This paper locates the collapse of East German communism in Marxist-Leninist monetary theory. By exploring the economic and cultural functions of money in East Germany, it argues that the communist party failed to reconcile its ideological aspirations ­ a society free of the social alienation...

This lecture considers how Europe’s monetary union will evolve in the next five to ten years. It concentrates on what is likely to be the most important change in that period, namely, the increasing number and heterogeneity of participating states. By 2006, less than four years from now,...

While empirical research in the tradition of the classical optimum currency area theory, inspired by Mundell (1961), has stressed the costs of a common currency ("Mundell I"), the later and less well-known contribution of Mundell (1973) high- lights the benefits that arise from the risk-sharing...

This paper inquires into the causes of the contrasting experiences between Asia and Europe and asks what they bode for the future. It poses questions like: Is the contrast explicable in terms of the fact that Europe was earlier to begin the process of removing controls on cross-border portfolio...