Architects of the Euro
Intellectuals in the Making of European Monetary Union
Edited by Kenneth Dyson and Ivo Maes
Reviews and Awards
"This book is a success because it illuminates the role of the architects' stores of knowledge, skills, passions and interests in the process of European Monetary Unification . . . the book is relevant to the current challenges facing the Euro Area and, with it, the lives of the millions of people inhabiting it." --Lilia Costabile, Journal of Economics
"Architects of the Euro is a rich and stimulating book." --Giorgio La Malfa, The Journal of European Economic History
"[The authors] demonstrate the value of sophisticated syntheses of policy analysis and intellectual history." - Foreign Affairs
"The originality of Architects of the Euro, edited by Dyson and Maes, is that it brings out the vital role played by ten senior officials and policy-oriented economists, well chosen by the editors, in starting the process towards the euro. Despite major differences in views, these architects had a shared motivation to start with what appeared at the time both economically justified and politically feasible, leaving the completion of the work-in-progress for later challenges." - Niels Thygesen, Emeritus Professor of Economics, University of Copenhagen, and former member of the Delors Committee
"This remarkable volume by eminent scholars will help readers to better understand what the intellectual underpinning of the euro was and where it eventually proved wanting. It shows well how unprepared the system was to deal with the recent crisis and what are the challenges to fix it." - André Sapir, Professor of Economics at the Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium,and former economic advisor to the president of the European Commission
"It is often claimed, perhaps particularly by its detractors, that European Economic and Monetary Union was mainly created by an elite. This book records the identity, thinking and objectives of such key protagonists. It is an important study of political economy, how ideas and structures develop, an essential part of the political and economic history of our times. I am delighted to have played a minor role in the exercise, put together by Kenneth Dyson and Ivo Maes, to deploy the best historians of political economic thought, to illuminate the process by which EMU was constructed." - Charles Goodhart FBA, Emeritus Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics, and former chief economist at the Bank of England