Volatile exchange rates and how to manage them are a contentious topic whenever economic policymakers gather in international meetings. This book examines the broad parameters of exchange rate policy in light of both high-powered theory and real-world experience. What are the costs and benefits of flexible versus fixed exchange rates? How much of a role should the exchange rate play in monetary policy? Why don't volatile exchange rates destabilize inflation and output? The principal finding of this book is that using monetary policy to fight exchange rate volatility, including through the adoption of a fixed exchange rate regime, leads to greater volatility of employment, output, and inflation. In other words, the "cure" for exchange rate volatility is worse than the disease. This finding is demonstrated in economic models, in historical case studies, and in statistical analysis of the data. The book devotes considerable attention to understanding the reasons why volatile exchange rates do not destabilize inflation and output. The book concludes that many countries would benefit from allowing greater flexibility of their exchange rates in order to target monetary policy at stabilization of their domestic economies. Few, if any, countries would benefit from a move in the opposite direction.

These essays review recent advances in exchange rate analysis and new empirical analysis of the behavior of exchange rates and their effects on international trade and the U.S. economy. The first section deals with the determination of exchange rates and their alleged volatility and disequilibrium levels. The second section concerns the effects of flexible exchange rates on international trade, and the third treats the macroeconomic linkages between economies and international influences on the U.S. economy. ISBN 0-88410-948-8 : $39.95.

The purpose of this paper is to establish a framework for the analysis of trade responses to exchange rate changes as well as to provide some detailed quantitative answers as regards the structure of Swiss imports. This paper's contribution is to have established - once more - that prices do matter in international trade, and that trade reactions are quite swift - but also, that true expenditure switching remains very limited.

Analyzes developments in the international monetary system since 1973, with anew added epilogue.