Financial Fragility, Exchange-Rate Regimes, and Sudden Stops in a Small Open Economy

We model a typical Asian economy in crisis using a dynamic general equilibrium technique and establishing exchange rates from nontrivial fiatcurrency demands. Sudden stops/bank panics are possible and are essential for evaluating the merits of alternative exchange-rate regimes. Strategic complementarities contribute to the severe indeterminacy of a continuum of equilibria. Social welfare and the scope of equilibria are also associated with the underlying policy regime and the built-in Sequential Checking Mechanism, including liquidity, solvency, and incentive-compatibility constraints in the model. Combining domestic and foreign reserve requirements promotes stability under a floating exchange-rate regime; however, this increases the scope for panic equilibria under both floating and fixed regimes. While backing the money supply reduces financial fragility under both systems, it only acts as a stabilizer in a fixed regime.