The emergence of the gold standard has for a long time been viewed as inevitable. Fluctuations of the gold-silver exchange rate in world markets were accused to lead to brutal and unsustainable switches of bimetallic countries’ money supplies. However, more recent work has shown that the...

This paper explores the determinants of sovereign bond yields during the classical gold standard period (1872-1913). Using the Pooled Mean Group methodology, we find that the main benefit of the gold standard was as a short-sighted device that enhanced a country's reputation in international...

We test whether fixed exchange rate regimes are ever credible in emerging markets by analyzing the behavior of short-term domestic trade bills across countries during the classical gold standard period, the most widely used hard peg in modern financial history. We exploit the fact that global...

We develop a simple model that highlights the costs and benefits of fixed exchange rates as they relate to trade, and show that negative export-price shocks reduce fiscal revenue and increase the likelihood of an expected currency devaluation. Using a new high-frequency data set on...

The Basel Accords, while extremely influential, are oftentimes too detailed and technical to be easily accessible to the nontechnical policymaker or interested scholar. This paper looks to fill that gap by detailing the origin, regulation, implementation, criticism, and results of both Basel I...

The article analyses recent tendencies in the monetary system with an emphasis on events taking place in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states. The importance of these countries goes far beyond oil deliveries as their surpluses stemming from oil export have become a key pillar in...

We provide a liquidity-based theory for the dominant use of the US dollar as the unit of denomination in global debt contracts. Firms need to trade their revenue streams for the assets required to extinguish their debt obligations. When asset markets are illiquid, as modeled via endogenous...

In the post-war period prior to 1990 policy proposals aimed at reducing the instabilities associated with increased capital flows focused on increasing market efficiencies so that nominal variables would reflect real conditions in the economy. However, those in charge of financial resource flows...

This paper attempts to define financial globalization as a process whereby financial markets internationally are integrated so closely that they can be considered as a single market. The process, viewed as a by-product of financial liberalization, is only a necessary condition for financial...

While the global coronavirus pandemic has put great strain on public finances across the world, it is those countries with weaker national currencies that will feel this pressure more strongly. There is a very real risk of national defaults and of a mutually reinforcing downward spiral of...