Welfare and world money: the domestic foundations of currency internationalisation

This essay explores the domestic foundations of currency internationalisation. I consider how a state that internationalises its currency might sustain the domestic economic and social costs of doing so. In particular I highlight the role of welfare provision as a neglected element of the domestic political economy of currency internationalisation. I examine the trajectory of welfare provision in Britain (1870–1930), the United States (1950–2020) and China (2000–2018), and use this data to consider some of the ways in which these costs might be related to the question of issuing world money. In this essay I suggest, first, that our conceptual framework for understanding currency internationalisation is strengthened when we consider welfare provision as an important element of the domestic foundation of issuing world money; and, second, that it is unclear whether the current level of welfare provision in China is adequate to meeting the costs to China of fully internationalising its currency as world money. This framework generates further insights about how China’s challenge to American monetary leadership remains incomplete, and provides another angle of vision by which we might assess the multifaceted foundations of US dollar domination in the global political economy.