Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T21:01:18.909Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

EMU, Exchange Rates and the International Monetary System

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 August 2016

Peter B. Kenen*
Affiliation:
Princeton University
Get access

Summary

This paper asks how EMU will affect foreign-exchange markets, the demands for various key currencies, the behaviour of exchanges rates among them, and policy coordination. The advent of the Ecu as the single currency of the EC may reduce the vehicle role of the dollar in foreign-exchange markets. Yet the share of the Ecu in global reserves may be lower initially than the sum of the shares of the present EC currencies. The private demand for Ecu, domestic and foreign, may also be smaller initially than the demands for the present EC currencies. By helping to unify EC capital markets, however, advent of the Ecu may raise the flow demand for Ecu-denominated claims, causing the Ecu to appreciate in the early years of EMU. Finally, EMU may not help Europe to speak with one voice in international negotiations and may thus interfere with policy coordination.

Résumé

Résumé

Cette article s’interroge sur l’impact de TCJEM sur les échanges internationaux, les demandes pour plusieurs devises-clés, les comportements de leurs taux de change et la coordination des politiques. L’avènement de l’Ecu comme monnaie unique des Communautés Européennes peut réduire le rôle du dollar en tant que véhicule du commerce international. Pourtant la part de l’Ecu dans les réserves globales peut être initialement inférieur à la part actuelle de toutes les monnaies des pays des CE réunies. La demande privée pour l’Ecu, qu’elle soit domestique ou extérieure, peut également être initialement inférieure à la somme des demandes actuelles pour les monnaies des pays de CE. Par contre, en contribuant à unifier les marchés des capitaux des pays des CE, l’avènement de l’Ecu peut accroître le flux de demande de créances libellées en Ecu, susceptibles d’entraîner une appréciation de l’Ecu au cours des premières années de UEM. Enfin, IIJEM peut accroître les difficultés de l’Europe à «parler d’une seule voix» dans les négociations internationales, et ainsi interférer dans la coordination des politiques.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de recherches économiques et sociales 1993 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

This paper was written while the author was a Visiting Scholar at the International Monetary Fund. It draws on a longer study (Kenen, 1992) written while the author held a Houblon-Norman Fellowship at the Bank of England. The author is deeply grateful both institutions for their help and hospitality. The views expressed in this paper are, of course, personal and should not be deemed to represent the views of the International Monetary Fund, the Houblon-Norman Trust, or the Bank of England.

References

Alogoskoufis, G., and Portes, R. (1991a), The International Costs and Benefits from EMU, in The Economics of EMU, European Economy, Special Edition 1.Google Scholar
Alogoskoufis, G., and Portes, R. (1991b), European Monetary Union and the International Role of the Ecu, paper prepared for the Georgetown Conference on Establishing a Central Bank (processed).Google Scholar
Association for the Monetary Union of Europe (1991), A Proposal to Create an Ecu Zone to Assist Eastern Europe’s Transition to a Market Economy, Paris: Association for the Monetary Union of Europe.Google Scholar
Black, S.W. (1991), Transactions Costs and Vehicle Currencies, Journal of International Money and Finance 10.Google Scholar
Commission of the European Communities (1990), One Market, One Money, European Economy 44.Google Scholar
Committee for the Study of Economic and Monetary Union (1989), Report on Economic and Monetary Union in the European Community, Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities [cited here as Delors Report (1989)].Google Scholar
Cooper, R.N. (1992), International Implications of European Monetary Union, Cambridge: Harvard University (processed).Google Scholar
Dobson, W. (1991), Economic Policy Coordination: Requiem or Prologue?, Policy Analysis in International Economics 30, Washington: Institute for International Economics.Google Scholar
Funabashi, Y. (1989), Managing the Dollar from the Plaza to the Louvre, Washington: Institute for International Economics.Google Scholar
Goodhart, C.A.E. (1992) The External Dimensions of EMU, London: London School of Economics and Political Science (processed).Google Scholar
Kenen, P.B. (1981), The Analytics of a Substitution Account, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, Quarterly Review (December).Google Scholar
Kenen, P.B. (1983), The Role of the Dollar as an International Currency, Occasional Paper 13, New York: Group of Thirty.Google Scholar
Kenen, P.B. (1989), Exchange Rates and Policy Coordination, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Kenen, P.B. (1992), EMU After Maastricht, Washington: The Group of Thirty.Google Scholar
Kennedy, E. (1991), The Bundesbank: Germany’s Central Bank in the International Monetary System, London: Royal Institute of International Affairs.Google Scholar
Krugman, P. (1980), Vehicle Currencies and the Structure of International Exchange, Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking 12.Google Scholar
Krugman, P. (1984), The International Role of the Dollar: Theory and Prospect, in Bilson, J.F.O. and Marston, R.C., eds., Exchange Rate Theory and Practice, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar