Ten years EMU: Reality test for the OCA endogeneity hypothesis, economic divergences and future challenges

Abstract

At the start of European Monetary Union in 1999 the pessimists argued that it was too early for such a step and that EMU would aggravate economic divergences between the members, while the optimists believed that EMU itself would generate the integrative forces necessary to move towards the achievement of an optimum currency area. Ten years on, which of them prove to be right