Monetary integration and dollarization : no panacea pt. 1. European monetary union pt. 2. Dollarization in North America pt. 3. Emerging markets and the financial architecture pt. 4. Final reflections This book deals with the economic consequences of monetary integration which has long been dominated by the Optimal Currency Area (OCA) paradigm. In this model money is perceived as having developed from a private sector cost minimization process to facilitate transactions. Not surprisingly the book argues the main advantage of monetary integration in the OCA context is the reduction of transaction costs yet the validity of OCA to analyze processes of monetary integration seems to be limited at best