IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ekm/repojs/v29y2009i3p15-34id484.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Rethinking the economics of capital mobility and capital controls

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas I. Palley

Abstract

This paper reexamines the issue of international financial capital mobility, which is today’s economic orthodoxy. Discussion is often framed in terms of the impossible trinity. That framing distorts discussion by representing capital mobility as having equal significance with sovereign monetary policy and control over exchange rates. It also distorts discussion by ignoring possibilities for coordinated monetary policy and exchange rates, and for managed capital flows. The case for capital mobility rests on neo-classical economic efficiency arguments and neo-liberal political arguments. The case against capital mobility is based on Keynesian macroeconomic inefficiency arguments, neo-Walrasian market failure arguments, and neo-Marxian arguments regarding distortion of the social structure of accumulation. Close examination shows the case for capital mobility to be extremely flimsy, pointing to the ideological dimension behind today’s policy orthodoxy. JEL Classification: F00; F32; F33.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas I. Palley, 2009. "Rethinking the economics of capital mobility and capital controls," Brazilian Journal of Political Economy, Center of Political Economy, vol. 29(3), pages 15-34.
    • Handle: RePEc:ekm:repojs:v:29:y:2009:i:3:p:15-34:id:484
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://centrodeeconomiapolitica.org.br/repojs/index.php/journal/article/view/484/482
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tobin, James, 1975. "Keynesian Models of Recession and Depression," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 65(2), pages 195-202, May.
    2. M. Ayhan Kose & Eswar Prasad & Kenneth Rogoff & Shang-Jin Wei, 2009. "Financial Globalization: A Reappraisal," Panoeconomicus, Savez ekonomista Vojvodine, Novi Sad, Serbia, vol. 56(2), pages 143-197.
    3. De Gregorio, Jose & Edwards, Sebastian & Valdes, Rodrigo O., 2000. "Controls on capital inflows: do they work?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 59-83, October.
    4. De Long, J Bradford & Andrei Shleifer & Lawrence H. Summers & Robert J. Waldmann, 1990. "Noise Trader Risk in Financial Markets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(4), pages 703-738, August.
    5. Krueger, Anne O, 1974. "The Political Economy of the Rent-Seeking Society," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 64(3), pages 291-303, June.
    6. Bernardo S. de M. Carvalho & Márcio G. P. Garcia, 2008. "Ineffective Controls on Capital Inflows under Sophisticated Financial Markets: Brazil in the Nineties," NBER Chapters, in: Financial Markets Volatility and Performance in Emerging Markets, pages 29-96, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Thomas I. Palley, 2003. "The Economics of Exchange Rates and the Dollarization Debate : The Case Against Extremes," International Journal of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(1), pages 61-82.
    8. Sebastian Edwards & Roberto Rigobon, 2005. "Capital Controls, Exchange Rate Volatility and External Vulnerability," NBER Working Papers 11434, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Thomas Palley, 2008. "The Economics of Outsourcing: How Should Policy Respond?," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 66(3), pages 279-295.
    10. Colin I. BRADFORD, Jr., 2005. "Prioritizing Economic Growth: Enhancing Macroeconomic Policy Choice," G-24 Discussion Papers 37, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
    11. Grabel, Ilene, 2000. "The Political Economy of 'Policy Credibility': The New-Classical Macroeconomics and the Remaking of Emerging Economies," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 24(1), pages 1-19, January.
    12. Palley, Thomas I., 2008. "Keynesian models of deflation and depression revisited," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 167-177, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Michael Effah Asamoah & Imhotep Paul Alagidede & Frank Adu, 2021. "Private Capital Flows, Real Sector Growth and Institutional Quality in Africa," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(1), pages 171-207, January.
    2. Rainer Bartel, 2009. "Weltwirtschaftskrise und Politikwechsel," Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft - WuG, Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte für Wien, Abteilung Wirtschaftswissenschaft und Statistik, vol. 35(2), pages 145-186.
    3. Sunanda Sen, 2012. "Managing Global Financial Flows at the Cost of National Autonomy: China and India," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_714, Levy Economics Institute.
    4. Solikin M. Juhro & Miranda S. Goeltom, 2013. "The Monetary Policy Regime In Indonesia," Working Papers WP/17/2013, Bank Indonesia.
    5. Solikin M. Juhro, 2014. "THE ROLE OF THE CENTRAL BANK IN PROMOTING SUSTAINABLE GROWTH: Perspectives on the Implementation of Flexible ITF in Indonesia," Working Papers WP/17/2014, Bank Indonesia.
    6. Solikin M. Juhro, 2023. "Future Central Banking In Emerging Market Economies," Working Papers WP/01/2023, Bank Indonesia.
    7. André Moreira Cunha & Daniela Magalhães Prates & Pedro Perfeito da Silva, 2020. "External Financial Liberalization and Macroeconomic Performance in Emerging Countries: An Empirical Evaluation of the Brazilian Case," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 51(5), pages 1225-1245, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ghosh, Atish R. & Ostry, Jonathan D. & Qureshi, Mahvash S., 2018. "Taming the Tide of Capital Flows: A Policy Guide," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262037165, April.
    2. Jonathan David Ostry & Atish R. Ghosh & Karl F Habermeier & Marcos d Chamon & Mahvash S Qureshi & Dennis B. S. Reinhardt, 2010. "Capital Inflows; The Role of Controls," IMF Staff Position Notes 2010/04, International Monetary Fund.
    3. Cohen, Joseph N., 2008. "Managing the Faustian bargain: monetary autonomy in the pursuit of development in Eastern Europe and Latin America," MPRA Paper 22435, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Engel, Charles, 2016. "Macroprudential policy under high capital mobility: policy implications from an academic perspective," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 162-172.
    5. Lambert, F. & Ramos-Tallada, J. & Rebillard, C., 2011. "Capital controls and spillover effects: evidence from Latin-American countries," Working papers 357, Banque de France.
    6. C. Emre Alper & Oya Pinar Ardic & Salih Fendoglu, 2009. "The Economics Of The Uncovered Interest Parity Condition For Emerging Markets," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(1), pages 115-138, February.
    7. Nicolas E. Magud & Carmen M. Reinhart & Kenneth S. Rogoff, 2018. "Capital Controls: Myth and Reality--A Portfolio Balance Approach," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 19(1), pages 1-47, May.
    8. Chan, Marc K. & Kwok, Simon, 2018. "Connecting the markets? Recent evidence on China’s capital account liberalization," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 417-428.
    9. Straetmans, Stefan T.M. & Versteeg, Roald J. & Wolff, Christian C.P., 2013. "Are capital controls in the foreign exchange market effective?," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 36-53.
    10. Asli Demirgüç-Kunt & Luis Servén, 2010. "Are All the Sacred Cows Dead? Implications of the Financial Crisis for Macro- and Financial Policies," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 25(1), pages 91-124, February.
    11. Ahmed, Shaghil & Zlate, Andrei, 2014. "Capital flows to emerging market economies: A brave new world?," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(PB), pages 221-248.
    12. Kose, M. Ayhan & Prasad, Eswar & Rogoff, Kenneth & Wei, Shang-Jin, 2010. "Financial Globalization and Economic Policies," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Dani Rodrik & Mark Rosenzweig (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 4283-4359, Elsevier.
    13. Xiuping Hua & Anders C. Johansson & Xun Wang, 2017. "National and regional financial openness in China," Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(2), pages 127-140, April.
    14. Nicolas Magud & Carmen M. Reinhart, 2007. "Capital Controls: An Evaluation," NBER Chapters, in: Capital Controls and Capital Flows in Emerging Economies: Policies, Practices, and Consequences, pages 645-674, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Vithessonthi, Chaiporn & Tongurai, Jittima, 2013. "The perils of a central bank's capital control: How substantial is the effect on firm value?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 111-135.
    16. Jeffrey A. Frankel, 2010. "Monetary Policy in Emerging Markets: A Survey," NBER Working Papers 16125, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Bilge Erten & Anton Korinek & José Antonio Ocampo, 2021. "Capital Controls: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 59(1), pages 45-89, March.
    18. Reinhardt, Dennis & Ricci, Luca Antonio & Tressel, Thierry, 2013. "International capital flows and development: Financial openness matters," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(2), pages 235-251.
    19. Vithessonthi, Chaiporn & Tongurai, Jittima, 2013. "Unremunerated reserve requirements, exchange rate volatility, and firm value," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 358-378.
    20. Philip R. Lane & Sergio L. Schmukler, 2006. "The international financial integration of China and India," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, issue Jun.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    capital mobility; capital controls; impossible trinity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F00 - International Economics - - General - - - General
    • F32 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Current Account Adjustment; Short-term Capital Movements
    • F3 - International Economics - - International Finance

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ekm:repojs:v:29:y:2009:i:3:p:15-34:id:484. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Brazilian Journal of Political Economy (Brazil) (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://centrodeeconomiapolitica.org/repojs/index.php/journal/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.