The ebb and flow of international capital since the nineteenth century illustrates recurring difficulties, as well as the alternative perspectives from which policymakers have tried to confront them. This paper is devoted to documenting these vicissitudes quantitatively and explaining them. Economic theory and economic history together can provide useful insights into events of the past and deliver relevant lessons for today. We argue that theories of how international capital mobility has evolved must be understood within the framework of the basic policy trilemma constraining an open economy's choice of monetary regime.
*Published: This paper was subsequently published as Globalization and Capital Markets , Maurice Obstfeld, Alan M. Taylor, in NBER book Globalization in Historical Perspective (2003)
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