European monetary unification (EMU) - the creation of a single European currency and a European Central Bank - is both an economic and a political phenomenon. Yet few studies have attempted to address simultaneously the political and economic dimensions of the process. In this introduction, we...

Analyses of the political economy of exchange rate policy posit that firms and individuals in different sectors of the economy have distinct policy attitudes toward the level and stability of the exchange rate. Most such approaches hypothesize that internationally exposed firms prefer more...

Government exchange rate regime choice is constrained by both political and economic factors. One political factor is the role of special interests: the larger the tradable sectors exposed to international competition, the less likely is the maintenance of a fixed exchange rate regime. Another...

This paper explores the impact of political economy factors on exchange rate policy in Latin America. It studies the determinants of the choice of exchange rate regime in Latin America, placing special emphasis on political, institutional and interest group explanations. The presumption is that...

Exchange rates have been central to the course of economic development in Latin America for decades. From the heyday of import substitution in the 1960s to the rapid expansion of foreign debt in the 1970s, from the debt crisis and its troubled aftermath in the 1980s to the rekindling of growth...

In this lecture, given at Bruegelâ??s Annual Meeting in June, 2006, Jeffry Frieden focuses on why the first era of globalisation could not be restored, and why it was ultimately replaced by a system based on the rules of Bretton Woods. The historical experience of global capitalism shows, he...

A comment on Lars Jonung and Eoin Drea's (2010) article, "It Can't Happen, It's a Bad Idea, It Won't Last: U.S. Economists on the EMU and the Euro, 1989-2002." _Econ Journal Watch_ 7(1):4-52. Link

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction. The Political Economy of Currency Choice -- CHAPTER 1. A Theory of Currency Policy Preferences -- CHAPTER 2. The United States: From Greenbacks to Gold, 1862-79 -- CHAPTER 3. The United States: Silver Threats among the Gold,...