The European Payments Union and the origins of Triffin’s regional approach towards international monetary integration

Ivo Maes (ivo.maes@nbb.be) and Ilaria Pasotti (pasotti.ilaria@gmail.com)
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Ivo Maes: Economics and Research Department, NBB, Robert Triffin Chair, Université catholique de Louvain, and ICHEC Brussels Management School
Ilaria Pasotti: Catholic University of Milan

No 301, Working Paper Research from National Bank of Belgium

Abstract: Robert Triffin (1911-1993) played an important role in the international monetary debates in the postwar period. He was known as one of the main advocates of a multipolar international monetary system. In this paper we analyse the origins of riffin’s “regional” approach towards international monetary integration. We argue that Triffin’s experience with the European Payments Union (EPU)played hereby a crucial role. Triffin was not only an “architect” of the EPU, but the EPU also led to an important shift in Triffin’s view of the geography of the international monetary system. Before his work on the EPU, Triffin thought of the international economy as composed of two geographical entities: national economies and the world economy. With his work on the EPU he introduced a third geographical entity: the region. The EPU would so be at the basis of Triffin’s advocacy of a regional approach towards international monetary integration. Moreover, while Triffin was initially quite positive on the IMF, he became, through his EPU experience, more critical of the IMF and its worldwide approach.

Keywords: Triffin; European Payments Union (EPU); international monetary system (IMS) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A11 B27 B31 F02 F33 F36 N24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 40 pages
Date: 2016-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his, nep-hpe and nep-mon
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbb:reswpp:201609-301

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