In January 2015, in the face of sustained capital inflows, the Swiss National Bank abandoned the floor for the Swiss Franc against the Euro, a decision which led to the appreciation of the Swiss Franc. The objective of this paper is to present a simple framework that helps to better understand...

This paper contains an analysis of the role of international reserves under a regime of pegged exchange rates and under a regime of managed floating. It presents evidence on the stability of the demand for reserves during the periods 1963-72 and 1973-75. It is shown that the demand for reserves...

Like a fixed exchange rate, a target zone system may be subject to speculative attacks when the reserves of the central bank are limited. Thispaper analyzes such speculative attacks and their implications; it shows that the recently developed quot;smooth pastingquot; model of target zones should...

This study examines the international repercussions of national sterilization policies under fixed exchange rates and managed flexibility. The effects of sterilization on the country pursuing the policy are well-known, but the adverse effects on other countries have not been adequately explored....

Our goal in this project is to gain a better empirical understanding of the international financial implications of currency movements. To this end, we construct a database of international currency exposures for a large panel of countries over 1990-2004. We show that trade-weighted exchange...

This paper applies the analytical framework of the monetary approach to exchange rate determination to the analysis of the Dollar/Pound exchange rate during the first part of the 1920's. The analysis uses monthly data up to the return of Britain to gold in 1925. The equilibrium exchange rate is...

In this paper the relationship between the demand for international reserves and exchange rate adjustments is empirically investigated for agroup of LDC's. It is shown that countries that have maintained a fixed exchange rate for a long period of time have a different demand function than...

In this paper we explore some implications of the revived' Bretton Woods system for exchange market intervention and reserve management in periphery countries. Financial policies in these countries are seen as a component of a more general portfolio management policy in which the formation of an...

By looking at how an East Asian currency moves when the yen fluctuates sharply against the US dollar, we sometimes find that the reaction has been much more significant than would be suggested by the econometric estimates of the weight of the yen in nominal exchange rate determination. Moreover,...

This paper offers new evidence on the emergence of the dollar as the leading international currency, focusing on its role as currency of denomination in global bond markets. We show that the dollar overtook sterling much earlier than commonly supposed, as early as in 1929. Financial market...