The ongoing process of Economic Integration in Europe -- with monetary integration and the creation of a single European currency critical elements of the process -- has renewed interest in the concept of an optimum currency area. In recent years, many economists have written in search of an appropriate analytical framework to permit the evaluation of the requirements for, and consequences of, monetary integration. An, as is often the case, they begin with the concept of an optimum currency area pioneered by Robert A, Mundell in 1961.