The United Kingdom and the Stability of the Euro Area: From Maastricht to Brexit

© 2020 The Authors. The two key events expected to mark the year 2019 were the 20th anniversary of the euro and Brexit. This paper examines the role of the United Kingdom on the stability of the euro area. We study stability from the perspective of synchronisation of economic activity in a core and periphery framework. We show the UK, since 1990, has become significantly more integrated with the EU economy. The UK moved from the periphery before 1990 to the core afterwards. We also find that the level of synchronisation of the UK economy has had the highest variability over time among all countries