Understanding the Gold Standard: New Lessons from an Old Rule

After almost two years of joint research, "Money and Finance in Historical Perspective" will analyze the political consequences of the pre-World War I gold standard and how they affect current global monetary and fiscal policy choices.

The transformation of 19th century monetary policies into a "technical matter"-the gold standard-imposed strains on domestic and international politics and institutions. It offered political actors no escape from politics, but re-directed conflict into other arenas, where outcomes may have undermined the workings of the liberal economy and its associated institutions. This experience poses a stark challenge for contemporary policymakers: how to design modern institutions that reconcile the two goals of monetary stability and political legitimacy.

Dates

May 3-4, 2002

Organizers

Layna Mosley of the Kellogg Institute, Thomas Oatley of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Roland Stephen of North Carolina State University.

Paper Presenters

Lawrence Broz (University of California, San Diego), "The Gold Standard: Who Joined and Why"

Jonathon Moses (Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim), "Golden Wings: Migration As Adjustment Under the Gold Standard"

Layna Mosley (University of, Notre Dame), "Golden Straightjacket or Golden Opportunity? Sovereign Borrowing in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries"

Thomas Oatley (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), "Understanding the Gold Standard: Economic Commitments and Political Consequences"

Roland Stephen (North Carolina State University), "Imperialism and the Management of the Gold Standard"

Daniel Verdier (European University Institute), "Tariffs as Credible Compensation: The Institutionalization of Special Interest Politics in the Era of the Gold Standard"

Discussants

Ted Beatty, University of Notre Dame

Jerry Cohen, University of California, Santa Barbara

Jeffry Frieden, Harvard University

Timothy McKeown, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Kathleen McNamara, Princeton University

Andrew Sobel, Washington University in St. Louis

Click here to download the conference program.