IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ecr/col048/7801.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

How optimal are the extremes?: Latin American exchange rate policies during the Asian crisis

Author

Listed:
  • Ffrench-Davis, Ricardo
  • Larraín, Guillermo

Abstract

During the Asian crisis, intermediate exchange rate regimes vanished. It has been argued that those regimes were no longer useful and only the extremes remained valid. The paper analyses three foreign exchange regimes: Argentina (pegged), Chile (band) and Mexico (float). The Argentinean currency board delivered low financial volatility while it was credible, but even then it displayed high real volatility. Mexican float performed well in periods of instability isolating the real sector. The Chilean band delivered a mixed outcome as compared to Argentina and Mexico. This is linked apparently to a loss in bands credibility, associated to policy mismanagement and an over-appreciation in the biennium before the crisis. Optimal exchange rate regimes vary across time and the conjuncture. Exit strategies are part of the election of the optimal system, including a flexible policy package rather than a single rigid policy tool.

Suggested Citation

  • Ffrench-Davis, Ricardo & Larraín, Guillermo, 2003. "How optimal are the extremes?: Latin American exchange rate policies during the Asian crisis," Series Históricas 7801, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    • Handle: RePEc:ecr:col048:7801
    Note: Includes bibliography
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://repositorio.cepal.org/handle/11362/7801
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hawkins, John N., 2003. "International bank lending: water flowing uphill?," Copublicaciones, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 1787, November.
    2. Pascual O’Dogherty & Moisés J Schwartz, 2001. "Prudential regulation of foreign exchange: the Mexican experience," BIS Papers chapters, in: Bank for International Settlements (ed.), Marrying the macro- and micro-prudential dimensions of financial stability, volume 1, pages 285-300, Bank for International Settlements.
    3. Carmen M. Reinhart & Graciela L. Kaminsky, 1999. "The Twin Crises: The Causes of Banking and Balance-of-Payments Problems," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(3), pages 473-500, June.
    4. Manuel Agosin & Ricardo French-Davis, 1997. "Managing capital inflows in Chile," Estudios de Economia, University of Chile, Department of Economics, vol. 24(2 Year 19), pages 297-326, December.
    5. Carmen M. Reinhart & Graciela L. Kaminsky, 1999. "The Twin Crises: The Causes of Banking and Balance-of-Payments Problems," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(3), pages 473-500, June.
    6. Ffrench-Davis, Ricardo & Ocampo, José Antonio, 2001. "The globalization of financial volatility: challenges for emerging economies," Copublicaciones, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 1700.
    7. Jeffrey A. Frankel, 1999. "No Single Currency Regime is Right for All Countries or At All Times," NBER Working Papers 7338, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Claudio Borio & Craig Furfine & Philip Lowe, 2001. "Procyclicality of the financial system and financial stability: issues and policy options," BIS Papers chapters, in: Bank for International Settlements (ed.), Marrying the macro- and micro-prudential dimensions of financial stability, volume 1, pages 1-57, Bank for International Settlements.
    9. Paul R. Krugman, 1991. "Target Zones and Exchange Rate Dynamics," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(3), pages 669-682.
    10. Guillermo Le Fort & Sergio Lehmann, 2000. "El Encaje, los Flujos de Capitales y el Gasto: Una Evaluación empírica," Working Papers Central Bank of Chile 64, Central Bank of Chile.
    11. -, 2001. "Financial crises in "successful" emerging economies," Copublicaciones, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 1699 edited by Brookings Institution Press.
    12. Guillermo Larraín & Helmut Reisen & Julia von Maltzan, 1997. "Emerging Market Risk and Sovereign Credit Ratings," OECD Development Centre Working Papers 124, OECD Publishing.
    13. Gabriela Mundaca, B., 2000. "The effect of interventions on realignment probabilities," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 10(3-4), pages 323-347, December.
    14. Zahler, Roberto, 1998. "The Central Bank and Chilean macroeconomic policy in the 1990s," Revista CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), April.
    15. Bank for International Settlements, 2001. "The banking industry in the emerging market economies: competition, consolidation and systemic stability," BIS Papers, Bank for International Settlements, number 04.
    16. Ros, Jaime, 2001. "From the capital surge to the financial crisis and beyond: the Mexican economy in the 1990s," Copublicaciones, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 1703.
    17. John Williamson, 2000. "Exchange Rate Regimes for Emerging Markets: Reviving the Intermediate Option," Peterson Institute Press: All Books, Peterson Institute for International Economics, number pa60, January.
    18. Stanley Fischer, 2001. "Exchange Rate Regimes: Is the Bipolar View Correct?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 15(2), pages 3-24, Spring.
    19. Calvo, Guillermo A & Mendoza, Enrique G, 1996. "Petty Crime and Cruel Punishment: Lessons from the Mexican Debacle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(2), pages 170-175, May.
    20. Clarke, George & Cull, Robert & Martinez Peria, Maria Soledad & Sanchez, Susana M., 2001. "Foreign bank entry - experience, implications for developing countries, and agenda for further research," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2698, The World Bank.
    21. World Bank, 2001. "Finance for Growth : Policy Choices in a Volatile World," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 13895.
    22. Rodrik, Dani, 2001. "Why is there so much economic insecurity in Latin America?," Revista CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), April.
    23. Antonio Ahumada & Jorge Marshall, 2001. "The banking industry in Chile: competition, consolidation and systemic stability," BIS Papers chapters, in: Bank for International Settlements (ed.), The banking industry in the emerging market economies: competition, consolidation and systemic stability, volume 4, pages 45-53, Bank for International Settlements.
    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. Ricardo Ffrench-Davis & Leonardo Villar, 2006. "Real Macroeconomic Stability and the Capital Account in Chile and Colombia," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Ricardo Ffrench-Davis (ed.), Seeking Growth Under Financial Volatility, chapter 4, pages 96-138, Palgrave Macmillan.
    2. Graciela Moguillansky, 2002. "Non-Financial Corporate Risk Management and Exchange Rate Volatility in Latin America," WIDER Working Paper Series DP2002-30, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    3. Machinea, José Luis & Rozenwurcel, Guillermo, 2005. "Macroeconomic coordination in Latin America: does it have a future?," Series Históricas 7858, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    4. Ocampo, José Antonio, 2003. "Capital-account and counter-cyclical prudential regulations in developing countries," Copublicaciones, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 1796, November.
    5. Ffrench-Davis, Ricardo, 2003. "Financial crisis and national policy issues: an overview," Copublicaciones, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 1785.
    6. Martin Grandes & Helmut Reisen, 2003. "Hard Peg versus Soft Float. A Tale of Two Latin-American Countries," Revue économique, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 54(5), pages 1057-1090.
    7. Hochreiter, Eduard & Schmidt-Hebbel, Klaus & Winckler, Georg, 2002. "Monetary union: European lessons, Latin American prospects," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 297-321, December.
    8. José Antonio Ocampo, 2005. "A Broad View of Macroeconomic Stability," Working Papers 1, United Nations, Department of Economics and Social Affairs.
    9. Grandes, Martín & Reisen, Helmut, 2005. "Exchange rate regimes and macroeconomic performance in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico," Revista CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), August.
    10. Ghymers, Christian, 2005. "Fostering economic policy coordination in Latin America: the REDIMA approach to escaping the prisoner's dilemma," Libros de la CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 2417 edited by Eclac, May.
    11. Carlos A. Ibarra, 2004. "Capital Flows, Exchange Rate Regime, and Macroeconomic Performance in Mexico," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2004-27, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    12. Elkinawy, Susan, 2005. "Mutual fund preferences for Latin American equities surrounding financial crises," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 6(3), pages 211-237, September.
    13. Shari Spiegel, 2007. "Macroeconomics and Growth Policies," Policy Notes 1, United Nations, Department of Economics and Social Affairs.
    14. Guillermo Larrain & Mariel Siravegna & Guillermo Yañez, 2009. "Intégration aux marchés financiers internationaux et lissage de la consommation : observations récentes en Amérique latine," Revue d'Économie Financière, Programme National Persée, vol. 95(2), pages 87-108.

    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. Ffrench-Davis, Ricardo, 2003. "Financial crisis and national policy issues: an overview," Copublicaciones, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 1785, November.
    2. Ocampo, José Antonio, 2003. "Capital-account and counter-cyclical prudential regulations in developing countries," Copublicaciones, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 1796.
    3. Williamson, John, 2003. "Proposals for curbing the boom-bust cycle in the supply of capital to emerging markets," Copublicaciones, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 1791.
    4. Reisen, Helmut, 2003. "Ratings since the Asian crisis," Copublicaciones, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 1790, November.
    5. Hawkins, John N., 2003. "International bank lending: water flowing uphill?," Copublicaciones, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 1787, November.
    6. Griffith-Jones, Stephany & Spratt, Stephen, 2003. "The new Basel capital accord and developing countries: issues, implications and policy proposals," Copublicaciones, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 1794.
    7. Stallings, Barbara & Studart, Rogério, 2003. "Financial regulation and supervision in emerging markets: the experience of Latin America since the Tequila crisis," Copublicaciones, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 1799.
    8. Persaud, Avinash, 2003. "Liquidity black holes: why modern financial regulation in developed countries is making short-term capital flows to developing countries even more volatile," Copublicaciones, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 1786.
    9. -, 2003. "From capital surges to drought: seeking stability for emerging economies," Copublicaciones, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 1783 edited by Eclac.
    10. Budnevich, Carlos, 2003. "Countercyclical fiscal policy: a review of the literature, empirical evidence and some policy proposals," Copublicaciones, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 1798.
    11. FitzGerald, Valpy, 2003. "The instability of the emerging-market assets demand schedule," Copublicaciones, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 1795.
    12. Griffith-Jones, Stephany, 2003. "Capital flows to emerging economies: does the emperor have clothes?," Copublicaciones, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 1784.
    13. Dodd, Randall, 2003. "Derivatives, the shape of international capital flows and the virtues of prudential regulation," Copublicaciones, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 1789.
    14. Lubin, David, 2003. "Bank lending to emerging markets: crossing the border," Copublicaciones, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 1788.
    15. Moguillansky, Graciela, 2003. "Corporate risk management and exchange rate volatility in Latin America," Copublicaciones, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 1793.
    16. Barbara Stallings & Rogerio Studart, 2002. "Financial Regulation and Supervision in Emerging Markets: The Experience of Latin America since the Tequila Crisis," WIDER Working Paper Series DP2002-45, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    17. Artus P., 2001. "What Exchange - Rate System For Emerging Countries?," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(1-2), pages 27-60, January -.
    18. Piersanti, Giovanni, 2012. "The Macroeconomic Theory of Exchange Rate Crises," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199653126.
    19. Stallings, Barbara & Studart, Rogério, 2003. "Financial regulation and supervision in emerging markets: the experience of Latin America since the Tequila crisis," Series Históricas 7798, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    20. Birdsall, Nancy & de la Torre, Augusto & Caicedo, Felipe Valencia, 2010. "The Washington consensus : assessing a damaged brand," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5316, The World Bank.

    More about this item

    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:ecr:col048:7801. 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: Biblioteca CEPAL (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eclaccl.html .

    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.