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Quarterly Journal of Economics Vol. 117 No. 2 2002

Fear of Floating

G. A. Calvo1; Carmen Reinhart2

1 Inter-American Development Bank · 2 International Monetary Fund

Abstract

Many emerging market countries have suffered financial crises. One view blames soft pegs for these crises. Adherents of this view suggest that countries move to corner solutions—hard pegs or floating exchange rates. We analyze the behavior of exchange rates, reserves, and interest rates to assess whether there is evidence that country practice is moving toward corner solutions. We focus on whether countries that claim they are floating are indeed doing so. We find that countries that say they allow their exchange rate to float mostly do not—there seems to be an epidemic case of “fear of floating.”

DOI
10.1162/003355302753650274
Volume
117
Issue
2
Pages
379-408
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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