The increased mobility of capital of the last few decades creates new challenges for the macroeconomic policies of the nation-states. In this paper we analyse some of these challenges. Contrary to what is often alleged, increased capital mobility does not necessarily increase the need for...

Though there has been much general debate recently about the pros and cons of capital controls, there remains substantial confusion and uncertainty about what exactly is entailed by the term ‘restraining global capital flows’. Popular discussion around this has typically been long...

This paper proposes a model encompassing alternative views of contagion by highlighting the different channels of transmission of financial crises in an unifying framework. We study investor behaviour when they are affected by external habit formation. It is shown how international portfolio...

We study how investor behavior affects the transmission of financial crises. If investors exhibit decreasing relative risk aversion, then negative wealth shocks increase the risk premium required to hold risky assets. We integrate this into a second generation model of currency crises which...

Capital flows in the 1990's and their sudden reversals and the resulting turmoil created in financial markets together with big financial losses, revived the interests in capital controls. There are inherent destabilizing factors in international financial system and Tobin had seen that as early...

Kürzlich ist die ursprünglich von James Tobin vorgeschlagene Steuer auf Devisenmarkttransaktionen wieder in die politische Diskussion gerückt. Die deutsche und die französische Regierung haben sich bereits im vergangenen Jahr positiv zur Einführung einer Tobin-Steuer geäußert. Anfang 2002...

These are the narrative individual country histories of exchange rate arrangements, 1946-2001 that underpin "The Modern History of Exchange Rate Arrangements: A Reinterpretation". The chronologies allow us to date dual or multiple exchange rate episodes, as well as to differentiate between...

In reaction to the financial crisis, increased attention has recently been given to security transaction taxes (STTs) as a means of (1) raising revenue for a variety of possible purposes and/or (2) helping to curb financial market excesses. This paper reviews existing theory and evidence on...

In a model of asset markets with transaction costs, we find a sufcient condition for an increase in transaction costs to increase buying prices, decrease selling prices, decrease the trading volume, and make all active investors worse off. The sufficient condition is met by all CARA utility...

We investigate the effects of a Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) in an order-driven artificial financial market. FTTs are meant to limit short-term speculative behavior by reducing the amount of excess liquidity in the system. To quantify these effects, adjustments in trading strategies and their...