Rigid relations: External adjustment under the Gold Standard (1880-1913)

Felix Ward and Yao Chen

VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change from Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association

Abstract: External adjustments during the classical gold standard – a fixed exchange rate regime – were associated with few, if any, output costs. This paper analyzes the relative importance of flexible prices, migration and mildly countercyclical monetary policy for this relatively smooth adjustment experience. For this purpose we build and estimate a structural model of the classical gold standard. We find that the sustainability of the gold standard as a fixed exchange rate regime was primarily a consequence of flexible prices. Pre-1914 price flexibility is furthermore largely explicable by large pre-1914 primary sector shares. The paper proceeds in a historical comparative fashion by relating the gold standard experience to that of another fixed-exchange rate regime – today’s eurozone.

JEL-codes: E50 F20 N10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his, nep-mac and nep-mon
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:vfsc16:145930

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