As the euro is on its second decade, the European sovereign debt crisis and
 the ever more evident disparities in competitiveness among member states are
 prompting many to question whether monetary union is bringing more benefits
 than costs. The optimum currency area (OCA) theory provides a framework with
 several criteria for such analysis. In such context, we start by a
 descriptive analysis of the first twelve euro countries under six criteria,
 leading to a mixed conclusion on whether the EMU is closer or farther to
 fulfil them. Then we assess the impact of five OCA criteria on countries’
 relative competitiveness. Differences in the growth of unit labour costs,
 the dissimilarity of trade and the differences in output growth were found
 to be the most significant. This way, we identify some causes of the
 divergent competitiveness between some EMU countries that contributed to
 weaker economic growth in some of them.

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The euro area ten years after its creation: (Divergent) competitiveness and the optimum currency area theory

In June 1984 a striking Durham miner interviewed on television asked a simple question: ‘Why pay me £60 a week to do nothing if I’m unemployed, when, with this or less to help cut the cost, I could be usefully mining coal?’. At much the same time another simple question was being asked: ‘If food surpluses are piling up unused here and elsewhere people are starving, why is not the food sent where the need is?’. To store EEC surplus grain for four years costs £200 a tonne; to transport it to where the need is costs £25 a tonne (Observer, 28 October 1984). Why are not resources moved to needs, saving people and money?

Britain in the World Economy

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In recent years, a rising number of less developed countries (LDCs) have introduced comprehensive regulations governing inflows of foreign direct investments (FDI). The emergence of such regulations has changed the operating relationship between LDCs and multinational companies (MNCs). The objectives of this study are to: (i) examine the emergence of such regulations and identify their common policies; (ii) discuss the important features of the 'new' operating relationship between LDCs and MNCs; and (iii) analyse the potential implications of this relationship both for adopting countries and multinationals.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/3991172.pdf

Multinational companies and developing countries: A new relationship

Inflation is a process of continuously rising prices, or equivalently, of a continuously falling value of money.... A continuously falling value of pins, or of refrigerators, or of potatoes would not be regarded as a major social problem, important though it might be for the people directly engaged in the production and sale of those goods. The case of money is different precisely because the role that it plays in co-ordinating economic activity ensures that changes in its value over time impinge upon the well-being of everyone.1
History is replete with many and long periods of inflation, whose features have been manifold. A number of adjectives have been used to describe different types of inflation in greater detail and to distinguish them from each other: mild, moderate, creeping, rapid, acute, severe, extreme, high, persistent, chronic, trotting, galloping, hyper, open, supressed, anticipated, unanticipated, and many more. These characterisations focus on scale, duration, causes, dynamics, expectations, repercussions and the urgency of stabilisation. However they are neither defined in an exact manner nor used in a uniform way.

How to Stop Inflation

So much has been written and is currently being written on the future of the international monetary system, that it is impossible to read everything and to say anything new. Moreover things are changing all the time, often very fast and unexpectedly, so that what one says today may appear to be out of date tomorrow. In such a situation it is, I believe, a good idea to go back to fundamental principles which are often lost sight of, although they often are a safer guide for things to come than the extrapolation of recent trends. Let me start from a proposition on which in my opinion most economists, advocates of floating as well as of fixed or "stable but adjustable" exchange rates could agree: The ideal international monetary arrangement would be permanently fixed exchange rates with fully convertible currencies (no controls) and preferably no margin, provided the system does not impose too much inflation or deflation (unemployment) on any country. This is the arrangement which we have inside each country including the largest. Nobody, not even the most radical floater, has recommended that the United States should be split up into different currency areas. I need not take time to explain the immense advantage which the U. S. economy derives from having a unified currency, because that has been done many times by advocates of fixed exchange rates, such as Charles Kindleberger and Robert M und ell as well as by some floaters such as Allan Meitzer. Naturally the smaller a country the more important a stable exchange rate and very small countries, Liechtenstein, Monaco but even Luxemburg have virtually no choice but to link up rigidly with the currency of a large neighbor.

The future of the international monetary system

By liberal economic order we mean the order of the market or capitalist economy of the modern mixed variety, relying predominantly on private enterprise and competition although there may exist monopolies, oligopolies, or government enterprises in some areas. The liberal order does not imply a policy of strict noninterference on the part of government. More specifically, the liberal international economic order is the largely American-inspired post World War II system of freer trade, of low, non-discriminatory tariffs (most-favored nation clause and absence of quantitative restrictions), and of currencies freely convertible into each other in the exchange market either at fixed or variable exchange rates (absence of exchange control) the system symbolized and institutionalized by the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) and the IMF (International Monetary Fund). This liberal order is being challenged from different sides. It is being frontally attacked by socialist and communist parties and other advocates of comprehensive central planning inside Western countries and being challenged from the outside by the communist (centrally planned) economies. This attack is, however, not the subject of this paper. The main theme is not the East-West but the North-South problem (or better, the temperate zone-tropic problem), in other words the serious and farreaching challenge to the liberal order that comes from the developing or less developed countries' (LDCs') increasingly urgent demands for a New International Economic Order (NIEO). These demands have led to a

Less developed countries and the liberal international economic order

Some currently suggested explanations and cures for inflation

The subtitle indicates three major problems confronting the world economy that I address in this paper. The first is global imbalances, the persistent and large US budget and trade deficits (more precisely, current account deficits) and the equally persistent German and Japanese trade surpluses.

The State of the World Economy: Global Imbalance, Exchange Rates and the World Debt

So much has been written and is currently being written on inflation that it is impossible to read everything and say anything that has not been said before. The best I can do under these circumstances is, I believe, not to comment on current events but to go back to basic principles which are often lost sight of in daily work, although they are frequently a better guide for things to come than minute description of current events and the extrapolation of recent trends.

Gottfried Haberler

Papers

The future of the international monetary system

Less developed countries and the liberal international economic order

Some currently suggested explanations and cures for inflation

The State of the World Economy: Global Imbalance, Exchange Rates and the World Debt

1975: Thoughts on Inflation: the Basic Forces