In the absence of fiscal union, the Eurozone needs a more flexible monetary policy: A comment

Abstract

The article is a comment on Alessandrini and Fratianni (2015) (A&F), on how can the euro area cope with inter-regional differences in the absence of fiscal union. A&F develop a model to support their proposals, against which twomain remarks are raised here. First, diverging current account imbalances shaped the eurozone countries’ vulnerability, but were not a cause of the euroarea 2010-2012 liquidity crisis. Second, A&F’s quantity-theoretic view of monetary policy implementation is inapplicable to a floating currency like the euro, or to the Target2 payment system. A&F’s proposal of adding a current account constraint to the existing fiscal constraint for EA countries could have a positive impact if a country running a large current account balance and having fiscal room, as defined by the EU rules, were pressed to engage in expansionary fiscal policy. The problem with such a double constraint, however, is that the stronger the impact on the other EA countries, the sooner fiscal room would be exhausted. This criticism however does not imply that in the absence of fiscal union there is no stable solution; a coordinated pro-quota fiscal expansion would provide such stable solution. 

JEL: E42, E52, E58