DP1747 Eurowinners and Eurolosers: The Distribution of Seigniorage Wealth in EMU

Author(s):	Holger Feist, Hans-Werner Sinn
Publication Date:	November 1997
Keyword(s):	Central Banks, European Integration, European Monetary Union, Seignorage
JEL(s):	E58, F33, F42
Programme Areas:	International Macroeconomics, Financial Economics
Link to this Page:	cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=1747

The European Monetary Union will involve socialization of existing seigniorage wealth of national central banks. This socialization will create windfall gains for countries with relatively low monetary bases such as France and the United Kingdom and will be disadvantageous for countries like Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and Austria, who will suffer per capita wealth losses of between ECU 406 and ECU 182. The paper quantifies the gains and losses in seigniorage wealth under alternative membership and bank regulation scenarios.