Lessons from the History of European EMU

TL;DR

This paper analyzes historical instances of monetary unions to derive lessons applicable to the European Monetary Union's future development, emphasizing rational decision-making by national actors based on economic costs and benefits.

Contribution

It provides a comparative historical analysis of past monetary unions to inform current and future European EMU policy considerations.

Findings

Historical monetary unions faced similar challenges as the European EMU.

Rational self-interest influenced participation decisions in monetary unions.

Lessons from past unions highlight potential issues in European EMU integration.

Abstract

This paper examines the history of previous examples of EMU from the viewpoint that state actors make decisions about whether to participate in a monetary union based on rational self-interest concerning costs and benefits to their national economies. Illustrative examples are taken from nineteenth century German, Italian and Japanese attempts at monetary integration with early twentieth century ones from the Latin Monetary Union and the Scandinavian Monetary Union and contemporary ones from the West African Monetary Union and the European Monetary System. Lessons learned from the historical examples will be used to identify issues that could arise with the move towards closer EMU in Europe.