Standard models in open economy macroeconomics predict that an expansionary (contractionary) monetary policy will lead to a currency depreciation (appreciation). Models that generate this prediction include the Dornbusch overshooting model, the flexible price model, the liquidity-effect models,...

This paper studies optimal monetary policy in a small open economy under flexible prices. The paper's key innovation is to analyze this question in the context of environments where only a fraction of agents participate in asset market transactions (i.e., asset markets are segmented). In this...

Over the past 25 years there has been a remarkable economic catch-up by scheduled castes and tribes (SC/STs) towards non-SC/ST levels in the terms of their education attainment levels, their occupation choices as well as wage and consumption levels. This is remarkable given the centuries of...

Development of an economy typically goes hand-in-hand with a declining importance of agriculture in output and employment. Given the primarily rural population in developing countries and their concentration in agrarian activities, this has potentially large implications for inequality along the...

A famous dictum in open economy macroeconomics -- which obtains in the Mundell-Fleming world of sticky prices and perfect capital mobility -- holds that the choice of the optimal exchange rate regime should depend on the type of shock hitting the economy. If shocks are predominantly real, a...

Central banks typically raise short-term interest rates to defend currency pegs. Higher interest rates, however, often lead to a credit crunch and an output contraction. We model this trade-off in an optimizing, first-generation model in which the crisis may be delayed but is ultimately...

As documented in recent studies, developing countries (classified by the IMF as floaters or managed floaters) are extremely reluctant to allow for large nominal exchange rate fluctuations. This 'fear of floating' is reflected in the fact that, in spite of being subject to larger shocks,...

This paper revisits the issue of the optimal exchange rate regime in a flexible price environment. The key innovation is that we analyze this question in the context of environments where only a fraction of agents participate in asset market transactions (i.e., asset markets are segmented)....