In recent years, the theory of rules and discretion in monetary policy has fascinated scores of academic economists and policymakers alike. This paper asks whether it can be applied to understand the history of the world monetary system, by focusing on the setup and the experience of the Bretton...

The paper discusses the policy problems of a project aimed at substituting several national currencies with one single currency. While these problems are of general interest, the analysis is motivated by the plan for Economic and Monetary Union among the members of the European Community. The...

This paper defines two competing hypotheses on the working of fixed exchange rates. The "symmetry" hypothesis states that every country is concerned with the good functioning of the system, and cannot afford to deviate from world averages. Every country is just left to follow the rules of the...

This paper studies the evidence on the conditional covariances between the German wholesale price level and the Deutsche mark exchange rate in the short run and in the long run. I rely both on an unrestricted time-series model, and on a structural Mussa-Dornbusch model. The results from...

This paper studies the welfare effects of international investment to evade domestic taxes on domestic investment income. Capital mobility for tax evasion eliminates distortions in the intertemporal allocation of consumption, but introduces distortions in domestic production. Conversely, a...

This paper studies a model where money is valued for the liquidity services it provides in the future. These liquidity services cannot be provided by any other asset. Changes in expectations of the value of future liquidity services affect the desired proportions of money and other assets in...

I describe the challenge of fully integrating securities markets in Europe by integrating the clearing and settlement functionalities. The initial condition is characterized by a multitude of standards, conventions, regulation and laws, which are inconsistent with a barrier-free post-trading...

Using 1970-1985 sectoral data for the OECD we find that inflation in nontradable goods is higher than in tradables, We identify a demand shift towards nontradables and faster growth of total factor productivity in the tradable goods sector as the prime causes of higher nontradables inflation. In...

The stability of the EMS depends crucially on realignment expectations of the market participants. In this paper we discuss how to measure such expectations and how to relate them to economic fundamentals, central bank reputation, and institutional arrangements of the EMS. We find the following...

This paper reviews the extensive theoretical and empirical literature on currency substitution. After discussing the ambiguity surrounding the definition of currency substitution, the paper illustrates the causes of substitutability of different currencies using a cash-in-advance model and a...