Brookings Papers on Economic Activity (BPEA) provides academic and business economists, government officials, and members of the financial and business communities with timely research on current economic issues.

Fifty years ago, in March 1973, the major industrial economies abandoned fixed exchange rates, conclusively ending the post–World War II Bretton Woods arrangements. Proponents believed their action would strengthen countries' ability to reconcile domestic macroeconomic policies with the balance of payments. But opponents feared it would initiate a new era of instability and financial shocks. Since 1973, much of the world has moved away from fixed exchange rates to a variety of regimes based on considerable exchange rate flexibility. But international trade conflicts and unstable capital flows, along with a rise in financial crises around the world, have nonetheless accompanied the global shift away from exchange rate pegs. How has the international monetary system performed over the past half century? What have we learned from the experience of more flexible exchange rates? What has been the impact on macroeconomic and financial stability in the years since? This book derives from papers delivered at a conference that brought together leading economists and policymakers to debate and discuss these questions, as well as to assess the evolution of the international monetary system, the dominance of the US dollar, and the role of exchange rate regimes in shaping the world economy.

This book assesses the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for the European Union (EU), as well as its response in dealing with an overarching, multidimensional crisis with consequences extending beyond public health safety to political, economic, legal, and institutional arenas. It argues the pandemic represents a symmetric crisis cutting across countries with different social, economic and political characteristics and which yet - despite favouring cooperative solutions at the supranational level - has largely been met with initial responses of a national, even local, nature. So, how well did the EU perform as a crisis manager in the pandemic crisis? This book will be of key interest to scholars, students and readers of crisis, pandemic and health management, European Union politics and governance.

Handbook of International Economics, Sixth Edition provides a definitive reference for researchers and advanced graduate students. The book includes self-contained surveys of the current state of a branch of economics in the form of chapters prepared by leading specialists. These surveys summarize not only received results but also newer developments from journal articles and discussion papers. Chapters cover The Global Financial Cycle, Dominant Currency Paradigm: a review, Rethinking exchange rate regimes, CIP deviations, the dollar, and frictions in international capital markets, International macroeconomics with imperfect financial markets, The prudential use of capital controls and foreign currency reserves, and Financial crises: a survey. - Provides the authority and expertise of leading contributors from an international board of authors - Presents the latest release in the Handbook of International Economics series - Includes self-contained surveys of the current state of a branch of economics in the form of chapters prepared by leading specialists

The world's largest market is that for foreign exchange with a turnover running into trillions per day. The mystery is why this market is dominated by trading in London when the US dollar is the main currency in use. What role is played by this market? To many it is a speculator's paradise, exposed to manipulation and contributing to currency volatility. For others it plays a central role in in the operation of the global banking system and a mechanism for maintaining currency stability. In Forex Forever, Ranald C. Michie seeks to provide answers to these and other questions by examining how the foreign exchange market has developed in the City of London over the past 150 years and uncovers its secret existence in London before the First World War. Michie explores how the City of London became the centre of the global foreign exchange market before 1914 through the international banking network, trading on the floor of the Stock Exchange, and the communications revolution that began with the telegraph. He investigates how that position was sufficient to make London the centre of a new foreign exchange market that emerged between the wars, survived the era of fixed exchange rates after the Second World War, and then flourished from 1970 onwards. This in-depth study helps to explain how and why the global monetary system has functioned since the middle of the nineteenth century.

We contribute to the intense debate on the real effects of fiscal stimuli by showing that the impact of government expenditure shocks depends crucially on key country characteristics, such as the level of development, exchange rate regime, openness to trade, and public indebtedness. Based on a novel quarterly dataset of government expenditure in 44 countries, we find that (i) the output effect of an increase in government consumption is larger in industrial than in developing countries, (ii) the fisscal multiplier is relatively large in economies operating under predetermined exchange rate but zero in economies operating under flexible exchange rates; (iii) fiscal multipliers in open economies are lower than in closed economies and (iv) fiscal multipliers in high-debt countries are also zero.

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.