A discussion of factors that affect determination of the dollar's value in foreign-exchange markets, with an emphasis on various interpretations of the concept of equilibrium.

The head of China’s central bank is calling for countries to replace the U.S. dollar as an international reserve currency with something called SDRs. Created by the IMF way back in 1969 for that purpose, SDRs never caught on. While SDRs may be declared an official international reserve asset...

This paper assesses U.S. foreign-exchange intervention since the inception of generalized floating. We find that intervention was by and large ineffectual. We first identify which interventions were successful according to three criteria. Then, we test whether the number of observed successes...

Using a set of standard success criteria, we show that Riksbank foreign-exchange interventions between 1993 and 2002 lacked forecast value; that is, the observed number of successes was not significantly greater—and usually substantially smaller—than the number one would anticipate given the...

This article offers a survey of the literature on foreign exchange intervention, including sections on the theoretical channels through which intervention might affect exchange rates and a summary of the empirical findings. The survey emphasizes that intervention is intended to provide monetary...

The effectiveness of Japanese interventions over the past decade depended in large part on the frequency and size of the transactions. Prior to June 1995, Japanese interventions only had value as a forecast that the previous day's yen appreciation or depreciation would moderate during the...

An illustration of the cost and employment effects of Japanese voluntary export restraints on new-car imports to the U.S.

A discussion of the institutional aspects of U.S. exchange-market intervention, from the decision to intervene to investment of the proceeds, focusing on the interactions between the U.S. Treasury and the Federal Reserve System.

A review of three channels through which central bank intervention could alter exchange rates, concluding that sterilized intervention is a very limited policy tool.

A review of recent literature on central-bank intervention in exchange markets, finding some qualified support for the power of intervention to influence market expectations, but finding little evidence to support the interventionist policy the G-3 countries have conducted in recent years.