Structural aspects of monetary integration: a global perspective

This introduction to the special issue on “structural aspects of monetary integration” relates recent debates about currency unions-in terms of Optimum Currency Area theory and of the credibility of economic policy-to structural aspects, such as the sectoral and regional distribution of production, the financial system, capital flows and the evolution of political institutions. The article presents the other papers which deal with these aspects in the context of the European Monetary Union, of debates about monetary integration in North America and disintegration in South America, and of tendencies towards monetary cooperation in East Asia.