TY  - JOUR
AU  - Alesina,Alberto
AU  - Ardagna,Silvia
AU  - Galasso,Vincenzo
TI  - The Euro and Structural Reforms
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 14479
PY  - 2008
Y2  - November 2008
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14479
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14479.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Alberto F. Alesina
Department of Economics
Harvard University
Littauer Center 210
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617/495-8388
Fax: 617/495-7730
E-Mail: aalesina@harvard.edu

Silvia Ardagna
Senior Economist
BofA Merrill Lynch
2 King Edward Street
London EC1A 1HQ
Tel: +44 20 79961512
E-Mail: silvia.ardagna@baml.com

Vincenzo Galasso
IGIER - Universita Bocconi, Dondena
E-Mail: vincenzo.galasso@unibocconi.it
M1  - published as Alberto Alesina, Silvia Ardagna, Vincenzo Galasso. "The Euro and Structural Reforms," in Alberto Alesina and Francesco Giavazzi, editors, "Europe and the Euro" University of Chicago Press (2010)

AB  - This paper investigates whether or not the adoption of the Euro has facilitated the introduction of structural reforms, defined as deregulation in the product markets and liberalization and deregulation in the labor markets. After reviewing the theoretical arguments that may link the adoption of the Euro and structural reforms, we investigate the empirical evidence. We find that the adoption of the Euro has been associated with an acceleration of the pace of structural reforms in the product market. The adoption of the Euro does not seem to have accelerated labor market reforms in the "primary labor market;" however, the run up to the Euro adoption seems to have been accompanied by wage moderation. We also investigate issues concerning the sequencing of goods and labor market reforms.
ER  -