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".

the economics of exhaustible " assets presents a whole forest of intriguing problems." 1 Harald Hotelling ) The two energy price shocks in 1973/74 and 1979/80 have arosed interest in the new area of resource economics. The affluent societies of Europe, North America and Japan were confronted with the new scarcity paradigm of the "space ship earth" with only a limited supply of natural resources aboard whereas population is growing and the environment can not accomodate the increasing volume of pollutants. The problem of natural resource scarcity gives rise to the question how resource-dependent economies like European coun tries and Japan are affected by an increase in resource prices and how they can adjust to rising energy prices. The new para digm also has focused new interest on the problem of the re source-extracting firm and of the resource-exporting country. The Hotelling revival of resource economics has given new im portance to the behavior and to the policy issues of resource exporting countries."

*The most accessible guide to a tough methodological issue, fully updated: more than 85% new material includes 5 new chapters plus new topics. *Includes the latest developments, a retooled organization, and dozens of new datasets. *Translates cutting-edge procedures into language accessible to anyone doing behavioral or social research. *For graduate students and applied researchers; of special interest in the U.S., the Netherlands, Japan, South Korea, and China.