Does ECOWAS make sense?

This paper investigates empirically the possibility of forming an Optimum Currency Area (OCA) among member countries of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) region. Under OCA, member countries share a common currency (like, the Euro), while foregoing their autonomy with respect to their use of monetary policy instruments. We say that the countries are good candidates for forming an OCA if there is a long run relationship in the trend (permanent) component of output. Our results indicate existence of long run relationship in the trend component of GDP among the member countries in the ECOWAS region. Hence is the plausibility for forming an OCA