STEPHEN FROWEN is Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Economics at University College London and Senior Research Associate at the Von Hügel Institute, St Edmund's College, Cambridge, and the Institute for German Studies, University of Birmingham. He was previously Bundesbank Professor of Monetary Economics in the Free University of Berlin, and Professor of Economics in the University of Frankfurt. For many years he was the holder of senior teaching posts at the University of Surrey and the University of Greenwich, and held visiting professorships in several European countries. Among other appointments, he has been a Consultant at UNIDO, Vienna; a Research Officer, National Institute of Economic and Social Research; Economic Adviser, Industrial and Commercial Finance Corporation (now 3i); and Editor of The Bankers' Magazine (now The Chartered Banker).

JENS HÖLSCHER is DAAD Senior Fellow in Economics at the Institute for German Studies, University of Birmingham. He was previously Lecturer at the University of Wales, Swansea and Assistant Lecturer in Berlin. He has published several economics books in German, amongst them Entwicklungsmodell Westdeutschland and Conditions of Economic Development in Central and Eastern Europe, Vols 1-5.

Foreword; S.Frowen & J.Hslscher - Introduction; S.Frowen & J.Hslsche r - The Dimensions of German Economic Unification: Keynote Address; S.Frowen - PART 1: INTERNATIONAL CONSEQUENCES - The Deutsche Mark Exchange Rate Impact; R.Konig - Comment; C.A.E.Goodhart - German Currency Union and the Crises in the European Monetary System; D.Cobham - Comment; H.Riese - German Monetary Union and Its Implications for the Rest of Europe; R.Barrell - Comment; A.Jacobsen -The Investment Diversion Effects of German Unification: Supplementary Comment; G.Pugh - PART 2: MONETARY POLICY AND GOODS MARKETS - Options to Resolve the 'Bad-Asset-Problem'; H.Tomann - Comment; David Homer - Incentives for Growth and Development; E.O.Smith - Comment; L.Copeland - Institutional Change and Economic Behaviour: Some Empirical Results, Supplementary Comment; U.Mummert - The Privatisation of the East-German Economy. The Roles of the 'Treuhandanstalt'; C.Kohler - Comment; J.Hslscher - PART 3: THE ROLE OF MONETARY POLICY RECONSIDERED - United German Currency Sphere: Challenges for Both Parts of Germany; N.Kloten - Comment; S.Dow - The Impact on German Monetary Policy; P.Bofinger - Comment; G.McKenzie - Currency Reform and Currency Union: A Comparison between 1948 and 1990; S.Tober - Comment; V.Chick - Comment; J.Jerger - Index

The book assesses the most exciting experiment in modern economic history - the German currency union of 1990 - on three levels. Firstly the international consequences are analysed utilising different paradigms of monetary theory. These controversial results lead to a closer look at the relationship between monetary policy and production in Germany, and thirdly, the book concludes with a reconsideration of the old economic question, whether money matters, applied to the German case.