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Preface by Jean-Claude Trichet
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- By Jean-Claude Trichet, President of the European Central Bank
- Edited by Filippo Di Mauro, European Central Bank, Frankfurt, Robert Anderton, European Central Bank, Frankfurt
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- Book:
- The External Dimension of the Euro Area
- Published online:
- 22 September 2009
- Print publication:
- 26 April 2007, pp xiii-xiv
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Summary
Although relatively closed in comparison with the individual constituent countries, the euro area economy is subject to a broad range of economic impacts originating from outside its borders, by an extent which remains significant. At the ECB we are well aware of the international linkages of the euro area and in 2004, we hosted a workshop on ‘The Importance of the External Dimension for the Euro Area: Trade, Capital Flows and International Macroeconomic Linkages’. Drawing partly from that workshop and using the most recent research, the book edited by di Mauro and Anderton aims at providing an overall understanding of how and to what extent external developments affect the euro area. Using a broad range of methodologies and techniques, the chapters bring together the latest information and results regarding the various channels connecting the euro area to its external environment, most notably the trade, capital flows and other international macroeconomic linkages.
The work is ambitious as it attempts to tackle a number of complex, overarching issues: how good are standard openness measures to ascertain the impact of trade developments on the euro area economy; what are the most relevant economic linkages between the euro area and the rest of the world; what are the channels and mechanisms by which the euro area is influenced by external developments and how are they changing through time; and what can we say regarding claims that there has been an increase in the international synchronisation of economic cycles?
1 - The development of central banking
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- By Forest Capie, City University London, Charles Goodheart, London School of Economics, Norbert Schnadt, Barclays Bank, Alan Greenspan, Chairman of the Board of Governors, Federal Reserve System, Jean-Claude Trichet, Governor of the Banque de France, Yasushi Mieno, Governor of the Bank of Japan
- Forrest Capie, City University London, Stanley Fischer, International Monetary Fund Institute, Washington DC, Charles Goodhart, London School of Economics and Political Science, Norbert Schnadt, Barclays Bank, London
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- Book:
- The Future of Central Banking
- Published online:
- 05 November 2011
- Print publication:
- 23 February 1995, pp 1-261
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Summary
Introduction
On the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the Bank of England there is a natural tendency to look back at the historical record of central banks, to examine their development to the present time, and, more daringly, to speculate about their future. Although it is hard to depart from a chronologically ordered narrative (particularly since two of the authors are economic historians), we have tried to structure our paper by concentrating on the key functions undertaken by the central bank.
The main objective of central banks, over the centuries, has been the maintenance of the (internal and external) value of the currency, and we, therefore, turn in section 1.2 to an historical account of central bank macroeconomic policy. While the maintenance of the value of the currency has, historically, almost always been achieved via the same instrument, varying the central bank's discount rate, this objective has not always meant the same thing. Under the classical gold standard the objective was cast in terms of metal convertibility: that is, the value of central bank notes was expressed in terms of their metal (gold) ‘content’, which central banks attempted to maintain at stated levels over time. The purchasing power of currency relative to goods in general (i.e. to a price index) was thus only indirectly an objective of central banks, with gold acting as the true nominal anchor. With the gradual erosion of the gold standard throughout the first half of the twentieth century, and its replacement everywhere by a pure fiat standard, the objective of central bank policy has now been recast in terms of price stability.
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