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  3. Studies in Macroeconomic History

The titles in this series investigate themes of interest to economists and economic historians in the rapidly developing field of macroeconomic history. The four areas covered include the application of monetary and finance theory, international economics and quantitative methods to historical problems; the historical application of growth and development theory and theories of business fluctuations; the history of domestic and international monetary, financial and other macroeconomic institutions; and the history of international monetary and financial systems.

  • General Editors: Michael D. Bordo, Rutgers University, New Jersey
  • Associate Editors: Owen F. Humpage, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Christopher M. Meissner, University of California, Davis, Kris James Mitchener, Santa Clara University, California, David C. Wheelock, Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis

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51 results in Studies in Macroeconomic History

Page 3 of 3

Competition and Monopoly in the Federal Reserve System, 1914–1951
  • A Microeconomic Approach to Monetary History
  • Mark Toma
  • Published online:
    07 December 2009
    Print publication:
    08 May 1997
  • Competition among central banks in a monetary union is thought to result in an over issue problem, which has its roots in the view that moneys produced by competitive central banks are perfect substitutes for each other. In the conventional set-up over issue can be overcome by granting a central bank exclusive rights to conduct monetary policy. In this book Mark Toma explores the workings of the early Federal Reserve System as a basis for challenging the conventional wisdom. He is able to show that competition among reserve banks in the 1920s did not result in an issue of Fed money. Rather the main effect of competitive structure was to cause reserve banks to make substantial interest payments to the private banking system in place of transfers to the US government. The book emphasizes the evolution of the Federal Reserve from a competitive to a monopolistic structure.

Managing the Franc Poincaré
  • Economic Understanding and Political Constraint in French Monetary Policy, 1928–1936
  • Kenneth Mouré
  • Published online:
    23 November 2009
    Print publication:
    29 August 1991
  • Defence of the franc Poincaré dominated French economic policy during the Depression. While most countries took their currencies off gold to permit a wider range of domestic policies to foster recovery, in France policy makers resolved to preserve the gold parity of the franc by balancing the budget and lowering domestic prices. Novelty and experimentation were rejected in the conviction that a durable recovery was possible only through a return to strict neoclassical orthodoxy. Managing the Franc Poincaré examines French monetary management from 1928 to 1936 in order to explain this stubborn determination to achieve recovery through deflation despite evidence of its failures abroad.

The Changing Face of Central Banking
  • Evolutionary Trends since World War II
  • Pierre L. Siklos
  • Published online:
    27 October 2009
    Print publication:
    21 November 2002
  • Central banks have emerged as the key players in national and international policy making. This book explores their evolution since World War II in 20 industrial countries. The study considers the mix of economic, political and institutional forces that have affected central bank behaviour and its relationship with government. The analysis reconciles vastly different views about the role of central banks in the making of economic policies. One finding is that monetary policy is an evolutionary process.

The Banking Panics of the Great Depression
  • Elmus Wicker
  • Published online:
    25 October 2009
    Print publication:
    01 August 1996
  • This is the first full-length study of five US banking panics of the Great Depression. Previous studies of the Depression have approached the banking panics from a macroeconomic viewpoint; Professor Wicker fills a lacuna in current knowledge by reconstructing a close historical narrative of each of the panics, investigating their origins, magnitude, and effects. He makes a detailed analysis of the geographical incidence of the disturbances using the Federal Reserve District as the basic unit, and reappraises the role of Federal Reserve officials in the panics. His findings challenge many of the commonly held assumptions about the events of 1930 and 1931, for example the belief that the increase in the discount rate in October 1931 initiated a wave of bank suspensions and hoarding. This meticulous account will be of wide interest to students of the Great Depression, monetary and financial historians, financial economists and macroeconomists.

Banking Panics of the Gilded Age
  • Elmus Wicker
  • Published online:
    21 October 2009
    Print publication:
    04 September 2000
  • This was the first major study of post-Civil War banking panics in almost a century. The author has constructed estimates of bank closures and their incidence in each of the five separate banking disturbances. The book takes a novel approach by reconstructing the course of banking panics in the interior, where suspension of cash payment, not bank closures, was the primary effect of banking panics on the average person. The author also re-evaluates the role of the New York Clearing House in forestalling several panics and explains why it failed to do so in 1893 and 1907, concluding that structural defects of the National Banking Act were not the primary cause of the panics.

The Gold Standard and Related Regimes
  • Collected Essays
  • Michael D. Bordo
  • Published online:
    19 October 2009
    Print publication:
    13 May 1999
  • This book contains a collection of Michael D. Bordo's essays, written singly and with colleagues, on the classical gold standard and related regimes based directly or indirectly on gold convertibility. The gold standard (and its variants) was the basis for both international and domestic monetary arrangements from the third quarter of the nineteenth century until 1971 when President Nixon closed the US gold window, effectively ending the Bretton Woods International Monetary System. Although the gold standard and its variants are now history, it still has great appeal for policymakers and scholars. Several desirable features of the gold standard have resources for the ongoing issue of international monetary reform. They include its record as a stable nominal anchor; its automaticity; and its role as a credible commitment mechanism. The essays in this collection are organized around several themes: gold and the international monetary system; the commodity theory of money; the gold standard as a rule; variants of the gold standard including the interwar gold standard and the Bretton Woods International Monetary System.

Between the Dollar-Sterling Gold Points
  • Exchange Rates, Parity and Market Behavior
  • Lawrence H. Officer
  • Published online:
    13 October 2009
    Print publication:
    30 May 1996
  • Officer begins this book with a historical perspective of the monetary standards of the United States and Britain. He then develops data on exchange rates, mint parity and gold points, with which he investigates three important features of Anglo-American monetary history. First, the integration of the American foreign-exchange market over time. Second, it is proved that gold-point arbitrage is markedly more efficient than either interest arbitrage or forward speculation. Third, regime efficiency is explored from standpoints of both private agents and policy-makers; the 1925–1931 gold standard, though less durable than the pre-war standard, is nevertheless shown to be surprisingly stable. The book will serve as a Dollar-Sterling handbook for those interested in this important aspect of international monetary history.

The Economics of World War II
  • Six Great Powers in International Comparison
  • Edited by Mark Harrison
  • Published online:
    12 September 2009
    Print publication:
    19 February 1998
  • This book provides a new quantitative view of the wartime economic experiences of six great powers; the UK, the USA, Germany, Italy, Japan and the USSR. What contribution did economics made to war preparedness and to winning or losing the war? What was the effect of wartime experiences on postwar fortunes, and did those who won the war lose the peace? A chapter is devoted to each country, reviewing its economic war potential, military-economic policies and performance, war expenditures and development, while the introductory chapter presents a comparative overview. The result of an international collaborative project, the volume aims to provide a text of statistical reference for students and researchers interested in international and comparative economic history, the history of World War II, the history of economic policy, and comparative economic systems. It embodies the latest in economic analysis and historical research.

The Strategy and Consistency of Federal Reserve Monetary Policy, 1924–1933
  • David C. Wheelock
  • Published online:
    11 September 2009
    Print publication:
    30 August 1991
  • Today, most scholars agree that mismanaged monetary policy contributed to the length and severity of the Great Depression in the USA. There is little agreement, however, about the causes of the Federal Reserve's mistakes. This book examines the policy strategy developed by the Federal Reserve during the 1920s and considers whether its continued use could explain the Federal Reserve's failure to respond vigorously to the depression. It also studies the effects on policy of the institutional changes occurring prior to the depression. While these changes enhanced the authority of officials who opposed open-market purchases and also caused some upward bias in discount rates, Wheelock concludes that monetary policy during the depression was in fact largely a continuation of the previous policy. The apparent contrast in the institution's responsiveness to economic conditions between the 1920s and early 1930s resulted from the consistent use of a procyclical policy strategy that caused it to respond more vigorously to minor recessions than to severe depressions.

The Past and Future of Central Bank Cooperation
  • Edited by Claudio Borio, Gianni Toniolo, Piet Clement
  • Published online:
    07 August 2009
    Print publication:
    11 August 2008
  • This book explores the past and future of central bank cooperation. In today's global economy, the cooperation between central banks is a key element in maintaining or restoring monetary and financial stability, thereby ensuring a smooth functioning of the international financial system. In this book, economists, historians, and political scientists look back at the experience of central bank cooperation during the past century - at its goals, nature, and processes and at its successes and failures - and draw lessons for the future. Particular attention is devoted to the role played by central bank cooperation in the formulation of minimum capital standards for internationally active banks (the Basel Capital Accord, Basel II), and in the process of European monetary unification and the introduction of the Euro.

Finance Capitalism and Germany's Rise to Industrial Power
  • Caroline Fohlin
  • Published online:
    27 July 2009
    Print publication:
    29 January 2007
  • Based on a wide array of data collected by the author, this book uses clear theoretically motivated economic analysis to explain the structure, performance, and influence of universal banks and securities markets on firms during industrialisation. The German universal banks played a significant but not overwhelming role in the ownership and control of corporate firms. Banks gained access to boards via a confluence of their underwriting and brokerage activities, the legal phenomena of bearer shares and deposited voting rights, and the flourishing securities markets of the turn of the twentieth century. In general, bank relationships had little impact on firm performance; stock market listings, or ownership structure, were more important. The findings show that securities markets can thrive within a civil-law, universal-bank system and suggest that financial system complexity can favour rapid industrial expansion.

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