ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the identification of symmetries or systemic asymmetries in the international adjustment mechanism, regarding industrial and developing countries, analysed from the perspective of modern exchange-rate arrangements. The idea that the gold standard has contributed to enhance macroeconomic stability in the ‘centre’ countries of the international economy has been fairly accepted, but the issue is much less clear, and to a certain extent controversial, when the experience of the ‘peripheral’ countries is considered. The overlapping nature of the mechanisms provides the basis upon which the macroeconomic experiences of different countries should be examined, during the gold-standard era. The Bretton Woods episode carries important lessons for the future development of international monetary arrangements. The adjustment mechanism embodied in the Bretton Woods system, however, became inadequate because the international financial system went through an enormous transformation: world-wide capital mobility increased substantially, and capital movements were not stabilising.
