IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/
MyIDEAS: Log in (now much improved!) to save this paper

Sui Generis EMU

Author Info

Listed author(s):
  • Barry Eichengreen

Abstract

The thesis of this paper is that there is no historical precedent for Europe's monetary union (EMU). While it is possible to point to similar historical experiences, the most obvious of which were in the 19th century, occurred in Europe, and had “union†as part of their names, EMU differs from these earlier monetary unions. The closer one looks the more uncomfortable one becomes with the effort to draw parallels on the basis of historical experience. It is argued that efforts to draw parallels between EMU and monetary unions past are more likely to mislead than to offer useful insights. Where history is useful is not in drawing parallels but in pinpointing differences. It is useful for highlighting what is distinctive about EMU.

Download Info

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.

File URL: http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/publications/pages/publication12091_en.pdf
Download Restriction: no

Paper provided by Directorate General Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), European Commission in its series European Economy - Economic Papers 2008 - 2015 with number 303.

as
in new window

Length: 44 pages
Date of creation: Feb 2008
Handle: RePEc:euf:ecopap:0303
Contact details of provider: Postal:
Inter-institutional relations and communication Unit, B-1049 Brussels

Fax: +32 2 298.08.23
Web page: https://ec.europa.eu/info/departments/economic-and-financial-affairs_en
Email:


More information through EDIRC

Keywords: EMU; Monetary union; Euro; Economic History; international monetary system; History of monetary unions; Eichengreen;

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:
  • F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration
  • N14 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - Europe: 1913-

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:

as
in new window


  1. Christopher M. Meissner, 2003. "Exchange-Rate Regimes and International Trade: Evidence from the Classical Gold Standard Era," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(1), pages 344-353, March.
  2. Marc Flandreau & Jacques Le Cacheux & Frédéric Zumer, 1998. "Stability without a pact? Lessons from the European gold standard, 1880-1914," Economic Policy, CEPR;CES;MSH, vol. 13(26), pages 115-162, 04.
  3. James, John A., 1976. "The Development of the National Money Market, 1893-1911," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 36(04), pages 878-897, December.
  4. repec:cto:journl:v:24:y:2004:i:1-2:p:163-170 is not listed on IDEAS
  5. Baldwin, Richard E., 2006. "The euro's trade effects," Working Paper Series 594, European Central Bank.
  6. Michael D. Bordo, 2004. "The United States as a Monetary Union and the Euro: A Historical Perspective," Cato Journal, Cato Journal, Cato Institute, vol. 24(1-2), pages 163-170, Spring/Su.
  7. Fatás, Antonio & Rose, Andrew K, 2001. "Do Monetary Handcuffs Restrain Leviathan? Fiscal Policy in Extreme Exchange Rate Regimes," CEPR Discussion Papers 2692, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  8. Andrew K. Rose, 2000. "One money, one market: the effect of common currencies on trade," Economic Policy, CEPR;CES;MSH, vol. 15(30), pages 7-46, 04.
  9. Christopher M. Meissner, 2002. "A New World Order: Explaining the Emergence of the Classical Gold Standard," NBER Working Papers 9233, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  10. Robert F. Graboyes, 1990. "The EMU: forerunners and durability," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, issue Jul, pages 8-17.
  11. Christine Dwane & Philip Lane & Tara McIndoe, 2010. "Currency unions and Irish external trade," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(19), pages 2393-2397.
  12. Hugh Rockoff, 1999. "How Long Did It Take the United States to Become an Optimal Currency Area?," Departmental Working Papers 199910, Rutgers University, Department of Economics.
  13. Garry J. Schinasi & Pedro Gustavo Teixeira, 2006. "The Lender of Last Resort in the European Single Financial Market," World Scientific Book Chapters,in: Cross-Border Banking Regulatory Challenges, chapter 23, pages 349-372 World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
  14. Flandreau, Marc, 2006. "The logic of compromise: Monetary bargaining in Austria-Hungary, 1867 1913," European Review of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 10(01), pages 3-33, April.
  15. Rudiger Dornbusch, 1992. "Monetary problems of post-communism: Lessons from the end of the Austro-Hungarian empire," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 128(3), pages 391-424, September.
  16. Paul De Grauwe, 2006. "On monetary and political union," CESifo Forum, Ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 7(4), pages 3-10, December.
  17. Flandreau, Marc & Sussman, Nathan, 2004. "Old Sins: Exchange Rate Clauses and European Foreign Lending in the 19th Century," CEPR Discussion Papers 4248, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  18. Philip Lane & Sébastien Wälti, 2006. "The Euro and Financial Integration," The Institute for International Integration Studies Discussion Paper Series iiisdp139, IIIS.
  19. Arthur J. Rolnick & Bruce D. Smith & Warren E. Weber, 1993. "In order to form a more perfect monetary union," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, issue Fall, pages 2-13.
  20. Lieven Baele & Annalisa Ferrando & Peter Hördahl & Elizaveta Krylova & Cyril Monnet, 2004. "Measuring financial integration in the euro area," Occasional Paper Series 14, European Central Bank.
  21. Toniolo, Gianni & Conte, Leandro & Vecchi, Giovanni, 2003. "Monetary Union, institutions and financial market integration: Italy, 1862-1905," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 40(4), pages 443-461, October.
  22. Rolnick, Arthur J & Weber, Warren E, 1983. "New Evidence on the Free Banking Era," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(5), pages 1080-1091, December.
  23. Bergman, U Michael, 1999. " Do Monetary Unions Make Economic Sense? Evidence from the Scandinavian Currency Union, 1873-1913," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 101(3), pages 363-377, September.
  24. Abdul Ghafar Noury & Simon Hix & Gérard Roland, 2007. "Democratic politics in the European Parliament," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/7744, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
  25. Bordo, Michael D. & Rockoff, Hugh, 1996. "The Gold Standard as a “Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval”," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 56(02), pages 389-428, June.
  26. Barry Eichengreen, 2010. "The Breakup of the Euro Area," NBER Chapters,in: Europe and the Euro, pages 11-51 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  27. Howard Bodenhorn & Hugh Rockoff, 1992. "Regional Interest Rates in Antebellum America," NBER Chapters,in: Strategic Factors in Nineteenth Century American Economic History: A Volume to Honor Robert W. Fogel, pages 159-187 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  28. Rockoff, Hugh, 1974. "The Free Banking Era: A Reexamination," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 6(2), pages 141-167, May.
  29. Kenneth Snowden, 1995. "The Evolution of Interregional Mortgage Lending Channels, 1870-1940: The Life Insurance-Mortgage Company Connection," NBER Chapters,in: Coordination and Information: Historical Perspectives on the Organization of Enterprise, pages 209-256 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  30. Flandreau, Marc, 2000. "The economics and politics of monetary unions: a reassessment of the Latin Monetary Union, 1865 71," Financial History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 7(01), pages 25-44, April.
  31. Fraas, Arthur, 1974. "The Second Bank of the United States: An Instrument for an Interregional Monetary Union," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 34(02), pages 447-467, June.
  32. Michael D. Bordo & Christopher Meissner & Angela Redish, 2003. "How "Original Sin" was Overcome: The Evolution of External Debt Denominated in Domestic Currencies in the United States and the British Dominions," NBER Working Papers 9841, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  33. Ferguson, Niall & Schularick, Moritz, 2006. "The Empire Effect: The Determinants of Country Risk in the First Age of Globalization, 1880 1913," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 66(02), pages 283-312, June.
  34. Bergman, Michael & Gerlach, Stefan & Jonung, Lars, 1993. "The rise and fall of the Scandinavian Currency Union 1873-1920," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(2-3), pages 507-517, April.
  35. Bodenhorn, Howard, 2002. "Making The Little Guy Pay: Payments-System Networks, Cross-Subsidization, And The Collapse Of The Suffolk System," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 62(01), pages 147-169, March.
  36. Eichengreen, Barry, 1984. "Mortgage Interest Rates in the Populist Era," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(5), pages 995-1015, December.
  37. Michael G. Spencer & Peter M. Garber, 1992. "The Dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire; Lessons for Currency Reform," IMF Working Papers 92/66, International Monetary Fund.
  38. Mitchener, Kris James, 2005. "Bank Supervision, Regulation, and Instability During the Great Depression," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 65(01), pages 152-185, March.
Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.

as
in new window


Cited by:

  1. Mojmír Hampl, 2013. "The Case of European Monetary Integration and its Former Hegemon," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 14(1), pages 2-14, 02.
  2. Kevin H. O'Rourke & Alan M. Taylor, 2013. "Cross of Euros," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 27(3), pages 167-192, Summer.
  3. Ulrich Fritsche & Vladimir Kuzin, 2011. "Analysing convergence in Europe using the non-linear single factor model," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 41(2), pages 343-369, October.
  4. Mojmír Hampl, 2012. "Evropská měnová integrace a postavení jejího bývalého hegemona
    [European Monetary Integration and a Position of its Former Hegemon]    ," Politická ekonomie, University of Economics, Prague, vol. 2012(6), pages 707-722.
  5. Regling, Klaus & Deroose, Servaas & Felke, Reinhard & Kutos, Paul, 2010. "The Euro After Its First Decade: Weathering the Financial Storm and Enlarging the Euro Area," ADBI Working Papers 205, Asian Development Bank Institute.
  6. Selin Sayek & Fatma Taskin, 2014. "Financial crises: lessons from history for today," Economic Policy, CEPR;CES;MSH, vol. 29(79), pages 447-493, 07.

This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

Access and download statistics

When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:euf:ecopap:0303. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (ECFIN INFO)

If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.

If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

This information is provided to you by IDEAS at the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis using RePEc data.