Currency Unions

Book excerpt: The past twenty years have seen two waves of research on currency unions, prompted by the early experience of the European Economic and Monetary Union and by the existential crisis experienced by the euro area as a part of the global financial crisis. Alongside an original introduction, this important collection assembles key papers exploring a range of themes in these two waves of research, including subtopics such as reassessment of optimal currency area theory, new views on the policy choices, and the past and present experience of various currency unions. With a concluding section that addresses the question of complementary institutions going beyond an inflation-focused central bank, this two-volume collection provides an ample and comprehensive overview of currency unions.