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Abstract:
There is a broad consensus that the quality of the political system and its institutions are fundamental for a country’s prosperity. The paper focuses on political events in Italy over the past 35 years and asks whether the adoption of the euro in 1999 has helped insulate Italy’s financial markets from the adverse consequences of its traditionally unstable political system.
The authors find that important political events have
exerted a statistically and economically significant effect on Italy’s financial markets throughout the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. The introduction of the euro appears to have indeed played a major role in insulating financial markets from such adverse shocks. The findings of the paper therefore suggest another important economic dimension and channel through which Italy may have been affected by EMU. The analysis could also be potentially interesting for other countries with weak institutions considering adopting a currency based on stronger institutions.
Working paper by Marcel Fratzscher and Livio Stracca.
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