review, 105 ( 12 ), pp. 3660 – 3703. 18 schmitz et al. ( 2017 ), op. cit. 19 european commission ( 2018 ), “ fact sheet ”, 27 november. 20 european commission ( 2018 ), “ exports mean jobs, italy ”. 21 agostino, m., giunta, a., scalera, d. and trivieri, f. ( 2016 ), italian firms in global value chains : updating our knowledge ”, rivista di politica economica, vol. vii - ix / 2016. 22 fidora, m., giordano, c. and schmitz, m. ( 2017 ), “ real exchange rate misalignments in the euro area ”, working paper series, no. 2108, ecb. 23 devereux, m. and yetman, j. ( 2014 ), “ globalisation, pass - through and the optimal policy response to exchange rates ”, journal of international money and finance, 49 ( pa ), pp. 104 – 128. 24 see amiti, m., itskhoki, o. and konings, j. ( 2014 ), “ importers, exporters, and exchange rate disconnect ”, american economic review, 104 ( 7 ), pp. 1942 – 1978 ; swarnali, a., maximiliano, a. and michele, r. ( 2017 ), “ global value chains and the exchange rate elasticity of exports ”, the b. e. journal of macroeconomics, 17 ( 1 ), pp. 1 - 24 ; rodnyansky, a. ( 2018 ), “ ( un ) competitive devaluations and firm dynamics ”, mimeo. 25 see cravino, j. and levchenko, a. ( 2017 ), “ the distributional consequences of large devaluations ”, american economic review, vol. 107, no. 11, november. 26 fratianni, m. and spinelli, f., a monetary history of italy, cambridge university press, cambridge, 1997. 27 see toniolo, g. ( 1990 ), “ economic problems of the unification ” in an economic history of liberal italy, routledge ; study group appointed by the commission and presided by padoa - schioppa, t. ( 1987 ), op. cit. 28 diaz del hoyo,

be greatest for the poorest in society, since poorer households tend to spend a larger share of their income on tradeable goods than richer households. 25 this is also typically the case in euro area countries. but does being outside the euro provide additional benefits in terms of monetary policy sovereignty? this is not so obvious. first, the single currency has actually allowed countries to regain monetary sovereignty compared with the fixed exchange rate regimes of the past. decision - making over monetary policy, which effectively belonged to germany under the ems, is now shared among all euro area countries. and the size of euro financial markets has made the euro area less vulnerable to us spillovers, even as global financial integration has accelerated. second, it is worth noting that the supposed advantages of monetary sovereignty – such as the ability to engage in monetary financing of government spending – do not appear to be valued highly by countries that are members of the single market but not the euro. such countries have a weighted average public debt of 68 % of gdp ( 44 % of gdp if the united kingdom is excluded ), compared with 89 % for countries that use the single currency. in any case, as the history of italy has shown, monetary financing of government debt did not lead to real long - term benefits. 26 in periods where debt monetisation was more common in italy, such as in the 1970s, maintaining a growth rate similar to its european peers required repeated devaluations. inflation reached unsustainable levels and hit the most vulnerable in society. convergence and divergence in the euro area but if it is true that the supposed advantages associated with the freedom of being outside monetary union belong to a memory that has been obscured by time and the dramas of the recent crisis, it is also true that in some countries various benefits that were expected from emu have not yet materialised. it was not mistaken, and nor is it today, to expect higher growth and employment to emerge from the “ culture of stability ” that monetary union would bring about. but it was inconceivable that joining monetary union alone would be sufficient to achieve this. we needed and continue to need much more. to the founders of emu, it was clear that establishing a well - functioning monetary union would be a long and gradual process. historical experience suggested that opening markets could lead to differentiated gains, with some regions profiting more than others. this had been the experience of both italy and germany after unification in the 19th century. 27 several euro area countries