Several de facto exchange rate regime classifications have been widely used in empirical research, but they are known to disagree with one another to a disturbing extent. We dissect the algorithms employed and argue that they can be significantly improved. We implement the improvements, and show...

The performance of bid-ask spread estimators is investigated using simulation experiments. All estimators are much more accurate if the data are sampled at high frequency. In high-frequency data, the Huang-Stoll estimator, which requires order flow information, generally outperforms Roll-type...

Published comparisons of real exchange rate volatility have concentrated on the dispersion of monthly or quarterly movements. If volatility is to be a measure of the potential for misalignment, account must also be taken of the persistence of such movements. A simple measure of long-run...

Previous research (on countries other than the UK) finds better-performing firms to be more likely to export. We test this hypothesis for UK firms. The relationship between exporting and firm variables is significantly different for firms that have experienced a major innovation ("innovating...

A poor country with volatile export prices borrows in international markets. When debt is denominated in foreign currency, there is a temptation to repudiate when export prices are low. Excusable partial defaults reduce this temptation, and thus help to support lending.

Can pegging reduce real as well as nominal, and multilateral as well as bilateral exchange rate volatility? We investigate this issue using monthly data for 139 countries from January 1990 to June 2006. We use the IMF regime classification system, because this closely reflects the form of...

Real effective exchange rate volatility is examined for 90 countries using monthly data from January 1990 to June 2006. Volatility decreases with openness to international trade and per capita GDP, and increases with inflation, particularly under a horizontal peg or band, and with terms-of-trade...