The Economics of Common Currencies

Introduction

HARRY G. JOHNSON AND ALEXANDER K. SWOBODA

I

The formation of the European Economic Community and the call for an Economic and Monetary Union issued by the Chiefs of State and Government of the Six at the Hague Conference of December 1969, following on the lead of the Common Market’s Commission, have contributed to the current resurgence of interest in the economics of common currencies.

This volume deals principally with the analytical issues raised by currency unification. In one sense, economic discussion of the issue at a theoretical level, though its history can be traced far back into the past, has followed a rather chequered path and has yielded, at least until recently, only few substantive conclusions. One reason may be that ...