Current Issues In International Monetary Economics

This book provides discussion of recent developments in international monetary economics. The chapters are specially written by well known international authors who are specialists in this field and cover current theoretical and policy issues. The topics examined include exchange rate determination and dynamics, stabilisation policy, policy coordination, debt problems and global reform issues. The book is written in an accessible style and will provide students on many relevant courses with up to date information on essential current economic issues.

This book brings together leading academics and researchers to make a timely contribution to our understanding of the key issues in the fast-developing field of monetary economics. It offers a thoroughly comprehensive and up-to-date treatment of major areas such as money supply and demand, interest rate determination, international transmission of inflation, public debt, stabilization of the economy, the rational expectations hypothesis and the relationship between money and economic development. The book will be essential reading for all undergraduate and graduate students of monetary economics and macroeconomic theory. Contents: Preface; Contributors; Introduction: Taradas Bandyopadhyay and Subrata Ghatak; Money demand and supply, M.J. Artis and M.K. Lewis; Money market operations of the Bank of England and the determination of interest rates, David T. Llewellyn; Real interest rates and the role of expectations, Kajal Lahiri and Mark Zaporowski; Public sector deficits and the money supply, P.M. Jackson; The international transmission of inflation, George Zis; A critique of monetary theories of the balance of payments; nihil ex nihilo, M.H.L. Burstein; A framework for the analysis of two-tier exchange markets with incomplete segmentation, Jagdeep S. Bhandari and Bernard Decaluwe; Rational expectations and monetary policy, Patrick Minford; Monetary policy and credibility, Paul Levine; Disinflation and wage-price controls, David A. Wilton; Monetary growth models: The role of money demand functions, Taradas Bandyopadhyay and Subrata Ghatak; Index.

Currency Crises, Monetary Union and the Conduct of Monetary Policy is a book of debate and analysis by some of the world's most eminent economists on 'unsolved' problems relating to the international monetary system, economic growth and monetary policy. This volume will be of interest to specialists in international monetary economics, and to undergraduate and graduate students, and members of the general public who seek a clearer understanding of current economic issues and solutions to economic problems.

This book presents the evolution of the international monetary system from the gold standard to the monetary system in force today. It adopts a political economy approach, emphasizing the economic and political conditions under which an international monetary system can come into existence and be maintained over time. This approach highlights how the gradual transition in the international context from commodity money to fiat money has been led by the need for greater elasticity of money supply and smooth adjustments. This transition, however, raises the issue of how to guarantee, over time, the value of a money devoid of intrinsic value. By presenting a historical evolution, the book explains how the existence of an international monetary system based on money without intrinsic value can only occur when a particular balance of power exists at the international level that allows for the production of trust in a fiat money. The book is a must-read for scholars, researchers, and students in the fields of economic history and international monetary economics, interested in better understanding the evolution of the international monetary system.

Containing Fritz Machlup's papers on international finance spanning thirty years, this volume includes pieces translated into English for the first time. Focussing on the theme of the balance of payments, the work is structured as follows: Foreign Exchanges and Balance of Payments, The Effects of Devaluation, Gold and Foreign Reserves, Capital Movements and the Transfer Problem. An introduction to each section by the author is included.

Movements in global capital during the late 1990s and the greater emphasis on price stability led many countries to abandon fixed exchange rate regimes and to design institutions and monetary policies to achieve credibility in the goal of lowering inflation. Such recent developments have brought to the forefront the idea that freely mobile capital, independent monetary policy, and fixed exchange rates form an "impossible trinity." It is possible to have two of these policies, but not all three. Inflation-targeting regimes being adopted by many countries provide a way of resolving this dilemma.

This second volume covers all the conventional topics of international monetary theory and open-economy macroeconomics, and a lot more besides. Gandolfo treats such further concepts as the theory of monetary integration and the European monetary union, foreign exchange crises and the Tobin tax, theory of games and international policy coordination. It follows the "two-tier" structure of the first volume, and, thanks to its self-contained treatment, may equally be used as a reference book.