Alan Walters has suggested that the European Monetary System will prove dynamically unstable when capital controls are removed. The argument is analysed within a model that includes overlapping contracts. It is found that the short-run effects predicted by Walters only arise when the credibility...

The view held by Keynes that there was a speculative appreciation of sterling prior to its return to the gold standard, has been challenged by Gregor Smith and Todd Smith, who argue that expectations of return must have weakened the currency. The authors demonstrate that the positive but...

In the first decade of its existence, the European Monetary System passed through three phases of realignments: full accommodation, partial accommodation, and zero accommodation of inflation differentials. But to what extent does the new freedom of capital movements rule out such gradual...

Alan Walters has suggested that the European Monetary System will prove dynamically unstable when capital controls are removed. The argument is analyzed within a model where overlapping contracts generate price inertia. In this context, it is found that the short-run effects predicted by Walters...

In the first decade of its existence the EMS passed through three phases of realignments: full accommodation, partial accommodation and zero accommodation of inflation differentials. To what extent, however, does the new freedom of capital movements within the EC rule out such gradual...

In this paper three possible reasons are examined for a sluggish inflation response to a hard currency peg. Models of overlapping wage contracts are analyzed and shown to generate little inertia. This contrasts with the effects of government credibility and the speed of private sector learning,...