Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/161875 
Year of Publication: 
2017
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 6436
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
We use the demise of silver-based standards in the 19th century to explore price dynamics when a commodity-based money ceases to function as a global unit of account. We develop a general equilibrium model of the global economy with gold and silver money. Calibration of the model shows that silver ceased functioning as a global price anchor in the mid-1890s - the price of silver is positively correlated with agricultural commodities through the mid-1890s, but not thereafter. In contrast to Fisher (1911) and Friedman (1990), both of whom predict greater price stability under bimetallism, our model suggests that a global bimetallic system, in which the gold price of silver uctuates, has higher price volatility than a global monometallic system. We confirm this result using agricultural commodity price data for 1870-1913.
Subjects: 
bimetallism
classical gold standard
silver
unit of account
fixed exchange rates
JEL: 
E42
F33
N10
N20
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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