This paper surveys the theoretical and empirical evidence on capital account convertibility and assesses its relevance for the reform states of Central and Eastern Europe. Its major findings are that domestic investment conditions matter and that domestic policies can reduce the risk of an...

This paper discusses the difference between Fisherian and Ricardian trade in terms of a simple two-period model of a small open economy. Fisherian or intertemporal trade occurs when goods are traded today against the promise to deliver goods in the future. The resulting net resource transfer is...

The integration of the central and eastern European countries into the international capital markets has been and will be determined by the process of European Union (EU) integration. Our analysis shows that southern and eastern European countries already appear to be surprisingly similar...

This paper assesses the extent of international capital mobility in a time series context. It explores the possibility that the current account balance of different OECD-countries contains a unit root. It is shown that if the ratio of the current account balance to GDP is found to be integrated...

The paper provides a selective survey of the literature on the Feldstein-Horioka paradox. The observed high correlation between national savings and domestic investment emerges as a robust empirical regularity. If this regularity is to be attributed to low capital mobility (due to government...

Developing countries are constrained in financing current account deficits as real capital mobility is still far from perfect. At the same time, capital flows to these countries proved to be extremely volatile. The paper argues that the long-term problem of "too little" should not be confused...

Similar to Chile in the 1990s, Slovenia has introduced an unremunerated reserve requirement (URR) on financial credits in 1995. We find that the URR has not been effective in reducing overall inflows of foreign capital. Hence, the gain in monetary autonomy has been limited. While the overall...

In this paper we analyze theoretically and empirically the impact of an increase in income inequality on the current account balance. We develop a model with consumption externalities and heterogeneous agents which explains how an increase in income inequality can affect negatively or positively...

The Eurosystem has been pursuing a crisis management policy for more than four years now. This policy aims primarily at maintaining financial stability in the euro area by providing vast liquidity support to commercial banks that are operating in nationally segmented banking systems. As a side...

This paper explores the links between gradual capital account liberalization and the exchange rate regime in Morocco where the process of economic and financial openness is relatively advanced. Using a game theory model with two economic agents, that are monetary authorities and domestic firms,...