|
Showing 1 - 4 of
4 matches in All Departments
Hans-Jtlrgen Vosgerau The world economy has been subjected to
extreme changes during the last three years. These changes affect
not only trade flows, financial transfers and movements of people,
but also the institutional framework. The ongoing process of
European integration has to be viewed in this global context, and
that is what the present volume tries to do for six important
problem areas, viz. the field of Money, Currency and International
Stabilization; Federal Tax Systems and the European Community; the
area of International Factor Mobility; the International Debt
Problem; the Econometrics of Internation~ Trade; and aspects of
International Political Economy. In each chapter an effort is made
to direct attention to the connections between international
economic transactions of various kinds and the political and legal
institutions which constitute the organizational framework. The 26
contributions are revised versions of papers originally presented
at the Second Konstanz Symposium on International Economics and
Institutions which was organized by the Long-term Research
Programme (Sonderfor schungsbereich) "Internationalization of the
Economy" on October 1 and 2, 1990. The majority of contributions
are reports on research conducted in the Sonderforschungsbereich
during the preceding years, and in most cases supple mented by
comments from invited guests. In addition there are some important
papers contributed by colleagues from outside, most of whom have
close co operative relations with members of the
Sonderforschungsbereich.
New Institutional Arrangements for the World Economy Hans-Jiirgen
Vosgerau, Konstanz I. The Problem During the first days of July
1987 the newly established Sonderforschungs bereich 178
"Internationalisierung der Wirtschaft" held its first symposium in
Konstanz/Bodensee. "New Institutional Arrangements for the World
Economy" were discussed by a group of economists and lawyers
working in the fields of interna tional trade, international
monetary economics, international finance, international public
choice, and international economic law. Cooperation between these
areas of research is an important condition for attaining the
long-term aim of the Sonderforschungsbereich, viz. analysis of the
complex interdependencies between international economic
transactions of various kinds and international economy related
institutions in a broad sense. The nature of these
interdependencies seems to be crucial for the world economy's
further development. A better understanding of their
characteristics will be helpful for the solution of most imminent
international economic problems. Four problem areas were especially
addressed during the conference, each con sisting of three or four
contributions. The revised papers are presented in this volume,
each followed by a comment of the invited discussant, or by a
summary of the discussion. The last contribution is meant as a
summary conclusion and has no comment. The four problem areas
discussed were: (1) Exchange rate stabilization and econ omic
policy coordination, (2) International financial markets and their
regulation, (3) Protectionism and the Uruguay GAIT-round, and (4)
The institutional frame work for international production."
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".
Ass a f R a z i nand Hans-Jiirgen Vosgerau The eight chapters of
this volume have been grouped into two parts. Part A of contains
chapters which are mainly monetary in character, whereas real
aspects international economics are treated in Part B. It goes
without saying that this is only a device for structuring the
field. In substance most chapters reveal the close connections
between real and monetary aspects. Part A on "Inflation, Exchange
Rates, and Macro-Economic Adjustment in the Global Economy"
consists of four papers. In recent years, an inflation targeting
framework for monetary policy has been adopted by New Zealand,
Canada, the United Kingdom, Finland, Sweden, Australia, and Spain
(in chronological order). The use of inflation targeting can be
viewed as a further step in the evolution of monetary policy
techniques adopted by central banks. A common feature of the
countries that have adopted inflation targets is the relatively
poor inflation record over the last 30 years compared with other
industrial countries such as Germany, Switzerland, Japan and the
United States. Because of their relatively good inflation record,
this latter group of countries has not explicitly adopted inflation
targeting. With, or without, explicit inflation targeting the
monetary policy credibility hinges on the independence of the
central bank. Alex Cukierman addresses the issue of central bank
independence by surveying alternative ways to characterize
independence.
|
|