Wednesday, September 5, 2012

CATO Institute working paper on World Hyperinflations


By Steve H. Hanke and Nicholas Krus2
Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and the Study of Business Enterprise The Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD 21218
Contact: hanke@jhu.edu

 

Regardless of how far the study of economics has advanced, the disorderly and ambiguous terminology cited by Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk over a century ago still exists. For example, Friedrich Hayek complained about the kaleidoscope of definitions surrounding the word “capital” (1941). Fritz Machlup also emphasized this point in Economic Semantics (1991), with a call for clarity in definition. It is only after analysts – armed with first principles – develop definitions and classification systems that data can be properly collected, sorted, and analyzed, in a way that can be replicated. 

This chapter supplies what has been long overdue in the study of hyperinflation – a table that contains all 56 hyperinflation episodes, including several which had previously gone unreported. Access the report here

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