Currency regimes and currency crises: What about cocoa money?

Since the mid-1990s, there has been a significant shift towards floating exchange rate regimes by developing nations, primarily due to the lack of a viable alternative. Hard-peg systems, which both eliminate independent monetary policy and, if not credible, are subject to speculative attack, are increasingly viewed as a poor choice. This paper explores, theoretically and empirically, the potential benefits and drawbacks of an alternative: commodity-backed money. While proposals for commodity-based money in the industrialized world date back to 1934, with the seminal work by Benjamin Graham, this work analyzes its application to the developing world and its key commodity products.