Financial Integration in Western Europe [antikvár]

FOREWORD the School of International Affairs of Columbia University over the past few years has sponsored several studies on the subject of economic integration. The interest of the School focuses essentially on the political significance of regional arrangements, but whUe there have been very numerous investigations into various aspects of European economic integration, relatively little has been written on financial integration, although there were notable studies of European capital markets published by Claudio Segre and the Atlantic Institute. The School, therefore, requested Professor Etienne S. Kirschen, Director of DULBEA, the Institute of Applied Economics of the Université Libre de Bruxelles, to collaborate with it in an analysis of the specific problems of financial integration. Professor Kirschen's study deals with harmonization of national policies, liberalization of capital flows, and the problems of institution building in the fields of money, banking, and securities exchanges. We were particularly interested in finding out to what extent systems of government were responsible for difficulties encountered in attaining financial integration, and political and administrative objectives conflicted with economic objectives. Professor Kirschen is the author of several books on economics and has pioneered in model building for the Belgian and European economy. His Institute has achieved a leading role in its field and he has been called upon to serve on United Nations expert com-