There is much ongoing debate on the merits of capital controls as effective policy instruments. The differing perspectives are due in part to a lack of empirical studies that look at the intensive margin of controls, which in turn has prevented a quantitative assessment of optimal capital...

We build a new dataset using textual analysis, from which we document a set of stylized facts regarding the use of capital controls, along their intensive and extensive margins for 21 emerging markets, with a focus on priced-based controls. We document that capital controls are “sticky”;...