Money and the balance of payments

The paper argues that the balance of payments is a monetary phenomenon, and that it can only be understood by the application of monetary theory. Although this may seem obvious, it tends to be obscured from public understanding, and the understanding even of most international economic theorists, by...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: H.G. JOHNSON
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Associazione Economia civile 2014-01-01
Series:PSL Quarterly Review
Subjects:
Online Access:https://rosa.uniroma1.it/rosa04/psl_quarterly_review/article/view/11490
Description
Summary:The paper argues that the balance of payments is a monetary phenomenon, and that it can only be understood by the application of monetary theory. Although this may seem obvious, it tends to be obscured from public understanding, and the understanding even of most international economic theorists, by two facts. First, people often mistakenly refer to “the balance of payments” when intending the net balance of international transactions on a subgroup of accounts in the balance of payments. Second, precisely because the balance of payments is a monetary phenomenon, it requires analysis with the tools of monetary theory which are sophisticated and difficult even for the professional economic theorist to understand.   JEL: F32, E40
ISSN:2037-3635
2037-3643