The International Monetary System: Living with Asymmetry
Maurice Obstfeld*
UC Berkeley, NBER, and CEPR
Final draft: November 24, 2011
Abstract
This paper analyzes current stresses in the two key areas that concerned the architects of
the original Bretton Woods system: international liquidity and exchange rate
management. Despite radical changes since World War II in the market context for
liquidity and exchange rate concerns, they remain central to discussions of international
macroeconomic policy coordination. To take two prominent examples of specific (and
related) coordination problems, liquidity issues are paramount in strategies of national
self-insurance through foreign reserve accumulation, while recent attempts by emerging
market economies (EMEs) to limit real currency appreciation have relied heavily on
nominal exchange rate management. A central message is that a diverse set of potential
asymmetries among sovereign member states provides fertile ground for a variety of
coordination failures. The paper goes onto discuss institutions and policies that might
mitigate some of these inefficiencies.
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