Real Exchange Rate Policies for Economic Development / Martin Guzman, José Antonio Ocampo, Joseph E. Stiglitz.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Guzman, Martin.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Ocampo, José Antonio.

Stiglitz, Joseph E.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w23868.

NBER working paper series no. w23868

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2017.

Summary:

This paper analyzes the role of real exchange rate (RER) policies in promoting economic development. Markets provide a suboptimal amount of investment in sectors characterized by learning spillovers. We show that a stable and competitive RER policy may correct for this externality and other related market failures. The resulting development of these sectors leads to overall faster economic growth. A system of effectively multiple exchange rates is required when spillovers across different tradable sectors differ. The impact of RER policies is increased when they are complemented by traditional industrial policies that increase the elasticity of the aggregate supply to the RER. Among the instruments required to implement a stable and competitive RER are interventions in the foreign exchange market and regulation of capital flows. We also discuss the trade-offs associated with alternative stable and competitive RER policies.

Notes:

Print version record

September 2017.