The paper offers a new approach to estimate de facto exchange rate regimes, a synthesis of two techniques. One is a technique that the authors have used in the past to estimate implicit de facto weights when the hypothesis is a basket peg with little flexibility. The second is a technique used...

There are two striking conventional wisdoms about the status of regional trading blocs in East Asia. The first is that the only formal regional arrangement in the area, ASEAN, does not in fact function as an economic bloc. Trade among the members is thought to be very low. The second is that...

Developing countries traditionally experience passthrough of exchange rate changes that is greater and more rapid than high-income countries experience. This is true equally of the determination of prices of imported goods, prices of local competitors’ products, and the general CPI. But...

First problem: Some of the countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union are sufficiently eager for price stability that they are willing to sacrifice monetary sovereignty, and to tie their fate to a reliable international currency. Neither the deutschemark nor the dollar, however,...

The author examines the ability of a nominal GNP rule for monetary policy to stabilize output and inflation. Other regimes considered are a money rule, an exchange rate rule, a price level rule, and discretion. The rules compare favorably to discretion to the extent that a time-consistent...