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ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF EXCHANGE RATE ECONOMICS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO: 1892–1992

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2024

Sebastian Edwards
Sebastian Edwards*
Affiliation:
Sebastian Edwards: University of California, Los Angeles, and National Bureau of Economic Research.
*
Email: sebastian.edwards@anderson.ucla.edu.
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Abstract

In this paper I analyze the work on exchange rates and external imbalances by University of Chicago faculty members during the university’s first 100 years, 1892 to 1992. Many people associate Chicago’s views with Milton Friedman’s advocacy for flexible exchange rates. But, of course, there was much more than that, including the work of J. Laurence Laughlin on bimetallism, Jacob Viner on the balance of payments, Lloyd Metzler on transfers, Harry Johnson on trade and currencies, Lloyd Mints on exchange rate regimes, Robert Mundell on optimal currency areas, and Arnold Harberger on shadow exchange rates, among others. The analysis shows that, although different scholars emphasized different issues, there was a common thread in this research, anchored on the role of relative prices’ changes during the adjustment process.

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Article
Information
Journal of the History of Economic Thought , First View , pp. 1 - 23
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of History of Economics Society

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Footnotes

I thank Doug Irwin, Lars Jonung, Hugh Rockoff, David Laidler, and Al Harberger for comments. I am also grateful to one of the editors and an anonymous reviewer for helpful suggestions. I have benefitted from discussions with Ed Leamer. Luis Cabezas provided wonderful research assistance.

References

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