Part 1: Purchasing Power Parity: Origin and Use -- Chapter 1: Salamancans and Gerard Malynes -- Chapter 2: Gustav Cassel -- Chapter 3: Purchasing Power Parity in Economic History -- Chapter 4: Afterword to Part I -- Part 2: Purchasing Power Parity: Empirical Studies -- Chapter 5: Absolute and...

The great depression of 1929 and the great financial crisis of 2008 have been the two big events of the last 75 years. Not only have they produced serious economic consequences but they also changed our view of economics and policymaking. The aim of this work is to compare these two great crises...

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,...

The Great Depression was the most devastating and destructive economic event to afflict the global economy since the beginning of the twentieth century. What, then, were the origins of the Great Depression and what have we learned about the appropriate policy responses to economic depressions...