In 1999, the year the euro was launched, the Nobel prize for economics was awarded to Robert Mundell, a Canadian economist. That was good timing because his work was influential in shaping the euro zone. In a 1961 paper Mr Mundell had pioneered the theory of an "optimal currency area", a territory suited to adopting a common monetary policy. A main requirement, he concluded, was that workers throughout such an area would be sufficiently inclined to move jobs to even outrnregional booms and slumps.
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