The Eurozone and small open economies from the perspective of the Optimum Currency Area Theory

The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the existing knowledge about the theory of optimum currency areas and assess the euro area and selected small open economies in terms of this theory. In addition to traditional forms of OCA theory has profiled endogeneity theory, which allows fulfillment of OCA criteria ex post. The opposite approach is formulated in the hypothesis of specialization by P. Krugman. In the thesis I found out that the Eurozone is not an optimal currency area according the fulfillment of criteria of the OCA theory. Another observation is that a small open economy has limited opportunities to conduct independent monetary policy, what makes its membership in the monetary union in the long term necessary. However, its membership has some drawbacks especially that the exchange rate fluctuates according the fundamentals of the big economies (members of monetary union). Furthermore, I have found out by comparing the macroeconomic indicators of individual countries, that the membership of small open economies in the euro area is appropriate, but it has some risks. In the thesis, I also found out that small countries (especially microstates) should specialized in export of services - tourism, financial and administrative services