Searching for historical analogies in political economy: the Baltic states and the gold standard regime

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article compares the contemporary politico-economic regime in the Baltic countries with the classical gold standard regime, which successfully functioned in the Western world from 1870 until 1914. Both the classical gold standard system and the Baltic political economies were based on a hard currency peg policy supported by a high degree of economic flexibility. Politically, this flexibility was ensured by a strong insulation of economic policy-making due to a weak political left. Furthermore, the classical gold standard system and the Baltic regimes shared an ideational consensus supporting economic liberalism in general and hard currency peg policy in particular.