Recording - 30 years since the ERM crisis - Day 1  

Recording - 30 years since the ERM crisis - Day 2  

September 16th 2022 was the 30th anniversary of the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) crisis. To mark this occasion, CEPR, the Pierre Werner Chair Programme at the European University Institute and the Center for Analytical Finance at the UC Santa Cruz is organizing two webinars to reflect on the potential lessons from the early crisis, for policy reforms in the euro area and in the EU today.

This is an opportunity to revisit the conditions and circumstances that generated currency crisis and instability in the early 1990s relative to today’s circumstances; to compare the nature of the currency crises to more recent crises and turmoil in the European monetary area, highlighting differences and similarities; and to assess the efficacy of the policy responses and the fragility/efficacy of cross-border cooperation in the face of large shocks. 

The webinar offers a narrative of the ERM crisis as a watershed in the process of monetary and economic integration in Europe. While the ERM crisis did not derail the plan for monetary unification altogether, it did undermine the architecture of the Maastricht plan for a smooth transition to the common currency, as the end-point of a process of progressive solidification of fixed exchange rate parities. In this respect, the crisis indeed highlighted the “destabilizing role of fixed rules with escape clauses”. Most crucially, it led to risk polarization across national boundaries and regions.

There will be five sessions (two on October 19 and three on October 20), as follows:

Opening Remarks

Beatrice Weder di Mauro (Graduate Institute Geneva and CEPR)

Wednesday 19 October 2022 

Session 1: From Bretton Woods to the ERM 

Speakers: 

  • Barry Eichengreen (University of California, Berkeley and CEPR) 
  • Giancarlo Corsetti (European University Institute and CEPR)  
  • Patrick Honohan (Trinity College Dublin, Peterson Institute for International Economics and CEPR) 
  • Richard Portes (London Business School and CEPR)  

Moderator: Beatrice Weder di Mauro (Graduate Institute  Geneva and CEPR)  
 

Session 2: 1992 - Ground Zero 

Speakers: 

  • Charles Bean (London School of Economics and CEPR)  
  • Catherine L. Mann (Bank of England and CEPR)  
  • Maurice Obstfeld (University of California, Berkeley and CEPR) 
  • Ignazio Visco (Banca d’Italia) 

Moderator: Giancarlo Corsetti (European University Institute and CEPR) 

Thursday October 2022 


Session 3: A Decade of Optimism  

Speakers: 

  • Willem H. Buiter (Council on Foreign Relations and CEPR)  
  • Lucrezia Reichlin (London Business School and CEPR)  
  • Charles Wyplosz (Graduate Institute Geneva and CEPR)  
  • Andrew Rose (NUS Business School, Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, and CEPR) 

Moderator: Galina Hale (UC Santa Cruz and CEPR)  
 

Session 4: A Decade of Crisis in the Euro Area  

Speakers: 

  • Paul de Grauwe (London School of Economics and CEPR)  
  • Olivier Jeanne (Johns Hopkins University and CEPR)  
  • Paolo Pesenti (Federal Reserve Bank of New York and CEPR)  
  • Lorenzo Bini Smaghi (Société Générale and CEPR) 

Moderator: Giancarlo Corsetti (European University Institute and CEPR) 


Session 5: The next decade  

Speakers: 

  • Martin Sandbu (Financial Times) 
  • Jeromin Zettelmeyer (Bruegel and CEPR)  
  • Francesco Giavazzi (Bocconi University and CEPR) 

Moderator: Beatrice Weder di Mauro (Graduate Institute  Geneva and CEPR)