Professor Catherine R Schenk

Featured Publications

International Economic Relations since 1945

International Economic Relations Since 1945 2nd edition (Routledge, June 2021)

This second edition has been updated to include an assessment of economic relations up to the COVID-19 pandemic. It focuses on three main threads that tie national economies together: flows of goods, of people and of finance.

Since the end of the Second World War, the international economy transformed from a tightly controlled trading system to the financial globalization of the late 20th century. This book traces the organisation of international economic relations from the 1944 Bretton Woods conference through to the 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath.

The Decline of Sterling: managing the retreat of international currency 1945-92

The Decline of Sterling; managing the retreat of an international currency 1945-1992, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010).

The demise of sterling as an international currency was widely predicted after 1945, but the process took thirty years to complete. Why was this demise so prolonged? Traditional explanations emphasize British efforts to prolong sterling's role because it increased the capacity to borrow, enhanced prestige, or supported London as a centre for international finance. This book challenges this view by arguing that sterling's international role was prolonged by the weakness of the international monetary system and by collective global interest in its continuation.

 

In the Media

Per Jacobsson lecture: Central bank cooperation and US dollar liquidity: what can we learn from the past?

November 2020

BISness Podcast: Catherine Schenk: Governance at the BIS since 1973

October 2020

BISness Podcast: why history matters for current economic events and policymaking

August 2019

IMF Spring Meetings, Future of the SDR

CGTN news report

April 2017  

Economic History Society Podcast: US-UK Relations: designing the post-1945 World Economy

Current DPhil Students

Damien Bérubé

Michael Collins

Federica Costantino

Zhou (Joe) Fang

Joseph Guido

Patrick (Pak Hei) Hao

Kimberley Nicholson

Michael T. Roberts

Amy Tibble

Rozen Whitworth

I currently teach:

Undergraduate papers:

Quantification in History


Graduate papers:

  • International Money and Finance after 1945
  • Topics in Global Economic History

Research Centres

Projects

Classical Numismatic Group, Inc. http://www.cngcoins.com [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)

The Global History of Capitalism

the bank of england london 1885 1895

Global Correspondent Banking 1870-2000

Publications

Period Modern
Region East Asia Europe Transnational & International
Specialism Global & Imperial History