Helmut Schneider

Hans-Jürgen Vosgerau

Franz Gehrels

Horst Herberg

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".

Real Adjustment Processes under Floating Exchange Rates

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.

Hans-Jürgen Vosgerau

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