The Euro Effect on Trade : The Trade Effect of the Euro on non-EMU and EMU Members

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the changes in trade values are affected by the implementation of the euro currency. We study the EU members, including 11 EMU members and 3 non-EMU members (Sweden, Denmark and the United Kingdom). The empirical analysis is conducted by using a modified version of the standard gravity model. Our core findings can be summarized into two parts. First, the euro effect on trade which is estimated by the euro-dummy coefficient reflects an adverse influence by the euro creation on trade values for the first two years of the implementation on all our sample countries. It leads us to a conclusion that there is no significant improvement of trade in the year of implementation. These results do not change when a time trend variable is added to evaluate the robustness of the model. Our primary interpretation is that the euro creation does not have an immediate impact on trade but it is rather gradual as countries need time to adapt to a new currency. It is connected to our second finding that the negative influence of the euro implementation is not permanent but eventually initiates positive outcomes on trade values over time, thus concluding that the euro implementation has had gradual impact on both EMU and non-EMU members.