The European Payments Union and the Origins of Triffin’s Regional Approach toward International Monetary Integration
分析了罗伯特·特里芬国际货币一体化“区域”方法的起源，认为他在欧洲支付联盟的工作促使他将区域作为国家经济和世界经济之外的第三地理实体引入国际货币体系思考。
Robert Triffin (1911–1993) played an important role in the international monetary debates in the postwar period. He was known as one of the main advocates of a multipolar international monetary system. In this paper we analyze the origins of Triffin’s “regional” approach toward international monetary integration. We argue that Triffin’s experience with the European Payments Union (EPU) played hereby a crucial role. Triffin was not only an “architect” of the EPU, but the EPU also led to an important shift in Triffin’s view of the geography of the international monetary system. Before his work on the EPU, Triffin conceived of the international economy as composed of two geographical entities: national economies and the world economy. With his work on the EPU he introduced a third geographical entity: the region.