estimation, we compute OCA indices for European economies vis-à-vis Germany and identify countries showing consistently large or little signs of convergence. We find that since 1998, most European developed economies have converged to Germany whether or not they are using the euro, suggesting that structural similarity is not driven solely by monetary integration. Our results from the model estimated by the generalized method of moments suggest that two additional criteria reflecting labour market flexibility and private credit growth are significant in explaining the exchange rate variability and lead to a ranking of countries different from the traditional approach. We find a positive relationship between the OCA indices and GDP decline during the economic crisis of 2008-09, which further supports the view that the OCA index is a useful indicator of the candidates' readiness to join the Euro Area. We apply the results to the...