In many developing countries the financial system is characterized by the absence of organized markets for securities and equities, by capital controls, and by legal ceilings on bank borrowing and lending rates, a situation which gives rise to parallel markets for foreign exchange and informal...

The paper presents a general equilibrium framework for short-run macroeconomic analysis in a developing country context where controls on interest rates and foreign exchange restrictions lead to the emergence of informal financial markets. The complexity of the model precludes an analytical...

This paper uses a simple model to analyze the forces that determine the size of the public sector and the quality of workers employed in that sector. Workers are heterogeneous, and the public sector chooses an employment strategy that maximizes a social welfare function U(s, Y) that depends on...

Following the 1997-98 financial turmoil, crisis countries in Asia moved toward either floating or fixed exchange rate systems, reinforcing the bipolar view of exchange rate regimes and the hollow middle hypothesis. But some academics have claimed that the crisis countries` policies have been...

We explore a model intended to capture the interaction between exchange rate policy, fiscal policy, and outright default on foreign-currency denominated debt. We examine how the exchange rate affects the supply of short-term debt facing the government. We show that under a credible hard peg...

This paper develops our analytical model to explore the relationship between the dynamics of macroeconomic adjustment and the timing of the implementation of an adjustment program featuring an official devaluation. The effects of postponing adjustment depend on the source of the original shock,...

Critics of the tight monetary policies pursued by some of the countries hurt by the 1997 Asian financial crisis have questioned the presumption that tight money can help sustain the value of a currency. The issue is actually an empirical one because theory does not unambiguously predict the...

This paper analyzes the macroeconomic effects of a variety of exogenous and policy-induced real disturbances when the authorities target the level of the real exchange rate. It first discusses the implications particularly for inflation and the current account of targeting the rate at an...

The paper assesses the empirical relevance of the Lucas supply function for developing countries. The prediction of Lucas` model that the short-run effects of monetary disturbances on real output are negatively related to the variability of such disturbances is tested for a large sample of...

This paper develops a small analytical model to explore the relationship between the dynamics of macroeconomic adjustment and the timing of the implementation of an adjustment program featuring a nominal devaluation. The effects of postponing adjustment depend on the source of the original...