Monetary Unions and Hard Pegs

Effects on Trade, Financial Development, and Stability
Erscheinungsjahr 2004
ISBN: 978-0-19-927140-5
Verlag: OUP Oxford

Buch, Englisch, 400 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 763 g

Financial services with global reach are becoming ever more important in the conduct and organization of the trade and investment of nations, and currencies that lack international standing lose out in this business. The result of financial development has been destabilizing currency and portfolio substitution -- in favour of international currencies and against local ones.

This book analyses formal approaches to overcoming monetary divisions within countries and within integrating regions, focusing on the consequences of monetary union for trade among union members and their financial development and stability. The authors discuss hard pegs such as those attempted by the currency board of Argentina, outright dollarization, such as in Ecuador, and multilateral monetary union, as in Europe, the least reversible form of monetary union and the most powerful elixir of financial integration and trade.

The political classes and central banks in most countries have been reluctant to admit the market- and technology-driven forces of currency consolidation, much less yield to them. International financial institutions too are still in the habit of proffering advice about national monetary and exchange-rate policies on the assumption that getting rid of both is not even an option. Emerging-market countries, in particular, have to choose between retaining what independent monetary means they still have -- and can safely use in the presence of widespread liability dollarization and currency mismatches -- and formally replacing the domestic with an international currency to reduce exposure to debilitating financial crises. In concrete investigations of this choice, this volume shows that monetary union deserves a much more sympathetic hearing.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Alexander, Volbert

von Furstenberg, George M.

Mélitz, Jacques

Fachgebiete

• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Volkswirtschaftslehre Allgemein Geldwirtschaft, Währungspolitik
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Internationale Wirtschaft Wirtschaftliche Globalisierung

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- Preface

- 1: Volbert Alexander, Jacques Mélitz, and George M. von Furstenberg: Editorial Introduction

- Part I: Current and Past Concepts of Monetary Union

- 2: Dominick Salvatore, Fordham University, New York: Euroization, Dollarization and the International Monetary System

- 3: Ignazio Angeloni, European Central Bank, Frankfurt: Unilateral and Multilateral Currency Unions: Thoughts from an EMU Perspective

- 4: Gerald P. Dwyer, Jr., Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and James R. Lothian, Fordham University, New York: International Money and Common Currencies in Historical Perspective

- Part II: Trade and Price Effects of Monetary Union

- 5: Jacques Mélitz, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK: Geography, Trade and Currency Union

- 6: Volker Nitsch, Bankgesellschaft Berlin: Comparing Apples and Oranges: The Effect of Multilateral Currency Unions on Trade

- 7: Andrew K. Rose, University of California, Berkeley: The Effect of Common Currencies on International Trade: a Meta-Analysis

- 8: Alberto E. Isgut, Wesleyan University, Middletown CT: Common Currencies and Market Integration Across Cities: How Strong is the Link?Common Currencies and Market Integration Across Cities: How Strong is the Link?

- Part III: Monetary Integration In Latin America

- 9: Eduardo Fernández-Arias, Ugo Panizza, and Ernesto Stein, Inter-American Development Bank, Washington, DC: Trade Agreements, Exchange Rate Disagreements

- 10: Guillermo A. Calvo, Alejandro Izquierdo, and Ernesto Talvi, Inter-American Development Bank: Sudden Stops, the Real Exchange Rate and Fiscal Sustainability: Argentina's Lessons

- 11: Augusto de la Torre, World Bank, Eduardo Levy Yeyati, UTDT (Argentina), and Sergio L. Schmuckler, World Bank: Living and Dying with Hard Pegs: The Rise and Fall of Argentina's Currency Board

- 12: Guillermo Perry and Luis Servén, World Bank: Anatomy of a Multiple Crisis: Why Was Argentina Special and What Have We Learned from It?

- Part IV: Common Monies, Political Interests, and Infrastructure

- 13: Benjamin J. Cohen, University of California, Santa Barbara: America's Interest in Dollarization

- 14: Edgar L. Feige, University of Wisconsin, Madison and James W. Dean, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver: Dollarization and Euroization in Transition Countries: Currency Substitution, Asset Substitution, Network Externalities and Irreversibility

- 15: Cláudia Costa Storti, Banco de Portugal and Paul De Grauwe, University of Leuven and CEPR: Electronic Money and The Optimal Size Of Monetary Unions

- 16: Hans Genberg, Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland: Currency Substitution in Anticipation of EU Accession

- 17: Charles M. Kahn, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and João A. C. Santos, Federal Reserve Bank of New York: Allocating Lending of Last Resort and Supervision in the Euro Area

- Index

Über Autor(innen)

Volbert Alexander is Professor of Money and Banking at the Economics Department of the University of Giessen (Germany). Prior to his appointment in 1986 he was Professor of Economics at the Universities of Trier and Siegen (Germany). From 1997 to 1999 he served as a Chief Economist and Director of Research at Hypobank in Munich. He is co-founder of a "priority" program, Monetary Macroeconomics, financed by the German Research Foundation. His main fields of interest and his current research are focused on European financial integration, monetary policy issues and problems of short-term reactions in financial markets.

Jacques Mélitz is currently Professor of Economics at the University of Strathclyde. Previously, he worked for many years at the Centre de Recherche en Économie et Statistique (CREST), with which he is still affiliated, and was Professor of Economics at the Institut d'Études Politiques in Paris. Since 1983, he has held visiting positions at Harvard and Princeton Universities, has consulted for the OECD, the European Commission, the Federal Reserve, the International Monetary Fund, the Bank of Italy and the Swedish Commission of Monetary Union. He has also been a research fellow of the CEPR since 1986. For the last couple of decades, his research has centered on international macroeconomics, most particularly European issues connected with the European Monetary System and European Monetary Union.

George M. von Furstenberg for many years a titled Professor of Economics at Indiana University, is the inaugural holder of the Robert Bendheim Chair in Economic and Financial Policy at Fordham University. Work at the IMF (Division Chief in the Research Department, 1978-83) and at U.S. government agencies such as the President's Council of Economic Advisers (Senior Economist, 1973-76) and the Department of State (1989-90), alternated with his academic pursuits. His latest book projects have dealt with Regulation and Supervision of Financial Institutions in the NAFTA Countries and Learning from the World's Best Central Bankers. He joined the G8 Research Group in 1999 and in 2000 was president of the North American Economics and Finance Association focusing on integration processes in the Western Hemisphere.