The welfare gains from international coordination of monetary policy are
analysed in a two-country model with sticky prices. The gains from coordination
are compared under two alternative structures for financial markets:financial
autarky and risk sharing. The welfare gains from coordination are found to be
largest when there is risk sharing and the elasticity of substitution between home
and foreign goods is greater than unity. When there is no risk sharing the gains
to coordination are almost zero. It is also shown that the welfare gain from risk
sharing can be negative when monetary policy is uncoordinated.
Keywords: monetary policy coordination,financial integration, risk sharing