Insurance mechanisms against asymmetric shocks in a monetary union: an application to the European Monetary Union

Abstract

In this paper we offer a proposal of an automatic insurance mechanism designed to cope with asymmetric shocks in a monetary union. The mechanism would take as indicator the changes in the unemployment rate of the countries belonging to the union, and would be financed through a fund built from contributions of those countries as a percentage of their tax receipts. The fund would be later distributed among the countries affected by a negative asymmetric shock according to the proportion in which every one of them would have been affected by the shock. The mechanism proposed is illustrated by means of an empirical application to the case of the European monetary union.