[KS] First message

[John Ohnesorge]

To Thomas Zeh:

You might want to look at IMF Working Paper WP/97/65, "Experiences with
Monetary Integration and Lessons for Korean Unification," by Kwon, Goohoon.
 It seems to have been prepared at the request of the KDI, and you can get
it free from the IMF website, at:

http://www.imf.org/EXTERNAL/PUBS/CAT/longres.cfm?sk&sk=2228.0

The paper discusses monetary integration in the event of reunification, and
the most important case for comparison is Germany.  I read the paper
several months ago, but if I remember right, the main lesson it draws from
the German case is how expensive it was, and continues to be, to make the
currencies immediately convertible 1:1, in large part because of what that
did to the wage structure and competitiveness of companies in the former
East.  The paper argues for maintenance of separate currencies
post-unification, if possible.  If you read it and have any comments,
especially on its analysis of the German experience, please post them.

John Ohnesorge


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