PrefaceAcknowledgments -- Introduction the political economy of currency choice -- A theory of currency policy preferences -- The United States : from greenbacks to gold, 1862-79 -- The United States : silver threats among the gold, 1880-96 -- European monetary integration : from bretton woods...

In this paper, we analyze the saving motives of European households using micro-data from the Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS), which is conducted by the European Central Bank. We find that the rank ordering of saving motives differs greatly depending on what criterion is used to...