We identify turning points in the value of the yen during the 1920s to determine which factors were perceived by market participants as affecting Japan's probability of returning to the gold standard. The 1920s were marked by military expansionism, political turmoil, and other dramatic political...

What factors drove globalization in the late 19th century? We employ a new micro-founded measure of bilateral trade costs based on a standard model of trade in differentiated goods to address this question. These trade costs gauge the difference between observed bilateral trade and frictionless...