This paper examines the operation of the gold standard and the performance of the Bank of England during the crisis of 1847. The key feature of that crisis has been its origin: it originated from a massive real shock rather than from monetary disorder. A harvest failure gave rise to commercial...

This paper addresses the question of reform of the international monetary system. It starts by identifying the sources of disenchantment with the performance of the present regime of floating exchange rates and by outlining the reasons for the lack of convergence of views about the...

This paper deals with the relations among international liquidity,the exchange-rate regime and the effectiveness of monetary policy. The first part of the paper contains an empirical study of the demand for international reserves. It is shown that (i) reserve holdings are a stable function of a...

This paper argues that macroeconomic policies for open economies differ, in fundamentally important ways, from the corresponding policies for closed economies.The openness of the economy imposes constraints on the effectiveness and proper conduct of macroeconomic policies and it also provides...

This paper reviews and analyzes the empirical record of exchange rates and prices during the 1970's and the analysis is based on the experience of the Dollar/Pound, the Dollar/French Franc and the Dollar/DM exchange rates. Section 2 presents the evidence on PPP during the 1970's and contrasts it...

This paper summarizes the results of an empirical study of the operation of flexible exchange rates during the 1920's under both the hyperinflationary conditions (based on the experience of Germany) and under the normal conditions (based on the experience of Britain, the United States and...

The 1970's witnessed the dramatic evolution of the international monetary system from a regime of pegged exchange rates into a regime of flexible rates. This paper surveys the key issues and lessons from the experience with floating rates during the1970's. The main orientation is empirical and...

Probably no event in monetary history has been more studied than the German hyperinflation of the early 1920's. Economists have been attracted to study this episode since it provides an environment that is close to a controlled experiment which is so rare in the study of social sciences. This...

This paper contains an analysis of the role of international reserves under a regime of pegged exchange rates and under a regime of managed floating. It presents evidence on the stability of the demand for reserves during the periods 1963-72 and 1973-75. It is shown that the demand for reserves...

It is widely believed that U.S. trade deficits have displaced workers from highly paid manufacturing jobs into less well-paid service employment, contributing to declining incomes for the nation as a whole. Although proponents of this view do not usually think of it this way, this analysis falls...