From Transition to Monetary Integration: Revenues from Seignorage in Poland

Abstract

The analysis presented in the paper focuses on seigniorage revenues in the period of transition to market economy and fiscal consequences of European monetary integration. A comprehensive framework for a measurement of seigniorage revenues in transition period is presented and estimates of its sources and uses in the period 1990–2000 are computed and analyzed. The analysis reveals that in Poland at the end of the last decade revenues from the money creation have not been extensively used as a tool for financing government expenditures. Furthermore, it is shown that, in contrary to the transition period, an accession to European Monetary Union will be accompanied by significant fiscal gains resulting from redistribution of seigniorage wealth between member countries.