01840cas a2200265 a 4500 AALejournalIMF002214 230101c9999 xx r poo 0 0eng d 5.00 USD 9781451875393 1018-5941 BD-DhAAL BD-DhAAL Masson, Paul. Monetary Union in West Africa : Who Might Gain, Who Might Lose, and Why? / Paul Masson, Xavier Debrun, Catherine Pattillo. Washington, D.C. : International Monetary Fund, 2002. 1 online resource (35 pages) IMF Working Papers <strong>Off-Campus Access:</strong> No User ID or Password Required <strong>On-Campus Access:</strong> No User ID or Password Required Electronic access restricted to authorized BRAC University faculty, staff and students We develop a multicountry model in which governments aim at excessive spending in order to serve the narrow interests of the group in power. This puts pressure on the monetary authorities to extract seigniorage, and thus affects the incentives countries would have to participate in a monetary union. This feature, ignored by the monetary union literature for Europe, is potentially important in Africa. We calibrate the model to data for West Africa and use it to assess proposed ECOWAS monetary unions. We conclude that monetary union with Nigeria would not be in the interests of other ECOWAS countries, unless it were accompanied by effective discipline over Nigeria's fiscal policies. Mode of access: Internet Debrun, Xavier. Pattillo, Catherine. IMF Working Papers; Working Paper ; No. 2002/226 Full text available on IMF http://elibrary.imf.org/view/journals/001/2002/226/001.2002.issue-226-en.xml IMF e-Library