Updated: 2012-04-07 07:41

By Kenneth Rogoff ( China Daily)

Currency unions require a confederation with far more centralized power over taxation and other policies than eurozone has at present

With youth unemployment almost 50 percent in eurozone countries such as Spain and Greece, is a generation being sacrificed for the sake of a single currency that encompasses too diverse a group of countries to be sustainable? If so, does enlarging the euro's membership really serve Europe's apparent goal of maximizing economic integration without necessarily achieving full political union?

The good news is that economic research does have a few things to say about whether Europe should have a single currency. The bad news is that it has become increasingly clear that, at least for large countries, currency areas will be highly unstable unless they follow national borders. At a minimum, currency unions require a confederation with far more centralized power over taxation and other policies than European leaders envision for the eurozone.