Current Account Reversals and Structural Change in Developing and Industrialized Countries

This paper examines the compositional changes that occur in economies experiencing current account reversals using sectoral-level data on output and employment growth around 55 reversal episodes. The experiences of developing and industrialized countries are compared, and the role of currency crises is also examined. Labor market adjustments following reversals is developing countries is shown to differ from that of industrialized economies. The possibility that this difference is related to labor market informality is briefly examined.