A Single Currency - and the necessary prior condition of exchange rate cooperation and the stabilization of exchange rates - has been an elusive goal of many European leaders for more than twenty years. While much of the literature on exchange rate cooperation within the European Union focuses on the integration of national economies as the driving force, Thomas Oatley draws on public choice models to develop an explanation of exchange rate cooperation based in domestic politics.

The author then tests hypotheses derived from this model in a detailed consideration of the various efforts to stabilize currencies since the 1970s.