When Are Fixed Exchange Rates Really Fixed? / Andres Velasco.

By:

Velasco, Andres

Contributor(s):

National Bureau of Economic Research

Material type: Text

TextSeries: Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) ; no. w5842.Publication details: Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 1996.Description: 1 online resource: illustrations (black and white)Subject(s):

Online resources:

Available additional physical forms:

Hardcopy version available to institutional subscribers

Abstract: This paper analyzes the sustainability of fixed exchange rates by extending the Barro-Gordon framework to a fully dynamic context in which the level of a state variable (in this case debt) determines the payoffs available to the government at each point in time. The model yields the following results. If debt is sufficiently low, there is an equilibrium in which the government does not devalue. For an intermediate range of debt levels, the government devalues in response to an attack but not otherwise, so that self-fulfilling attacks can occur. Finally, for yet another debt range there can also be sunspot equilibria in which an attack (and the corresponding devaluation) occurs with positive probability.

Tags from this library: No tags from this library for this title. Log in to add tags.

Average rating: 0.0 (0 votes)

Holdings
Item type	Home library	Collection	Call number	Status	Date due	Barcode	Item holds
Working Paper	Biblioteca Digital	Colección NBER	nber w5842 (Browse shelf(Opens below))	Not For Loan

Total holds: 0

November 1996.

This paper analyzes the sustainability of fixed exchange rates by extending the Barro-Gordon framework to a fully dynamic context in which the level of a state variable (in this case debt) determines the payoffs available to the government at each point in time. The model yields the following results. If debt is sufficiently low, there is an equilibrium in which the government does not devalue. For an intermediate range of debt levels, the government devalues in response to an attack but not otherwise, so that self-fulfilling attacks can occur. Finally, for yet another debt range there can also be sunspot equilibria in which an attack (and the corresponding devaluation) occurs with positive probability.