This two volume set brings together a key selection of papers written by Jacques J. Polak over the last 50 years in the fields of economics, econometrics and finance. Presented under five broad headings, the collection begins with his work on international and national business cycles - a subject on which the author worked with Nobel Prize winner Jan Tinbergen - problems of international trade and balance of payments adjustment. Later sections examine exchange rates and how they affect the balance of payments, inflation and hyperinflation; the monetary approach to the balance of payments, a subject that the author pioneered in the IMF and that became the framework of the conditionality of IMF credits; and international liquidity, with particular reference to the special drawing right (SDR). The final section features the author's essays on the international monetary system itself, including topics such as the international co ordination of national economic policies, the changes over time in the objectives of national policy making in the main industrial countries and reform of the system.

Economic Theory and Financial Policy will be welcomed by researchers, students and practitioners concerned with economics, government finance, banking and international economic relations.