Analyses of the political economy of exchange-rate policy posit that firms and individuals in different sectors of the economy have distinct policy attitudes toward the level and the stability of the exchange rate. Most such approaches hypothesize that internationally exposed firms prefer more...

The early stages of transformation of centrally planned economies into market economies are examined. In the transitional phase when an economy is no longer centrally planned, but not yet market based--when it is a "previously centrally planned economy"--expectations play a key role. A model is...

Two main views of exchange rate determination have evolved since the early 1970s: the monetary approach to the exchange rate (in flexible-price, sticky-price, and real interest differential formulations); and the portfolio balance approach. The literature on these views is surveyed, followed by...

The macroeconomic effects of a variety of exogenous and policy-induced real disturbances are examined under the assumption that the authorities target the level of the real exchange rate. We first discuss the implications--particularly for inflation and the current account--of targeting the rate...

In this paper I analyze the anatomy of current account adjustments in the world economy during the past three decades. The main findings may be summarized as follows: (i) Major reversals in current account deficits have tended to be associated with "sudden stops" of capital inflows. (ii) The...

In this paper, we examine how country insurance schemes affect policymakers' incentives to undertake reforms. Such schemes (especially when made contingent on negative external shocks) are more likely to foster than to delay reform in crisis-prone volatile economies. The consequences of country...

This paper tests for evidence of contagion between the financial markets of Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Korea, and the Philippines. We find that correlations in currency and sovereign spreads increase significantly during the crisis period, whereas the equity market correlations offer mixed...

This paper examines the impact of trade costs on real exchange rate volatility. The relationship is examined by constructing a two-country Ricardian model of trade, based on the work of Dornbusch, Fischer, and Samuelson (1977), which shows that higher trade costs result in a larger nontradables...

This paper describes the result and the methodology of updating nominal and real effective exchange rate weights on the basis of trade data from 1999 to 2001. The underlying framework is an updated version of the IMF's current effective exchange rate calculation, which uses weights largely based...