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Discipline or external balance? : The choice of international monetary systems in Europe

Ljungberg, Jonas LU orcid and Ögren, Anders LU (2019) In Lund Papers in Economic History. General Issues
Abstract
While there is a huge literature on exchange rate systems since the classical gold standard, less research has been devoted to comparisons of the different arguments that guided the choices. While the origin of the international gold standard in the 1870s was a result of silver coins disappearing from circulation due to rising silver prices, the gold standard has later been interpreted as a quest for monetary discipline. This discipline argument was introduced by the end of WWI as a support for a restoration of the gold standard. Its failure led to an emphasis on the need to avoid external imbalances, which came to the fore in the preparations of the Bretton Woods system. The balance argument was also central in the early discussions of a... (More)
While there is a huge literature on exchange rate systems since the classical gold standard, less research has been devoted to comparisons of the different arguments that guided the choices. While the origin of the international gold standard in the 1870s was a result of silver coins disappearing from circulation due to rising silver prices, the gold standard has later been interpreted as a quest for monetary discipline. This discipline argument was introduced by the end of WWI as a support for a restoration of the gold standard. Its failure led to an emphasis on the need to avoid external imbalances, which came to the fore in the preparations of the Bretton Woods system. The balance argument was also central in the early discussions of a monetary union in Europe, but with the critique of Keynesianism it was superseded by the disciplinary argument which became determinant for the design of EMU. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Working paper/Preprint
publication status
published
subject
keywords
exchange rates, Europe, gold standard, EMU, B17, B27, F31, N13, N14
in
Lund Papers in Economic History. General Issues
issue
2019:190
pages
32 pages
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
f6094e96-acf5-4eaf-a644-8f9fc0309097
date added to LUP
2019-02-25 09:48:06
date last changed
2025-04-04 15:15:56
@misc{f6094e96-acf5-4eaf-a644-8f9fc0309097,
  abstract     = {{While there is a huge literature on exchange rate systems  since the classical gold standard, less research has been devoted to comparisons of the different arguments that guided the choices. While the origin of the international gold standard in the 1870s was a result of silver coins disappearing from circulation due to rising silver prices, the gold standard has later been interpreted as a quest for monetary discipline. This discipline argument was introduced by the end of WWI as a support for a restoration of the gold standard. Its failure led to an emphasis on the need to avoid external imbalances, which came to the fore in the preparations of the Bretton Woods system. The balance argument was also central in the early discussions of a monetary union in Europe, but with the critique of Keynesianism it was superseded by the disciplinary argument which became determinant for the design of EMU.}},
  author       = {{Ljungberg, Jonas and Ögren, Anders}},
  keywords     = {{exchange rates; Europe; gold standard; EMU; B17; B27; F31; N13; N14}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Working Paper}},
  number       = {{2019:190}},
  series       = {{Lund Papers in Economic History. General Issues}},
  title        = {{Discipline or external balance? : The choice of international monetary systems in Europe}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/60774037/LUPEH_190.pdf}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}