IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/20893.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Monetary Policy Independence under Flexible Exchange Rates: An Illusion?

Author

Listed:
  • Sebastian Edwards

Abstract

I analyze whether countries with flexible exchange rates are able to pursue an independent monetary policy, as suggested by traditional theory. I use data for three Latin American countries with flexible exchange rates, inflation targeting, and capital mobility – Chile, Colombia and Mexico – to investigate the extent to which Federal Reserve actions are translated into local central banks’ policy rates. The results indicate that there is significant “policy contagion,” and that these countries tend to “import” Fed policies. The degree of monetary policy independence is lower than what traditional models suggest.

Suggested Citation

  • Sebastian Edwards, 2015. "Monetary Policy Independence under Flexible Exchange Rates: An Illusion?," NBER Working Papers 20893, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20893
    Note: IFM
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w20893.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sebastian Edwards, 2006. "The Relationship Between Exchange Rates and Inflation Targeting Revisited," NBER Working Papers 12163, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Michael B. Devereux & Philip R. Lane & Juanyi Xu, 2006. "Exchange Rates and Monetary Policy in Emerging Market Economies," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 116(511), pages 478-506, April.
    3. Frankel, Jeffrey & Schmukler, Sergio L. & Serven, Luis, 2004. "Global transmission of interest rates: monetary independence and currency regime," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 23(5), pages 701-733, September.
    4. Taylor, John B., 2013. "International monetary coordination and the great deviation," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 463-472.
    5. Guillermo A. Calvo & Carmen M. Reinhart, 2002. "Fear of Floating," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 117(2), pages 379-408.
    6. Alejandro Justiniano & Bruce Preston, 2010. "Monetary policy and uncertainty in an empirical small open‐economy model," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(1), pages 93-128, January.
    7. Sebastian Edwards, 1990. "The Sequencing of Economic Reform: Analytical Issues and Lessons from Latin American Experiences," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(1), pages 1-14, March.
    8. Dornbusch, Rudiger, 1976. "Expectations and Exchange Rate Dynamics," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 84(6), pages 1161-1176, December.
    9. Sebastian Edwards, 2012. "The Federal Reserve, Emerging Markets, and Capital Controls: A High Frequency Empirical Investigation," NBER Working Papers 18557, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Joshua Aizenman & Mahir Binici & Michael M. Hutchison, 2016. "The Transmission of Federal Reserve Tapering News to Emerging Financial Markets," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 12(2), pages 317-356, June.
    11. Sebastian Edwards, 2012. "The Federal Reserve, the Emerging Markets, and Capital Controls: A High-Frequency Empirical Investigation," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 44, pages 151-184, December.
    12. John B. Taylor, 2007. "Globalization and Monetary Policy: Missions Impossible," NBER Chapters, in: International Dimensions of Monetary Policy, pages 609-624, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. McKinnon, Ronald I., 1979. "Money in International Exchange: The Convertible Currency System," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195024098.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wei, Shang-Jin, 2018. "Managing Financial Globalization: A Guide for Developing Countries Based on the Recent Literature," ADBI Working Papers 804, Asian Development Bank Institute.
    2. Shang-Jin Wei, 2018. "Managing Financial Globalization: Insights from the Recent Literature," Working Papers id:12586, eSocialSciences.
    3. Juan José Echavarría & Mauricio Villamizar & Diego Vásquez, 2010. "Impacto de las intervenciones cambiarias sobre el nivel y la volatilidad de la tasa de cambio en Colombia," Revista ESPE - Ensayos sobre Política Económica, Banco de la Republica de Colombia, vol. 28(62), pages 12-69, June.
    4. Przemek Kowalski & Wojciech Paczynski & Lukasz Rawdanowicz, 2003. "Exchange rate regimes and the real sector: a sectoral analysis of CEE Countries," Post-Communist Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(4), pages 533-555.
    5. Hoffmann, Andreas & Löffler, Axel, 2014. "Low interest rate policy and the use of reserve requirements in emerging markets," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 307-314.
    6. Engel, Charles, 2014. "Exchange Rates and Interest Parity," Handbook of International Economics, in: Gopinath, G. & Helpman, . & Rogoff, K. (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 453-522, Elsevier.
    7. Koepke, Robin, 2015. "What Drives Capital Flows to Emerging Markets? A Survey of the Empirical Literature," MPRA Paper 62770, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Łukasz Goczek & Dagmara Mycielska, 2014. "Monetary policy and nominal convergence in CEE countries with inflation targeting," Ekonomia journal, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw, vol. 38.
    9. Ali, Syed Zahid & Anwar, Sajid, 2022. "Risk-premium shocks and the prudent exchange rate policy," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 97-122.
    10. Troeger, Vera, 2012. "Monetary Policy Flixibility in floating Exchange Rate Regimes: Currency Denomination and Import Shares," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 82, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    11. Vasco Cúrdia, 2005. "Monetary Policy under Sudden Stops," International Finance 0510025, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 19 Dec 2005.
    12. Sangaré, Ibrahima, 2016. "External shocks and exchange rate regimes in Southeast Asia: A DSGE analysis," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 365-382.
    13. René Cabral & Francisco G. Carneiro & André Varella Mollick, 2020. "Inflation targeting and exchange rate volatility in emerging markets," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 58(2), pages 605-626, February.
    14. Nihar Shah, 2022. "Doubly heterogeneous monetary spillovers," International Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(2), pages 126-150, August.
    15. Han, Xuehui & Wei, Shang-Jin, 2018. "International transmissions of monetary shocks: Between a trilemma and a dilemma," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 205-219.
    16. Antonia López‐Villavicencio & Marc Pourroy, 2022. "Fed's Policy Changes and Inflation in Emerging Markets: Lessons from the Taper Tantrum," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 54(4), pages 1099-1121, June.
    17. Thomas Plümper & Vera E. Troeger, 2006. "Fear of Floating and the External Effects of Currency Unions," The Institute for International Integration Studies Discussion Paper Series iiisdp181, IIIS.
    18. Yildirim, Zekeriya, 2022. "Global financial risk, the risk-taking channel, and monetary policy in emerging markets," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    19. Thomas Plümper & Vera E. Troeger, 2008. "Fear of Floating and the External Effects of Currency Unions," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 52(3), pages 656-676, July.
    20. Herwartz, Helmut & Roestel, Jan, 2017. "Mundell’s trilemma: Policy trade-offs within the middle ground," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 1-13.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E5 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit
    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy
    • E58 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Central Banks and Their Policies
    • F30 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - General
    • F31 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Foreign Exchange
    • F32 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Current Account Adjustment; Short-term Capital Movements

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20893. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.