International Money and Finance

Paul Hallwood and Ronald MacDonald

No 2008-02, Working papers from University of Connecticut, Department of Economics

Abstract: We discuss the effectiveness of pegged exchange rate regimes from an historical perspective, drawing conclusions for their effectiveness today. Starting with the classical gold standard period, we point out that a succession of pegged regimes have ended in failure; except for the first, which was ended by the outbreak of World War I, all of the others we discuss have been ended by adverse economic developments for which the regimes themselves were partly responsible. Prior to World War II the main problem was a shortage of monetary gold that we argue is implicated as a cause of the Great Depression. After World War II, more particularly from the late-1960s, the main problem has been a surfeit of the main international reserve asset, the US dollar. This has led to generalized inflation in the 1970s and into the 1980s. Today, excessive dollar international base money creation is again a problem that could have serious consequences for world economic stability.

Keywords: Bretton Woods; exchange rate expectations gold standard; new Bretton Woods; realignment expectations; pegged exchange rates; target zone; world economic instability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F31 F33 N20 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 49 pages
Date: 2008-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cba, nep-his, nep-hpe, nep-ifn, nep-mac and nep-mon
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (41)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:uct:uconnp:2008-02

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