With World War II still raging, nations came together to create a new international monetary order, the Bretton Woods system. This agreement created the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and a system of stable exchange rates with currencies pegged against the dollar. One man saw the political, economic, and moral tensions inherent in keeping the dollar, a national currency, as a global reserve currency. When the monetary arrangement collapsed in 1973, economist Robert Triffin had already predicted its downfall two decades previously. Robert Triffin, a Belgian-American scholar and policy advisor, was a defining voice in economics and international politics in the twentieth century and an architect of the new multilateral liberal world order in his own right. Best known for his analysis of the vulnerabilities of the international monetary system - the "Triffin dilemma" - Triffin was a voice of reason and compassion in the postwar period. Triffin played a key role in the debates on European monetary integration, especially with his proposals for a European Reserve Fund and a European currency unit, becoming one of the intellectual fathers of Europe's single currency, the euro. This intellectual biography evaluates what made Triffin a crucial figure in modern economic history. With an emphasis on the ideas that shaped the postwar international system, Robert Triffin: A Life explores both the man and the mission. In addition to analyzing his work in economics and policymaking, Ivo Maes and Ilaria Pasotti trace Triffin's story from a very modest background, as the son of a butcher, who grew up through the interwar period, to a singularly influential economist in the late twentieth century. The first biography of one of the intellectual giants of the postwar era, Robert Triffin critically examines the accomplishments and the legacy of a scholar who believed that innovations in economic policy could lead to a better and more peaceful world.

About the Author
Ivo Maes is Senior Advisor at the Economics and Research Department of the National Bank of Belgium and a Professor, Robert Triffin Chair, at the Universite catholique de Louvain, as well as at ICHEC Brussels Management School. He previously served as a member of the Committee for Institutional Reform of the West African Monetary Union and as the President of the Council of the European Society for the History of Economic Thought. He has been a visiting professor at Duke University (USA), the Universite de Paris-Sorbonne, and the Universita Roma Tre. Ilaria Pasotti is a researcher and an archivist. She has a Ph.D. in History of Economic Thought from the University of Florence. From 2009 to 2014 she was a researcher at the Catholic University of Milan. She has been a visiting researcher at the National Bank of Belgium, the Universite Catholique de Louvain, and Cambridge University.

Reviews
Robert Triffin was a distinguished Belgium-American economist who predicted the demise of the Bretton Woods system in several articles he wrote in the late-1950s and in two important books - Europe and the Money Muddle (1957) and Gold and the Dollar Crisis (1960). An account of his life and work was long overdue. With the publication of Robert Triffin: A Life, Ivo Maes and Ilaria Pasoti have repaired that omission.... The book draws upon an impressive array of published and unpublished material and a large number of interviews conducted by the authors. While Maes and Pasotti generally endorse Triffin's conclusions, the work is not a hagiography. On the contrary, it is an objective analysis of Triffin's contributions to economic thought and policy. * History of Economics Review *
Maes and Pasotti, wrote an outstanding book on Triffin that is a must-read for economists. * Pierre-Hernan Rojas, Institut Catholique de Paris, Paris, France, European Journal of the History of Economic Thought *
Ivo Maes' volume is a precious contribution to the understanding of Triffin's role in the history of international economics and policymaking. * Fabio Masini, History of Economic Thought and Policy *
Belgium has yet to produce to a Nobel Prize-winning economist. But in Robert Triffin, the country has a great economist whose impact can still be felt today. His story has been well told by Maes, whose extensive personal and academic research shines through on page after page. * Linda Yueh, Central Banking *
An outstanding book on Triffin that is a must-read for economists. * European Journal of the History of Economic Thought *
Ivo Maes and Ilaria Pasotti have written a small gem of a book: a lucid and sympathetic portrait of the life and intellectual development of the Belgian economist Robert Triffin. At the same time, the book will serve as a marvelous general introduction, for students and indeed a wider audience, to all the central debates of the past seventy-five years about the functioning of the international monetary system (IMS). * Harold James, Journal of European Economic History *
Triffin has had to await a biography that would do him and his various roles justice. Ivo Maes's new book with Ilaria Pasotti succeeds admirably in filling this gap ... The result is an outstanding book that will stand as a standard reference in the scholarly literature and attract a wider readership ... Maes deserves great credit for having brought back to life - in a full, rounded manner - the character of Triffin. He has written an essential read. * Kenneth Dyson, EH.Net *
Presents an intellectual biography of Robert Triffin, focusing on the development of his economic ideas as well as his impact in the academic world and in policy making. * Journal of Economic Literature *


Awards
Winner of Winner, 2022 Best Book in the History of Economic Thought, Associazione Italiana per la Storia del Pensiero Economico Winner, 2023 Best Book Award, European Society for the History of Economic Thought.



Book Information
ISBN 9780190081096
Author Ivo Maes
Format Hardback
Page Count 262
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 1g
Dimensions(mm) 155mm * 236mm * 23mm