Elusive Stability Essays in the History of International Finance, 1919–1939

This volume provides a new interpretation of the operation and macroeconomic repercussions of the international monetary system during the interwar years. Each of the eleven essays is explicitly concerned with the role of exchange rates in macroeconomic fluctuations from the American and European perspective. The final essay examines the interwar experience from a long-term perspective.

List of tables; List of figures; List of charts; Acknowledgements; 1. Introduction; 2. Real exchange rate behavior under alternative international monetary regimes; 3. Understanding 1921–27: inflation and economic recovery in the 1920s; 4. Bank rate policy under the interwar gold standard with Mark W. Watson and Richard S. Grossman; 5. The Bank of France and the sterilization of gold, 1926–1932; 6. International policy coordination in historical perspective: a view from the interwar years; 7. The economic consequences of the Franc Poincaré with Charles Wyplosz; 8. Sterling and the tariff, 1929–32; 9. Exchange rates and economic recovery in the 1930s with Jeffrey Sachs; 10. The gold-exchange standard and the Great Depression; 11. Hegemonic stability theories of the international monetary system; Notes; References; Index.

This volume provides a new interpretation of the operation and macroeconomic repercussions of the international monetary system during the interwar years. Each of the eleven essays is explicitly concerned with the role of exchange rates in macroeconomic fluctuations from the American and European perspective. The final essay examines the interwar experience from a long-term perspective.