A Generalization and Assessment of the Index of Managed Float.

The large literature on the optimum intensity of foreign exchange market intervention contains two alternative characterizations of the central bank's policy choice variable: (1) the central bank's intensity of intervention in the foreign exchange mar ket and (2) the Frenkel-Aizenman (1982) index of managed float. J. T. Cuddington (1991) has shown the relation between these policy measur es by deriving the Frenkel-Aizenman index from a standard specification of money market equilibrium. Here, the Frenkel-Aizenman index is generalized to cover situations where both sterilized and unsteriliz ed intervention are possible.