1st Edition

Currency Convertibility The Gold Standard and Beyond

    288 Pages
    by Routledge

    288 Pages
    by Routledge

    The spread of currency convertibility is one of the most dramatic trends of the late twentieth century. It reflects the desire of policymakers to integrate their economies into the global trading system and to attract financial capital and direct investment from abroad.

    In this book a team of leading international economists and economic historians look at parallel situations in the history of the international monetary system, focusing in particular on the gold standard. The concluding chapter uses a case study of modern Portugal to draw out implications for modern international monetary relations in Europe and for the rest of the world.

    Part I. Overview 1. Introduction: Currency Convertibility in Historical Perspective - The Gold Standard and Beyond Jorge Braga de Macedo, Barry Eichengreen and Jaime Reis 2. The Operation of the Specie Standards - Evidence for Core and Peripheral Countries, 1880-1990 Michael D. Bordo and Anna J. Schwartz Part II. Myths and Realities of the Gold Standard 3. The Origins of the Gold Standard Alan S. Milward 4. Short-Term Capital Movements Under the Old Gold Standard Marcello de Cecco 5. The Geography of the Gold Standard Barry Eichengreen and Marc Flandreau Comment Angela Redish Comment Albert Fishlow Part III. Portugeuse Currency Experience 6. First to Join the Gold Standard, 1854 Jaime Reis 7. Last to Join the Gold Standard, 1931 Fernando Teixeira dos Santos 8. Monetary Stability, Fiscal Discipline and Economic Performance - The Experience of Portugal Since 1854 Eugenia Mata and Nuno Valerio Comment Pablo Martin Acena Comment Gianni Toniolo Part IV. Implications for Europe in the 1990s 9. Converging Towards a European Currency Standard - Convertibility and Stability in the 1990s and Beyond Jorge Braga de Macedo

    Biography

    Jorge Braga de Macedo is Associate Professor of Economics at the New University of Lisbon
    Barry Eichengreen is John L. Simpson Professor of Economics and Professor of Political Science, University of California at Berkeley
    Jaime Reis is in the Department of History at the European University Institute in Florence