Working Paper
Sudden Stops and Optimal Foreign Exchange Intervention
Abstract: This paper shows how foreign exchange intervention can be used to avoid a sudden stop in capital flows in a small open emerging market economy. The model is based around the concept of an under-borrowing equilibrium defined by Schmitt-Grohe and Uribe (2020). With a low elasticity of substitution between traded and non-traded goods, real exchange rate depreciation may generate a precipitous drop in aggregate demand and a tightening of borrowing constraints, leading to an equilibrium with an inefficiently low level of borrowing. The central bank can preempt this deleveraging cycle through foreign exchange intervention. Intervention is effective due to frictions in private international financial intermediation. Reserve accumulation has ex ante benefits by reducing the risk of a sudden stop, while intervention has ex-post benefits by limiting inefficient deleveraging. But intervention itself faces constraints. When the central bank's stock of reserves is low, even foreign exchange intervention cannot prevent a sudden stop.
Keywords: Central bank; sudden stops; foreign exchange reserves; capital controls;
JEL Classification: E50; E30; F40;
https://doi.org/10.24149/gwp405
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Bibliographic Information
Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
Part of Series: Globalization Institute Working Papers
Publication Date: 2020-11-10
Number: 405
Related Works
- Working Paper Revision (2021-09-10) : Sudden Stops in Emerging Economies: The Role of World Interest Rates and Foreign Exchange Intervention
- Working Paper Original (2020-11-10) : You are here.