Inflation, exchange rates, and the world economy

the long version

This book deals with four topics in international economics: balance of payments theories, old and new, inflation and exchange rates; the international adjustment to the oil price rise; and monetary integration in Europe. The role of exchange rate variation as an instrument of economic policy is a common theme of the book, which deals with such issues of current interest as: Is a fixed or flexible exchange rate system more inflationary? To what extent did the United States export inflation to other countries and need the latter have imported it? What is new about the monetary theory of the balance of payments? Does devaluation have a role when real wages are rigid? Why did some countries have much greater payments dificits than others in the aftermath of the oil price rise? To what extend can the recession of 1975 be attributed to the oil price rise?