Monetary Unification and the Price of Risk: An Unconditional Analysis

In this paper we assess the effects of monetary unification in Europe on the pricing behavior in financial markets and more in particular on excess returns. We use the standard IAPT framework to analyze the role of the exchange rate in separating excess return pricing accross European countries. We find that, already in the decade prior to EMU, exchange rate changes do not (unconditionally) correlate strongly with financial market movements across countries. Consequently elimination of exchange rate variability through monetary unification is not likely to have had major implications for pricing behavior in EMU markets.