DISCRETIONARY VERSUS AUTOMATIC STABILIZATION IN RELATION TO INDICATORS ASSOCIATED WITH NOMINAL ECONOMIC CONVERGENCE CRITERIA

About economic convergence has been written a lot, especially about the nominal one. The nominal economic convergence criteria of the Maastricht Treaty as they are known and imposed on countries wishing to join the Eurozone are both controversial in the academic world, with voices calling for either their relaxation or completion, or at least for a better calibration of them. Without starting from redesigning, the article aims to analyse in its current form which is most effective: discretionary stabilization or the design of a mechanism rather automatic in reaching the thresholds imposed by the Maastricht criteria? The arguments formulated in this article and the results obtained can guide us towards the use of an automatic type of stabilization mechanism.