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 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...

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....

Should central banks intervene in currency markets? In theory, within a flexible system, central banks should leave the process of determining appropriate exchange rates to the currency markets. In practice, however, central banks have frequently intervened to 'manage' the exchange rates...

Contrary to the expectations of those who advocated flexible exchange rates prior to 1973, Williamson, in his study on exchange rate flexibility and reserve use, presented data which suggested “the paradoxical conclusion that reserve use actually increased following the adoption of...

In a recent editorial (cf. INTERECONOMICS, No. 3/1984, p. 101) Professor Armin Gutowski commented on the surprising increase of the external value of the US dollar which seems to defy traditional explanations of exchange rate determination. The following article presents an American...