The `Gold Standard Paradox' and Its Resolution

Willem Buiter and Vittorio Grilli

No 361, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: This paper analyses Krugman's contention that there is a `gold standard paradox' in the speculative attack literature. The paradox occurs if a country's currency appreciates after it runs out of gold or equivalently if a speculative attack can happen only after the country `naturally' runs out of reserves. We first show that Krugman's paradox is a very general phenomenon, which does not require mean-reverting processes for the fundamentals, and which can be present in discrete-time as well as in continuous-time models. We present several specific cases in which the paradox occurs, i.e., environments which do not support an equilibrium. Next we show that, contrary to Krugman's conjecture, it is not necessary to abandon the assumption of a perfectly fixed exchange rate in favour of a band system in order to recover a well-defined equilibrium. We propose two alternative ways of amending the model which produce an equilibrium and preserve the fixed exchange rate assumption.

Keywords: Fixed Exchange Rates; Gold Standard Paradox; Reserves; Speculative Attack (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1989-12
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=361 (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
Working Paper: The "Gold Standard Paradox" and its Resolution (1989)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:361

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.cepr.org/ ... pers/dp.php?dpno=361

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Centre for Economic Policy Research, 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().