This paper reviews developments and issues in the exchange arrangements and currency convertibility of IMF members. Against the backdrop of continuing financial globalization and a series of emerging market crises since 1997, there have been important changes in the evolution of exchange rate...

This paper outlines legal developments related to floating currencies, gold, and special drawing rights (SDRs) in the IMF. The Articles of the Fund require each member to establish a par value for its currency in terms of gold as a common denominator. Alternatively, the par value may be...

This paper examines legal developments in area of floating currencies, special drawing rights, and gold in the IMF. It highlights that the breakdown of the par value system of the original Articles of the IMF and the failure of the IMF's efforts to substitute a comparable system based on central...

The IMF Working Papers series is designed to make IMF staff research available to a wide audience. Almost 300 Working Papers are released each year, covering a wide range of theoretical and analytical topics, including balance of payments, monetary and fiscal issues, global liquidity, and...

The literature on two-tier foreign exchange markets has concentrated on relating various shocks to the spread between the exchange rates relevant to the two tiers of the exchange market. In some earlier work we found that none of the typical predictions of theory held up empirically as BLEU...

Ever more extensive global financial linkages are changing in ways that have significant implications for policy. Asia-Pacific countries have experienced a particularly rapid growth in financial flows since the crisis. Against this background, the BIS's Representative Office for Asia and the...