There has been much interest in whether fixed exchange rates can provide a strong source of discipline over domestic monetary and fiscal policies. We argue that previous studies, however, have not paid sufficient attention to the distinction between constraint and incentive effects and that...

When faced with speculative pressure on their currencies, policymakers often delay devaluations by spending billions of dollars in defense of a given exchange rate peg, only to succumb and devalue their currency later on. Using a political economy approach we argue that the interaction of...

There has been much interest in whether fixed exchange rates can provide a strong source of discipline over domestic monetary and fiscal policies. We argue that previous studies, however, have not paid sufficient attention to the distinction between constraint and incentive effects and that...

This paper analyzes the arguments that fixed exchange rates and financial markets can provide strong discipline over domestic macroeconomic policies. We conclude that such discipline works only under a rather limited set of circumstances. A key aspect of our analysis is the distinction between...