In the presence of rigid prices, movements in the exchange rate help to absorb external shocks and to reduce changes in net exports. However, they also affect firms’ competitiveness, marginal costs, and labor demand. In countries where labor market institutions hinder wage adjustment (for...

A traditional way of thinking about the exchange rate (XR) regime and capital account openness has been framed in terms of the 'impossible trinity' or 'trilemma', in which policymakers can only have 2 of 3 possible outcomes: open capital markets, monetary independence and pegged XRs. This paper...

A widely spread belief among economists is that monetary policy has relatively short-lived effects on real variables such as unemployment. Previous studies indicate that monetary policy affects the output gap only at business cycle frequencies, but the effects on unemployment may well be more...