The switch to floating exchange rates during the 1970s has given economists the first comprehensive opportunity to assess the arguments for and against floating. Much new work has been done on various aspects of floating exchange rate behaviour. This article attempts a limited survey of the...

The Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates was abandoned by the industrialised countries in March 1973. They switched to a system of flexible exchange rates. Representatives of the developing countries were particularly critical of the industrialised countries’ exchange rate flexibility....

The following article deals with the reasons for the fierce resistance of the developing countries to the system of floating exchange rates which the industrialized countries are favouring at present. It examines the consequences of floating exchange rates for the foreign trade, indebtedness and...

Since the introduction of the system of floating exchange rates policy-makers have been troubled by uncertainties regarding the effects of this system on international trade. Do exchange rate changes affect trade flows? Can governments manipulate exchange rates? Have countries been “injured”...

The US-Dollar has inflated the world. Its vehicle is the present international monetary system of pegged exchange rates. This system which was introduced to stimulate International trade and division of labour between the different countries became an important promoter of world wide inflation.

The last 15 years have seen broad operational changes in the international system, accompanied since the beginning of the 1980s by a change in economic philosophy in a number of important industrial countries. Professor Bird examines the effects of various features of the post-Bretton Woods era...

The mounting balance of payments difficulties of most developing countries raise the question whether they are not aggravated by an international monetary system which is tailored to the requirements of industrialized countries and how the existing system could possibly be adapted to the needs...

The adjustment crisis of the oil-importing developing countries has raised the question as to the specific roles of the IMF and the World Bank in the process of structural adjustment and the actual relationship between their different concepts and programmes. What are the areas of cooperation...