This book seeks to explain why governments contemplate regional monetary integration and why some country groups are more likely than others to exercise that option. It also explains why some country groups may be more successful than others, and the limited relevance of the European experience...

When I wrote my book on EMU four years ago (Kenen 1995), very little had been written on the international dimensions of EMU. There was a chapter in the Commission's path-breaking study (European Commission, 1990). There were papers by Alogoskoufis and Portes (1991, 1992), Cooper (1992),...