Showing 1 - 10 of 107
, now show up in the behaviour of the public debt. Unless the primary (non-interest) government deficit is permitted to … respond to these shocks, the public debt is likely to rise (or fall) to unsustainable levels. The idealized gold standard …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005497804
favourably, and markets scrutinized other signals. Public debt and British Empire membership were important determinants of …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005497898
We use a standard metric from international finance, the currency risk premium, to assess the credibility of fixed exchange rates during the classical gold standard era. Theory suggests that a completely credible and permanent commitment to join the gold standard would have zero currency risk or...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10011165661
Specialists in international relations have argued that international regimes operate smoothly and exhibit stability only when dominated by a single, exceptionally powerful national economy. In particular, this "theory of hegemonic stability" has been applied to the international monetary...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005661437
This paper is an exploration of the theory of endogenous regime changes which takes as an illustration the making of the classical gold standard. The international gold-based fixed exchange rate regime that surfaced during the 1870s has traditionally been interpreted as resulting from a mix of...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005662237
This paper discusses the institutional aspects and the empirical evidence in favor of the hypothesis that fixed exchange rate regimes work asymmetrically, with one country providing the nominal anchor for the whole system. I derive the observable implications of the 'asymmetry' hypothesis using...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005666996
Did adoption of the gold standard exacerbate or diminish macroeconomic volatility? Supporters thought so, critics thought not, and theory offers ambiguous messages. A hard exchange-rate regime such as the gold standard might limit monetary shocks if it ties the hands of policy-makers. But any...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005791510
This paper surveys studies of the classical Gold Standard published subsequent to Alec Ford's The Gold Standard 1880-1914: Britain and Argentina in 1962. Contributions tend either to emphasize stock equilibrium in money markets or stock-flow interactions in bond markets. The paper then addresses...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005791519
This paper examines some popular explanations for the smooth operation of the pre-1914 gold standard. We find that the rapid adjustment of economies to underlying disturbances played an important role in stabilizing output and employment under the gold standard system, but no evidence that this...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005792008
This paper studies the role of unemployment in sterling’s inter-war experience. According to most narrative accounts, the proximate cause of the 1931 sterling crisis was a high and rising unemployment rate that placed pressure on British governments to pursue reflationary policies. We present...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005792142