Währungsunionen und Allmendeproblem

Both in science as in politics, the euro project is an intensively discussed topic. While some predict maintaining it will lead europe in a glorious future, others consider it to be the evil ruining the old continent. The present work addresses the question how common pool ressources, that are born in every currency union, affect the success of such a monetary alliance. It is shown that, theoretically, any supranational monetary union is doomed to fail in a „Tragedy of the Commons“. The acquired theoretical results are verified analysing the most prominent currency unions in history and therein prove to be true. Thus, not only the critics of the euro are legitimate. What ist more, there may never be a successful currency union between nations.