In light of 50 years of economic policies designed to integrate Europe - culminating in the elimination of euro zone national currencies in early 2002 - and a vast academic literature on international economic integration, it is of interest to assess how far European integration has come in...

The political economy literature shows that monetary hegemony guarantees significant privileges to a country's economy — governments gain greater flexibility in their budgetary and current accounts without incurring significant macroeconomic imbalances. Such greater economic policy flexibility...