Since the mid-1990s new developments in the theory of optimum currency areashave set forth an equilibrium approach that, in contrast with the traditional viewstemming from Robert Mundell's seminal paper, considers the optimality criteria as the product of equilibrium forces and therefore...

Monetary theory not only provides the tools to analyse monetary arrangements, it also shapes them in an essential way. The selected papers gathered together in this book deal with a variety of topics concerning both aspects of this twofold relationship. A number of controversial issues regarding...

The theory of optimum currency areas, suggesting the redrawing of currency areas across countries or splitting of national money into several currencies, is at odds with the one-money-one-country pattern that has dominated monetary history for 26 centuries. This paper puts forward an equilibrium...

The standard approach to optimum currency areas clashes with both modern monetary theory and empirical evidence. The present paper sets forth an equilibrium hypothesis that views the national border as the analogue of a policy measure impinging on agents' optimizing behavior. Copyright Kluwer...

The three exchange rate regimes adopted by Italy from 1883 up to the eve of World War I — the gold standard (1883-1893), floating rates (1894-1902), and “gold shadowing” (1903-1911) — produced a puzzling result: formal adherence to the gold standard ended in failure while shadowing the...

This paper inquires into monetary standards, focusing on the characteristics of money instead of the exchange rate regime. The transition from commodity to fiat money, a major break in monetary evolution, has led to international arrangements that represent an application of the competitive...

According to the New Monetary Economics (NME), the introduction of non-tangible payments media would altogether invalidate current monetary economics. After an illustration of the main tenets of the NME, critically analyses its rejection of both the quantity theory and liquidity preference on...