The literature has identified three main approaches to account for the way exchange rate regimes are chosen: i) the optimal currency area theory; ii) the financial view, which highlights the consequences of international financial integration; and iii) the political view, which stresses the use...

We study the optimal provision of unemployment insurance (UI) in a framework that distinguishes between consumption and expenditure. We derive a "sufficient statistics" formula for optimal UI that is expressed terms of observable variables and can therefore be used in applied work. Recent...

Conventional difference-in-differences (DID) methods that are used to estimate the effect of a treatment rely on important identifying assumptions. Identification of the treatment effect in a DID framework requires some assumption relating trends for controls and treated in absence of treatment,...

The core assumption to identify the treatment effect in difference-in-differences estimators is the so-called Parallel Paths assumption, namely that the average change in outcome for the treated in the absence of treatment equals the average change in outcome for the non-treated. We define a...

The literature has identified three main approaches to account for the way exchange rate regimes are chosen: (i) the optimal currency area theory; (ii) the financial view, which highlights the consequences of international financial integration; and (iii) the political view, which stresses the...

In recent years the term “fear of floating” has been used to describe exchange rate regimes that, while officially flexible, in practice intervene heavily to avoid sudden or large depreciations. However, the data reveals that in most cases (and increasingly so in the 2000s) intervention has...

In recent years, the term “fear of floating” has been used to describe exchange rate regimes that, while officially flexible, in practice intervene heavily to avoid sudden or large depreciations. However, the data reveals that in most cases (and increasingly so in the 2000s) intervention has...

To understand the growth effects of currency undervaluation we estimate its impact on the different components of GDP. We find that, for developing countries, undervaluation does not affect the tradable sector, but does lead to greater domestic savings and investment, as well as employment.