Emerging markets do not handle adverse shocks well. In this paper, we lay out an argument about why emerging markets are so fragile, and why they may adopt contractual mechanisms -such as a dollarized banking system- that increase their fragility. We draw on this analysis to explain why...

Recent crises in emerging markets have been heavily driven by balance-sheet or net-worth effects. Episodes in countries as far-flung as Indonesia and Argentina have shown that exchange rate adjustments that would normally help to restore balance can be destabilizing, even catastrophic, for...

Emerging markets do not handle adverse shocks well. In this paper, I will outline an explanation of why emerging markets are so fragile, and why they may adopt contractual mechanisms -- such as a dollarized banking system -- that increase their fragility. I draw on this analysis to explain why...

This paper examines the impact of foreign currency hedging demand on the foreign exchange market. First, the paper documents deviations from covered interest parity (CIP) for Mexico after the global financial crisis (GFC), and then it evaluates the effect of two variables in a regression-based...