TY  - JOUR
AU  - Eichengreen,Barry
TI  - Designing a Central Bank for Europe: A Cautionary Tale From the Early Years of the Federal Reserve System
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 3840
PY  - 1991
Y2  - September 1991
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w3840
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w3840.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Barry Eichengreen
Department of Economics
University of California, Berkeley
549 Evans Hall 3880
Berkeley, CA 94720-3880
Tel: 510/642-2772
Fax: 510/643-0926
E-Mail: eichengr@econ.Berkeley.edu
AB  - Important questions concerning the structure and operation of a European central bank remain to be answered. Although there exists no precedent for the process of institution-building in which the European Community is currently engaged, the founding and early operation of the Federal Reserve System in the United States provides a suggestive parallel. It suggests that Stage 2 of the Delors Plan contains potential sources of instability. It suggests attempting a direct transition from Stage 1 (national monetary autonomy) to Stage 3 (centralization of authority). It suggests the need for more thought about voting and mediation procedures to be used to reconcile and aggregate national interests.
ER  -