The Eurozone Crisis from the Perspective of the Theory of Optimum Currency Areas

The goal of this diploma thesis is to examine whether the theory of Optimum Currency Area (OCA) confirms the view that the economies of southern and northern member states of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) display different economic characteristics. The thesis strives to answer whether a hypothetical separation of current EMU into two separate monetary blocks makes sense from the perspective of the theory of OCA. First, the thesis examines the evolution of the theory of OCA with a special focus on suggested criteria and their usefulness for the analysis of hypothetical break-up of EMU. These criteria are subsequently divided into economic and political criteria and into centrally fulfilled and separately fulfilled criteria. The thesis then examines how the member states of the EMU cope with the proposed criteria