Are Capital Controls a Useful Instrument of Economic Policy?

Are Capital Controls a Useful Instrument of Economic Policy? PDF Author: Daniel Detzer
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3640660889
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 29

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Book Description
Essay from the year 2010 in the subject Economics - Monetary theory and policy, grade: 1,3, Berlin School of Economics and Law, course: International Trade and Monetary Economics, language: English, abstract: "Loose funds may sweep round the world disorganizing all steady business. Nothing is more certain than that the movement of capital funds must be regulated" Keynes, J.M. Already Keynes warned against a free movement of capital. Those warnings were taken seriously by the international community and the IMF allowed in its articles the use of capital controls. The attitude towards those controls changed remarkably during the 1980 s when a general trend towards deregulation occurred. This trend peaked in an attempt to include the purpose of liberalizing capital movements in the Articles of Agreements of the IMF. Coinciding with the Asian Crisis, parts of the academic profession heavily opposed this idea and eventually, some of the fund s representatives revised their general opposition against capital controls. Nonetheless, in big parts of the academic profession, capital controls carry a negative smack and the ultimate goal of free capital flows is promoted. With the financial crisis, however, capital controls came into vogue again. Recently, Brazil introduced a tax on foreign portfolio investment. Also at the G20 level, ways on how to regulate international capital flows are discussed. Whether this should be seen as a desirable development or not, boils down to the question if capital controls are a useful instrument of economic policy? In general capital controls are any kind of policy that limits or redirects capital account transactions. So, the above mentioned question can be answered by looking at the situation of a fully liberalized capital account with its associated cost and benefits and see if state intervention in form of capital controls would be able to improve the situation. This discussion shall first rest on theoretical considerations an

Are Capital Controls a Useful Instrument of Economic Policy?

Are Capital Controls a Useful Instrument of Economic Policy? PDF Author: Daniel Detzer
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3640660889
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 29

Get Book

Book Description
Essay from the year 2010 in the subject Economics - Monetary theory and policy, grade: 1,3, Berlin School of Economics and Law, course: International Trade and Monetary Economics, language: English, abstract: "Loose funds may sweep round the world disorganizing all steady business. Nothing is more certain than that the movement of capital funds must be regulated" Keynes, J.M. Already Keynes warned against a free movement of capital. Those warnings were taken seriously by the international community and the IMF allowed in its articles the use of capital controls. The attitude towards those controls changed remarkably during the 1980 s when a general trend towards deregulation occurred. This trend peaked in an attempt to include the purpose of liberalizing capital movements in the Articles of Agreements of the IMF. Coinciding with the Asian Crisis, parts of the academic profession heavily opposed this idea and eventually, some of the fund s representatives revised their general opposition against capital controls. Nonetheless, in big parts of the academic profession, capital controls carry a negative smack and the ultimate goal of free capital flows is promoted. With the financial crisis, however, capital controls came into vogue again. Recently, Brazil introduced a tax on foreign portfolio investment. Also at the G20 level, ways on how to regulate international capital flows are discussed. Whether this should be seen as a desirable development or not, boils down to the question if capital controls are a useful instrument of economic policy? In general capital controls are any kind of policy that limits or redirects capital account transactions. So, the above mentioned question can be answered by looking at the situation of a fully liberalized capital account with its associated cost and benefits and see if state intervention in form of capital controls would be able to improve the situation. This discussion shall first rest on theoretical considerations an

Capital Controls and the Cost of Debt

Capital Controls and the Cost of Debt PDF Author: Eugenia Andreasen
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1484303318
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 26

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Book Description
Using a panel data set for international corporate bonds and capital account restrictions in advanced and emerging economies, we show that restrictions on capital inflows produce a substantial and economically meaningful increase in corporate bond spreads. A number of heterogeneities suggest that the effect of capital controls on inflows is particularly strong for more financially constrained firms, establishing a novel channel through which capital controls affect economic outcomes. By contrast, we do not find a robust significant effect of restrictions on outflows.

The Macroeconomic Effects of Capital Controls and the Stabilization of the Balance of Trade

The Macroeconomic Effects of Capital Controls and the Stabilization of the Balance of Trade PDF Author: Mr.Enrique G. Mendoza
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1451946058
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 54

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Book Description
A dynamic stochastic equilibrium model of a small open economy is used to quantify the macroeconomic effects of introducing capital controls to stabilize the balance of trade. This model focuses on the role of international trade and foreign debt as instruments that help smooth consumption in response to productivity or terms-of-trade disturbances. The model rationalizes some key empirical regularities that characterize business fluctuations and the dynamics of savings and investment in post-war Canada. The results show that capital controls have small effects on both the basic characteristics of macroeconomic fluctuations and the level of welfare. A fiscal strategy that successfully enforces capital controls by introducing taxes on foreign interest income is also studied in some detail.

Capital Controls and Capital Flows in Emerging Economies

Capital Controls and Capital Flows in Emerging Economies PDF Author: Sebastian Edwards
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226184994
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 699

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Book Description
Some scholars argue that the free movement of capital across borders enhances welfare; others claim it represents a clear peril, especially for emerging nations. In Capital Controls and Capital Flows in Emerging Economies, an esteemed group of contributors examines both the advantages and the pitfalls of restricting capital mobility in these emerging nations. In the aftermath of the East Asian currency crises of 1997, the authors consider mechanisms that eight countries have used to control capital inflows and evaluate their effectiveness in altering the maturity of the resulting external debt and reducing macroeconomic vulnerability. This volume is essential reading for all those interested in emerging nations and the costs and benefits of restricting international capital flows.

Capital Flow Deflection

Capital Flow Deflection PDF Author: Paolo Giordani
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1498317499
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 47

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Book Description
This paper focuses on the coordination problem among borrowing countries imposing controls on capital infl ows. In a simple model of capital flows and controls, we show that inflow restrictions distort international capital flows to other countries and that, in turn, such capital flow deflection may lead to a policy response. We then test the theory using data on inflow restrictions and gross capital inflows for a large sample of developing countries between 1995 and 2009. Our estimation yields strong evidence that capital controls deflect capital flows to other borrowing countries with similar economic characteristics. Notwithstanding these strong cross-border spillover effects, we do not find evidence of a policy response.

What’s In a Name? That Which We Call Capital Controls

What’s In a Name? That Which We Call Capital Controls PDF Author: Mr.Atish R. Ghosh
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1498333222
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 45

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Book Description
This paper investigates why controls on capital inflows have a bad name, and evoke such visceral opposition, by tracing how capital controls have been used and perceived, since the late nineteenth century. While advanced countries often employed capital controls to tame speculative inflows during the last century, we conjecture that several factors undermined their subsequent use as prudential tools. First, it appears that inflow controls became inextricably linked with outflow controls. The latter have typically been more pervasive, more stringent, and more linked to autocratic regimes, failed macroeconomic policies, and financial crisis—inflow controls are thus damned by this “guilt by association.” Second, capital account restrictions often tend to be associated with current account restrictions. As countries aspired to achieve greater trade integration, capital controls came to be viewed as incompatible with free trade. Third, as policy activism of the 1970s gave way to the free market ideology of the 1980s and 1990s, the use of capital controls, even on inflows and for prudential purposes, fell into disrepute.

Estimated Policy Rules for Capital Controls

Estimated Policy Rules for Capital Controls PDF Author: Gurnain Kaur Pasricha
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1513546104
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 60

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Book Description
This paper borrows the tradition of estimating policy reaction functions from monetary policy literature to ask whether capital controls respond to macroprudential or mercantilist motivations. I explore this question using a novel, weekly dataset on capital control actions in 21 emerging economies from 2001 to 2015. I introduce a new proxy for mercantilist motivations: the weighted appreciation of an emerging-market currency against its top five trade competitors. This proxy Granger causes future net initiations of non-tariff barriers in most countries. Emerging markets systematically respond to both mercantilist and macroprudential motivations. Policymakers respond to trade competitiveness concerns by using both instruments—inflow tightening and outflow easing. They use only inflow tightening in response to macroprudential concerns. Policy is acyclical to foreign debt; however, high levels of this debt reduces countercyclicality to mercantilist concerns. Higher exchange rate pass-through to export prices, and having an inflation targeting regime with non-freely floating exchange rates, increase responsiveness to mercantilist concerns.

Capital Controls

Capital Controls PDF Author: Jonathan David Ostry
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781783479498
Category : Capital market
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The global financial crisis and its aftermath saw boom-bust cycles in cross-border capital flows of astounding magnitude. Issues of capital account liberalization and the imposition of capital controls are back in the headlines, and on researchers' agendas. This comprehensive and timely volume is the first collection of influential papers by leading scholars in the field that is representative of the various debates on this topic, and illustrative of how thinking and research have evolved.

In the Wake of the Crisis

In the Wake of the Crisis PDF Author: Olivier Blanchard
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262301083
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 251

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Book Description
Prominent economists reconsider the fundamentals of economic policy for a post-crisis world. In 2011, the International Monetary Fund invited prominent economists and economic policymakers to consider the brave new world of the post-crisis global economy. The result is a book that captures the state of macroeconomic thinking at a transformational moment. The crisis and the weak recovery that has followed raise fundamental questions concerning macroeconomics and economic policy. These top economists discuss future directions for monetary policy, fiscal policy, financial regulation, capital-account management, growth strategies, the international monetary system, and the economic models that should underpin thinking about critical policy choices. Contributors Olivier Blanchard, Ricardo Caballero, Charles Collyns, Arminio Fraga, Már Guðmundsson, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Otmar Issing, Olivier Jeanne, Rakesh Mohan, Maurice Obstfeld, José Antonio Ocampo, Guillermo Ortiz, Y. V. Reddy, Dani Rodrik, David Romer, Paul Romer, Andrew Sheng, Hyun Song Shin, Parthasarathi Shome, Robert Solow, Michael Spence, Joseph Stiglitz, Adair Turner

Preventing Currency Crises in Emerging Markets

Preventing Currency Crises in Emerging Markets PDF Author: Sebastian Edwards
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226185052
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 783

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Book Description
Economists and policymakers are still trying to understand the lessons recent financial crises in Asia and other emerging market countries hold for the future of the global financial system. In this timely and important volume, distinguished academics, officials in multilateral organizations, and public and private sector economists explore the causes of and effective policy responses to international currency crises. Topics covered include exchange rate regimes, contagion (transmission of currency crises across countries), the current account of the balance of payments, the role of private sector investors and of speculators, the reaction of the official sector (including the multilaterals), capital controls, bank supervision and weaknesses, and the roles of cronyism, corruption, and large players (including hedge funds). Ably balancing detailed case studies, cross-country comparisons, and theoretical concerns, this book will make a major contribution to ongoing efforts to understand and prevent international currency crises.