IMF Support and Inter-regime Exchange rate Volatility

A widely held notion is that freely floating exchange rates are excessively volatile when moving from fixed to floating exchange rates. We re-examine the data and conclude that the disparity between the fundamentals and exchange rate volatility is more apparent than real, especially when the Deutsche Mark, rather than the dollar, is chosen as the numeraire currency. We argue and demonstrate that in inter-regime comparisons one has to account for certain ‘missing variables’ which compensate for the fundamental variables’ volatility under fixed exchange rates. We show that IMF credit support is a crucial compensating variable.