Why did monetary authorities hold large gold reserves under Bretton Woods (1944-1971) when only the US had to? We argue … that gold holdings were driven by institutional memory and persistent habits of central bankers. Countries continued to … back currency in circulation with gold reserves, following rules of the pre-WWII gold standard. The longer an institution …

In 1871-73, newly unified Germany adopted the gold standard, replacing the silver-based currencies that had been … gold and silver currencies. As a result, silver currencies depreciated sharply, and severe deflation ensued in the gold … block. Why did Germany switch to gold and set the train of destructive events in motion? Both a review of the …

parallels in the early financial globalization era preceding World War I. All main capital-importing countries then faced … displayed striking crosscountry synchronization, being immediately preceded by rising world interest rates. Both fixed and …

This paper examines some popular explanations for the smooth operation of the pre-1914 gold standard. We find that the … the gold standard system, but no evidence that this success also reflected relatively small underlying disturbances …

unit of account. The gold standard was such a system, but suffered from gold’s fluctuating relative value and the costly … need to redeem money for gold. This paper explores monetary standards with relatively constant real values in which the …

reflected systematically in the price of gold and, hence, that gold price movements, under the maintained hypothesis, should … of gold prices on exchange rates conditional on other monetary and real macroeconomic variables, and applies the …

Mali’s gold sector is an enclave with weak forward and backward linkages with the rest of the economy. Given the …

prices. Results show that gold is unique among commodities, with prices reacting to specific scheduled announcements in the … United States and the Euro area (such as indicators of activity or interest rate decisions) in a manner consistent with gold …

Why do countries hold so much international reserves? Global reserve holdings (excluding gold) were equivalent to 17 …