IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/reveco/v88y2023icp1204-1222.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The 15 West African countries as an optimum currency area and the role of labour mobility in the adjustment to asymmetric shocks

Author

Listed:
  • Nchor, Dennis

Abstract

This paper assesses the nature and correlation of shocks in Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) countries and investigates the readiness of member countries for the formation of a monetary union. It also assesses the role of labour mobility as an adjustment mechanism to asymmetric shocks. Structural vector autoregression (SVAR) models are used in assessing the nature and correlation of shocks while cointegrated panel autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) models are employed to examine the role of labour mobility in the adjustment process to asymmetric shocks. The results show that the ECOWAS region is characterised by asymmetric shocks. The study also finds that most countries failed to consistently meet the convergence criteria for the formation of the monetary union and that labour mobility in the region is low to act as an efficient adjustment mechanism to asymmetric shocks. It takes about 2–5 years for member countries to adjust to asymmetric shocks through labour mobility.

Suggested Citation

  • Nchor, Dennis, 2023. "The 15 West African countries as an optimum currency area and the role of labour mobility in the adjustment to asymmetric shocks," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 1204-1222.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:reveco:v:88:y:2023:i:c:p:1204-1222
    DOI: 10.1016/j.iref.2023.07.087
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1059056023002988
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.iref.2023.07.087?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:imf:imfdps:2015/011 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Macroeconomic shocks; Monetary union; ECOWAS; Labour mobility; SVAR;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration
    • F33 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - International Monetary Arrangements and Institutions
    • F41 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance - - - Open Economy Macroeconomics
    • J01 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics: General
    • J08 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics Policies
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:reveco:v:88:y:2023:i:c:p:1204-1222. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/620165 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.