A Stable International Monetary System Emerges: Inflation Targeting is Bretton Woods, Reversed

A stable international monetary system has emerged since the early 1990s. A large number of industrial and a growing number of developing countries now have domestic inflation targets administered by independent and transparent central banks. These countries place few restrictions on capital mobility and allow their exchange rates to float. The domestic focus of monetary policy in these countries does not have any obvious international cost. Inflation targeters have lower exchange rate volatility and less frequent “sudden stops” of capital flows than similar countries that do not target inflation. Inflation targeting countries also do not have current accounts or international reserves that look different from other countries. This system was not planned and does not rely on international coordination. There is no role for a center country, the IMF, or gold. It is durable; in contrast to other monetary regimes, no country has been forced to abandon an inflation-targeting regime. Succinctly, it is the diametric opposite of the post-war system; Bretton Woods, reversed.

Does the WTO Make Trade More Stable?

I examine the hypothesis that membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and its predecessor the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) has increased the stability and predictability of trade flows. I use a large data set covering annual bilateral trade flows between over 175 countries between 1950 and 1999, and estimate the effect of GATT/WTO membership on the coefficient of variation in trade computed over 25-year samples, controlling for a number of factors. I also use a comparable multilateral data set. There is little evidence that membership in the GATT/WTO has a significant dampening effect on trade volatility.

After the Deluge: Do Fixed Exchange Rates Allow Inter-Temporal Volatility Tradeoffs?

This paper addresses the issue of whether regimes of fixed exchange rates are a mechanism for shifting volatility inter- temporally. Using a panel of data covering twenty industrialized countries from 1959 through 1993, I examine the volatilities of a host of real and monetary variables. Graphical and statistical examination of the periods around 33 flotations and 81 devaluations reveals little evidence of significant increases in volatility following these events.

One Reason Countries Pay their Debts: Renegotiation and International Trade

IMF; sovereignty; trade policy

European exchange rate credibility before the fall: the case of sterling

European Monetary System (Organization) ; Foreign exchange rates

Cities and Countries

If one ranks cities by population, the rank of a city is inversely related to its size, a well-documented phenomenon known as Zipf's Law. Further, the growth rate of a city's population is uncorrelated with its size, another well-known characteristic known as Gibrat's Law. In this paper, I show that both characteristics are true of countries as well as cities; the size distributions of cities and countries are similar. But theories that explain the size-distribution of cities do not obviously apply in explaining the size-distribution of countries. The similarity of city- and country-size distributions is an interesting riddle.

Asian American women\u27s resilience: An integrative review

Asian American women face unique stressors that threaten their overall health and well-being. However, resilience is a phenomenon that allows individuals to develop positive adaptation despite adversities and challenges. This integrative review is conducted in order to explore the current state of knowledge regarding the resilience of Asian American women. Twelve databases were used to identify related articles: Academic Search Premier, CINAHL, ERIC, Ethnic NewsWatch, GenderWatch, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global, ProQuest Sociological Abstracts, PsycINFO, PubMed, SAGE (Psychology and Sociology collections), Scopus, and Web of Science. Twenty-one research studies met the inclusion criteria of the integrative review. Five common themes emerged from the analysis of the studies: (a) resilience as conceptualized as a coping strategy, (b) resilience as related to social support and network, (c) resilience as an enduring phenomenon, (d) resilience as connected to bicultural identity, and (e) resilience as an emancipatory perspective and experience. These themes imply that resilience is a developmental process, culture has a significant influence on resilience, and Asian American women are a vulnerable and marginalized group. Further recommendations for nursing practice and research are discussed as related to these implications