Canada and the Gold Standard: Balance of Payments Adjustment Under Fixed Exchange Rates, 1871-1913

ISBN-13: 9780521404082 / Angielski / Twarda / 1992 / 254 str.

Trevor J. O. Dick; Michael D. Bordo; Forrest Capie

Opis

In this reexamination of Canada's balance of payments experience under the gold standard, the authors develop and empirically test a new portfolio approach to the mechanism of balance of payments adjustment. This adjustment mechanism responded to massive inflows of foreign capital during a critical period of Canada's economic growth in the early years of this century. The authors show that the existence of international mobility of capital requires a fundamental revision of the price-specie-flow theory that has traditionally been used to explain adjustment when the balance of payments was more nearly dominated by the balance of trade. The approach Professors Dick and Floyd take not only answers the critics of Jacob Viner, who first explored the Canadian case after 1900, but also offers a new perspective on how the gold standard in general actually worked. The authors apply standard elementary economic principles to this working of the balance of payments under the gold standard, making this book useful reading for those studying intermediate and upper level economics, especially in the field of international finance.

Recenzje

"...consitiutes an important and provocative analysis of the Canadian adjustment process under the gold standard." Georg Rich, Journal of Economic History

Spis treści

List of tables and figures; Preface; 1. Introduction; 2. The standard neoclassical specie-flow mechanism; 3. A new view of gold standard adjustment; 4. An empirical overview; 5. Statistical tests of goods and asset market adjustments; 6. Evidence on the process of balance-of-payments adjustment; 7. Some further evidence on structure and timing; 8. 'Canada's balance': Viner and his critics; 9. The theoretical implications of capital mobility; 10. 'Canada's balance of indebtedness': reinterpretating the historical evidence; 11. Conclusions. How the gold standard worked; Appendices; References; Index.