ABSTRACT
When the European Monetary System (EMS) was created in 1978, economists on both sides of the Atlantic predicted its early failure. Today, EMS is alive and well, continuing to defy conventional economic wisdom. The authors address three major questions about the European Monetary System (EMS): how it came into being, how it works and how it may evolve into a fully-fledged monetary union.
Summary of the issues; a description of the European Monetary System; co-operation or discipline: the political economy of the EMS; the disciplinary interpretation of the EMS; German dominance in the EMS: the empirical evidence; the co-operative interpretation of the EMS; exchange rate and inflation uncertainty in the EMS; European monetary union; on the road to EMU.
