This paper shows that the impact of country interest rate shocks on emerging markets' economic activities can be associated with credit market imperfections affecting principally non-tradable activities. I present novel evidence documenting that tradable and non-tradable activities respond...

Using data from more than 100 economies for the period of 1975 to 2005, we conduct an extensive empirical analysis of the determinants of international reserve holdings. Four groups of determinants, namely, traditional macro variables, financial variables, institutional variables, and dummy...

Iceland is a member of the IMF and of the WTO, a party to the European Economic Area Agreement, and a signatory of the OECD Code of Liberalisation of Capital Movements. Iceland is bound by Art. VIII IMF not to impose restrictions on current payments. Furthermore, under the GATS, Iceland cannot...

Countries with de jure floating exchange rate regimes are often reluctant to allow their currencies to float freely in practice. One reason why countries may wish to limit exchange rate volatility is potential negative balance sheet effects due to currency mismatches on the balance sheets of...

We analyse the international transmission of interest rates by focusing on the role of the accumulation of international reserves and on the financing of sovereign debt. An increase in foreign exchange reserves is expected to moderate the influence of U.S. interest rates. However, a high level...

This paper analyzes how the global financial crisis has impacted emerging Asia and identifies key characteristics that have made these economies more or less vulnerable to a transmission of crises from the advanced economies. After reviewing how economic outcomes in emerging Asia have evolved...

The large number of financial crises in emerging markets over the past ten years has left many observers, both from academia and financial institutions, puzzled by an apparent lack of homogenous causal relations between endogenous economic variables and the bursting of large financial shocks....

This study investigates the systematic risk factors driving emerging market (EM) credit risk by jointly modelling sovereign and corporate credit spreads at a global level. We use a multi-regional Bayesian panel VAR model, with time-varying betas and multivariate stochastic volatility. This model...

Using surveys of foreign exchange expectations, we document the emergence of a large gap between the beliefs of foreign banks and local-based institutions ahead of Brazil's 2002 presidential elections. That period was marked by a sudden stop in foreign capital flows and steep depreciation of...

Economic and financial integration has reshaped the monetary policy frameworks and transmission channels in the emerging market economies (EMEs) over the past two decades. Economic and financial linkages have become stronger, resulting in greater synchronization of business cycles across...