In this paper, the author obtains and interprets estimates of short- and long-run demand for money in the United King dom in the period 1871-1913 utilizing high-quality data on broad money and its determinants and applying recent econometric techniques. A unique, theoretically consistent long-run function is estimated as well as a short-run dynamic demand function that is formally superio r to a number of previous estimates.

The authors use the comparative behavior of real output growth and inflation behavior of members and nonmembers of the exchange rate mechanism (ERM) to analyze the importance of ERM membership on macroeconomic performance. An econometric procedure for identifying temporary and permanent shocks to output is proposed and executed. The results confirm that the ERM has acted as a vehicle for macropolicy coordination between members. The authors also investigate several issues relating to the hypothesis of global economic 'tri-polarity' between the United States, Germany, and Japan.

Our paper assesses progress made by the profession in understanding whether and how exchange rate intervention works. We review theory and evidence on official intervention, concentrating primarily on work published in the last decade or so. We conclude that, unlike the profession's consensus of the 1980s, official intervention can be effective, especially as a signal of policy intentions and when publicly announced and concerted. We note an apparent empirical puzzle concerning the secrecy of much intervention and suggest another way for intervention to be effective which has received little attention in the literature, namely by remedying a coordination failure in the foreign exchange market.

Using annual data spanning two centuries for dollar-sterling and franc-sterling real exchange rates, the authors find strong evidence of mean-reverting real exchange rate behavior. Using simple, stationary, autoregressive models estimated on prefloat data, they easily outperform nonstationary real exchange rate models in dynamic forecasting exercises over the recent float. Such stationary univariate equations explain 60-80 percent of the in-sample variation in real exchange rates, although the degree of short-run persistence may be high. The econometric estimates imply a half-life of shocks to the real exchange rate of about six years for dollar-sterling and a little under three years for franc-sterling.

We evaluate the cross-sectional predictive ability of a forward-looking monetary policy reaction function, or Taylor rule, in both statistical and economic terms. We find that investors require a premium for holding currency portfolios with high implied interest rates while currency portfolios with low implied rates offer negative currency excess returns. Our forward-looking Taylor rule signals are orthogonal to current nominal interest rates and disconnected from carry trade portfolios and other currency investment strategies. The profitability of the Taylor rule portfolio spread is mainly driven by inflation forecasts rather than the output gap and is robust to data snooping and a wide range of robustness checks.

This paper examines the demand for money under conditions of very high inflation in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chi le, and Peru during the 1970s and 1980s. The authors test whether the monetary and inflationary experiences of these countries can be adequately characterized by the Cagan (1956) model, using an econometric procedure that is not reliant on any particular assumpti on concerning expectations formation except that forecasting errors are stationary. The authors also examine the importance of foreign asset substitution in domestic portfolios and the hypothesis that monetary policy was tantamount to maximization of the inflation tax revenue before testing the rational expectations hypothesis.

We analyze the degree of policy convergence of EMS member countries relative to that of some non-EMS countries. Interestingly, we find convergence for the nominal and real exchange rates and money supplies of the EMS members but not for the non-EMS countries. We also provide some evidence to support the "German leadership hypothesis" in the context of intra-EMS monetary policy convergence.

This paper aims to assess the impact of the abolition of U.K. exchange control on the degre of integration of U.K. and overseas stock markets. Using cointegration techniques, we find that although there is no significant increase in the correlation of short-run stock market returns for the United Kingdom and certain overseas markets post 1979, there does appear to be a marked increase in the degree to which these markets move together in the long run after this date--there appears to be no long-run gain from diversification. Since cointegration of two variables implies that at least one of them can be used to help forecast the other, our findings also imply the inefficiency of a number of stock markets.

We develop a framework to extract information regarding subsequent spot rate movements from the term structure of forward exchange premiums while admitting possible deviations from rationality and the presence of risk premiums. Using weekly dollar–sterling, dollar– mark, and dollar–yen data, the restrictions implied by our framework are not rejected, and spot and forward exchange rates together are well represented by a vector error correction model (VECM). Dynamic out-of-sample forecasts up to one year ahead indicate that the VECM is strikingly superior to a range of alternative forecasts, including a random walk and standard spot-forward regressions.

Analyzing 48 foreign exchange (FX) rates and 1.2 million FX-related news articles over a 35-year period, using digital textual analysis, we find that a currency reversal investment strategy that buys (sells) currencies with low (high) media sentiment offers strong positive and statistically significant returns and Sharpe ratios. The results are robust and the strategy adds value over other currency premia determinants. Analysts’ forecasts systematically mispredict the reversal strategy. This is the first article to show that price reversals based on media sentiment are a well-defined feature of the FX market.