Irving Fisher on the International Transmission of Booms and Depressions through Monetary Standards

• Published in: Journal of money, credit and banking Vol. 35; no. 1; pp. 49 - 90
• Main Author: Dimand, Robert W.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Columbus Ohio State University Press 01.02.2003; The Ohio State University Press; John Wiley & Sons, Inc
• Subjects: Authorship; Business cycles; Commodities; Countries; Credit; Depressions; Economic aspects; Economic conditions; Economic depression; Economic depressions; Economic fluctuations; Economic theory; Economists; Employment; Finance; Fisher, Irving; Fixed exchange rates; Foreign exchange rates; Gold standard; Great Depression; Interest rates; International; International economics; International finance; Macroeconomics; Monetary economics; Monetary systems; Phillips curve; Price levels; Silver; Studies; United States
• ISSN: 0022-2879; 1538-4616; 1538-4616
• DOI: 10.1353/mcb.2003.0002

The role of monetary standards in the international transmission of economic fluctuations, particularly the role of the gold standard in the Depression, has attracted considerable recent attention, for instance from Choudhri and Kochin (1980), Hamilton (1988), Temin (1989, 1993), Eichengreen (1992), and Bernanke (1995). However, this literature has overlooked a pioneering precursor: Irving Fisher, "Are Booms and Depressions Transmitted Internationally Through Monetary Standards?" (1935), which has also been neglected in the literature on Fisher. I examine Fisher's contribution in the context of later research on the topic and explore the place of Fisher (1935) in Fisher's work.