When did the dollar overtake sterling as the leading international currency? Evidence from the bond markets

Arnaud Mehl, Barry Eichengreen and Livia Chitu

No 1433, Working Paper Series from European Central Bank

Abstract: This paper offers new evidence on the emergence of the dollar as the leading international currency, focusing on its role as currency of denomination in global bond markets. We show that the dollar overtook sterling much earlier than commonly supposed, as early as in 1929. Financial market development appears to have been the main factor helping the dollar to surmount sterling JEL Classification: F30, N20

Keywords: foreign public debt; international currencies; international monetary system; network externalities; path dependency; role of the US dollar (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his, nep-ifn and nep-mon
Note: 501438
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Related works:
Journal Article: When did the dollar overtake sterling as the leading international currency? Evidence from the bond markets (2014)
Working Paper: When did the dollar overtake sterling as the leading international currency? Evidence from the bond markets (2012)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20121433

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