摘要：This paper combines theoretical and empirical analysis to derive the desirable
exchange rate regimes for eight of the New Member States of the EU in their initial
steps towards EMU.The theoretical model takes into account the size of the internal
market distortions and technological gaps of these countries, and assumes forward-
looking behaviour of both firms and households. In the empirical part, we calculate
numerical values for the incumbent parameters and estimate SVAR models in order
to extract variances and covariances between shocks to these economies and to the
euro area,which are necessary to compute individual social losses and derive the opti-
mal regimes.The main result is that the choice varies depending on the institutional
and structural features of each economy, and on the likely source and nature of eco-
nomic shocks to which it is exposed.
