Over the past 20 years there has been a proliferation of emerging market crises and a vast accumulation of commentary -- descriptive, theoretical and applied -- highlighting the origins and mechanics of each crisis and of crises in general. And there is plenty of analysis on how to deal with...

In the aftermath of emerging market crises from Russia to Asia and Latin America, there is a quest for better monetary arrangements that are more crisis-proof. Fixed rates are out, flexible rates are in with a policy focus on inflation targeting. But there is, of course, the alternative of...

In the Asian crisis of 1997-98 some countries followed IMF prescriptions for stabilization and recovery. Malaysia went another route, placing an emphasis on capital controls. Did this strategy work out to lower the costs of the crisis and foster a more rapid recovery as claimed by some observers...

The paper explores the implications of high debt for monetary policy. In Europe, debt (and deficits) play a special role at present in the run up to Maastricht because large debts are seen as a threat to the integrity of the new European money. The paper reviews two historical episodes-- the...

This report brings together three separate, short papers on problems of Brazilian trade and payments. The following topics are addressed: the determinants of export behavior in the manufactures sector, measures of the real exchange rate and the monetary approach applied to the external balance....

We review ten aspects of how floating exchange rates have worked in practice, contrasted with ten characteristics that the system was supposed to have in theory. We conclude that the foreign exchange market is characterized by high transactions-volume, short-term horizons, and an absence of...

This paper discusses the link between portfolio diversification models of exchange risk and the macroeconomics of exchange rate determination. A first part sets out the mean-variance model of portfolio choice for the case of two nominal assets with random real returns. From there the model is...

The paper reviews macroeconomic events and policies in Argentina in the period 1981-1984. In that period inflation,that had decelerated to less than 100 percent, resumed and reached irore than 600 percent in mid-1984. The real exchange rate that had appreciated in the policy of disinflation...