Matias Vernengo "Monetary Integration And Dollarization: No Panacea"
Edward Elgar Publishing | 2006-07-30 | ISBN: 1843768968 | 298 pages | PDF | 1,8 MB




This book deals with the economic consequences of monetary integration,which has long been dominated by the Optimal Currency Area (OCA)paradigm. In this model, money is perceived as having developed from aprivate sector cost minimization process to facilitate transactions.Not surprisingly, the book argues, the main advantage of monetaryintegration in the OCA context is the reduction of transaction costs,yet the validity of OCA to analyze processes of monetary integrationseems to be limited at best.
The contributions in this volume try to go beyond the OCA model andunderstand the political economy of monetary integration by comparingthe European Monetary Union with the dollarization (formal andinformal) process in Latin America. The contributors, many of whom areleading lights, reflect the disagreements and the changing views on theproper monetary arrangements in a globalized world and suggest thatmonetary integration and dollarization are not the solution for thegreat majority of countries around the world.

Monetary Integration and Dollarization brings together mainstream andheterodox views of monetary integration and uses the European and NorthAmerican experiences as a guide for the discussion of dollarization indeveloping countries. It will appeal to scholars, researchers andpolicy makers in the fields of financial and international economics.