Ruled by “fear of floating”. Mexico’s exchange rate policy during the interwar period, 1925-1936

Authors

  • Gianandrea Nodari Paul Bairoch Institute of Economic History, Université de Genève

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.33231/j.ihe.2022.12.002

Keywords:

Mexico, Central Bank, Great Depression, Dollar Bloc, B26, E42, N16, N46

Abstract

This article argues that the Mexican exchange rate policy during the interwar years should be characterized as
an archetypal case of “fear of floating”. Conventional accounts claim that Mexico escaped the Great Depression
because its policymakers deliberately repealed the gold standard ideology. Drawing on new archival data, I
argue that national policymakers remained conservative with respect to any regime change, and their preference
was always for a fix or pegged exchange rate. Overall, this article claims that the monetary regime choice
in Mexico was not driven by some new heterodox insights, and once the financial crisis of 1931 had forced a
depreciation of the peso, the national monetary authority promptly rushed to join the dollar bloc.

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Published

2023-02-01

How to Cite

Nodari, G. (2023). Ruled by “fear of floating”. Mexico’s exchange rate policy during the interwar period, 1925-1936. Investigaciones De Historia Económica, 19(1), 31–44. https://doi.org/10.33231/j.ihe.2022.12.002

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ARTICLES