‘These eleven small, open economies teach us a great deal about the behaviour of money and financial markets. This volume sets the standard for investigating them. Any future serious work must take account of this book and build on it.’ – Richard J. Sweeney, Georgetown University, US
‘With eastward expansion of the EU imminent, this book provides an excellent and timely assessment of the impact of monetary and financial integration on small “open economy”, “policy taking” countries in western Europe.’ – Andrew W. Mullineux, University of Birmingham, UK
The dramatic evolution of financial markets in the 1980s and 1990s, accompanied by increasing institutional integration between nations (most notably in the EU), have fostered a widespread belief that governments – particularly those of small economies – have essentially lost the power to pursue sovereign, independent economic policies. At the same time, it is widely assumed that the loss of monetary-policy control is a major opportunity cost for a country adopting a rigid exchange-rate regime or, in the European context, for countries joining the EMU.
