This book deals with the economic consequences of monetary integration, which has long been dominated by the Optimal Currency Area (OCA) paradigm. In this model, money is perceived as having developed from a private sector cost minimization process to facilitate transactions. Not surprisingly,...

The dramatic evolution of financial markets in the 1980s and 1990s, accompanied by increasing institutional integration between nations (most notably in the EU), have fostered a widespread belief that governments - particularly those of small economies - have essentially lost the power to pursue...

1. Introduction -- 2. Issues facing the global economy -- 3. Internal aspects of the euro -- 4. International aspects of the euro -- 5. Lionel Robbins lecture -- 6. The future of the EMU, the euro, and international finance -- 7. The role of gold in the international monetary system -- 8....

This book examines the monetary integration of the group of countries which constitute the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), signalling the emergence of a truly European economy. The authors devote their considerable expertise to the analysis of macroeconomic policies within EMU and the...

This book is an up-to-date, authoritative and comprehensive analysis of the key issues and challenges facing regional currency area projects in the context of financial globalization. The authors focus on several central issues that emerged during the experiences of the 1990s and 2000s: exchange...

The authors offer a sustained argument that the single currency as currently implemented does not promise to deliver prolonged growth. They contend that the economic impact of the euro, and its accompanying institutions, is likely to be destabilising and deflationary; that the political impact...

Potential new entrants to the European Union from Central and Eastern European countries face many challenges to achieve financial convergence with the existing EU nations. Using detailed case studies from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland and analysis of cross country...

This book explores the origins, rationale, problems and prospects of the European fiscal policy framework. It provides the reader with a roadmap to EMU's budgetary framework by exploring its theoretical and empirical foundations, uncovering its historical roots and emphasising its supranational...

This collection of essays is a state-of-the-art analysis of key issues confronting the European Union. Identifying European economic integration as one of the defining features of modern international economics, the authors examine many aspects and consequences of this integration which remain...

This book explores the characteristics of inflations, comparing historical cases from Roman times up to the modern day. High and moderate inflations caused by the inflationary bias of political systems and economic relationships – and the importance of different monetary regimes in containing...