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Belling the cat: Eli F. Heckscher on the gold standard as a discipline device

Fregert, Klas LU (2013) In History of Political Economy 45(1). p.39-59
Abstract
Unlike Knut Wicksell, Eli Heckscher did not believe the time had arrived for “managed money” to replace the gold standard after World War I. The war had shown that only a gold standard could bind the central bank to a time-consistent policy with reasonable price stability. Heckscher likened the problem of reinstating the gold standard to “Belling the cat” in Aesop’s fable. When the international gold standard crumbled in the Great Depression, he supported the Swedish price stabilization regime as a temporary system. Heckscher was an early discoverer of the time-consistency problem in monetary policy and hence stressed the importance of the institutional framework of monetary policy.
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author
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Heckscher, time-consistent policy, devaluation, deflation, gold standard
in
History of Political Economy
volume
45
issue
1
pages
39 - 59
publisher
Duke University Press
external identifiers
  • wos:000316369900002
  • scopus:84875286226
ISSN
1527-1919
DOI
10.1215/00182702-1965186
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
9c610127-4172-49e6-bd5d-13f98f5c01ae (old id 1981213)
alternative location
http://swopec.hhs.se/lunewp/abs/lunewp2011_019.htm
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 10:08:12
date last changed
2022-01-25 20:03:02
@article{9c610127-4172-49e6-bd5d-13f98f5c01ae,
  abstract     = {{Unlike Knut Wicksell, Eli Heckscher did not believe the time had arrived for “managed money” to replace the gold standard after World War I. The war had shown that only a gold standard could bind the central bank to a time-consistent policy with reasonable price stability. Heckscher likened the problem of reinstating the gold standard to “Belling the cat” in Aesop’s fable. When the international gold standard crumbled in the Great Depression, he supported the Swedish price stabilization regime as a temporary system. Heckscher was an early discoverer of the time-consistency problem in monetary policy and hence stressed the importance of the institutional framework of monetary policy.}},
  author       = {{Fregert, Klas}},
  issn         = {{1527-1919}},
  keywords     = {{Heckscher; time-consistent policy; devaluation; deflation; gold standard}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  pages        = {{39--59}},
  publisher    = {{Duke University Press}},
  series       = {{History of Political Economy}},
  title        = {{Belling the cat: Eli F. Heckscher on the gold standard as a discipline device}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/1592396/2061797}},
  doi          = {{10.1215/00182702-1965186}},
  volume       = {{45}},
  year         = {{2013}},
}