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,...

Golden era is seldom illustrated for an epitomized growth of anything for a tenure and India having been topped the list in the consumption of gold, cannot be proved to be safer for the economic turmoil is ahead with current account deficit. Gold is a symbol for the fortune and treated as a...

This paper studies gold return expectations of households and professional forecasters. The asset pricing literature emphasizes that gold is no macroeconomic hedge. However, employing survey data, I document that households believe gold to be a good investment when they expect bad times....