Real Adjustment Processes Under Floating Exchange Rates

ISBN-13: 9783642842009 / Angielski / Miękka / 2011 / 302 str.

Franz Gehrels; Horst Herberg; Helmut Schneider

Opis

Helmut Schneider 1. The Formulation of the Research Programme 1. In the late sixties the acceleration of US inflation revived the discussion of the fifties about the superiority of flexible exchange rates: The US balance of payments deteriorated since 1965, the dollar shortage after World War II changed to a dollar surplus. The import of US inflation by their main trading partners intensified political pressures so that at the beginning of the seventies most leading countries decided, contrary to the rules of the Bretton Woods agreement, to stop their intervention in the market for foreign exchange and to let the exchange rates be determined by market forces. It is worthwhile recalling that at that time one had only very limited experience with the regime of flexible exchange rates: The most important case, the floating of Canadian against the US dollar, could not be generalized to a world where nearly all important countries adhered to the regime of flexible exchange rates. - But one really had rich experience with destabilizing capital flows (or "hot money") that forced monetary authorities to adjust exchange rates in a system of managed flexibility to the expecta tions of "speculators.""

Spis treści

I. Introduction.- II. Contributions.- 1. Sectoral Effects of Higher Costs of Imported Inputs.- 2. The Dutch Disease or Problems of a Sectoral Boom.- 3. Sectoral Transmission and Aggregate Effects of Imported Inflation: An Econometric Input-Output Model for the Federal Republic of Germany.- 4. Structural Change, Adjustment Strategies and Employment in an Open Economy: The Case of the Manufacturing Industries in the Federal Republic of Germany.- 5. Entrepreneurial Adjustment in Structural Change — Results from a Survey of Selected Lower Saxonian Industries, 1980–1985.- 6. Non-Tariff Barriers to Trade — Unsuitable Instruments of an Employment Policy.- 7. On the Spatial Structure of the World Economy Since World War II.- 8. The Extended Moving-Equilibrium Method: A Presentation.- 9. Local Stability and Dynamic Aspects in a Two-Country Model with Fixed and Flexible Exchange Rates.- 10. Alternative Specifications of Asset Markets in Portfolio Balance Models.- 11. On Fiscal PONZI Games in a World with Overlapping Generations.- III. Appendix.- 1. The Research Programme “Inflation and Employment in Open Economies”.- 2. Projects.- 3. Publications.

O autorze

Flexible exchange rates pose new adjustment problems for firms and for policy-makers. It is shown that (some) firms have developed successful strategies to meet the new challenges. On the other hand, government interventions are often inappropriate. The book deals with the different strategies developed by firms and policy-makers and their consequences.