NBER Working Papers by Ilan Goldfajn

This paper analyzes the relationship between capital account liberalization and macroeconomic volatility using Brazil as a case study. The paper provides several stylized facts regarding the evolution of capital flows and controls in Brazil in the last three decades. We conclude that, notwithstanding the financial crises and macroeconomic volatility of the recent past, capital account liberalization and the floating exchange regime have led to a more resilient economy. Further liberalization of the capital account is warranted and should be accompanied by a broad range of reforms to improve and foster stronger institutions.

This paper assesses inflation targeting in emerging market economies (EMEs), and develops applied prescriptions for the conduct of monetary policy and inflation-targeting design in EMEs. We verify that EMEs have faced more acute trade-offs higher output and inflation volatility and worse performance than developed economies. These results stem from more pronounced external shocks, lower credibility, and lower level of development of institutions in these countries. In order to improve their performance, we recommend high levels of transparency and communication with the public and the development of more stable institutions. At an operational level, we propose a procedure that a central bank under inflation targeting can apply and communicate when facing strong supply shocks, and suggest...

This paper empirically analyzes a broad range of real exchange rate appreciation episodes. The cases are identified after compiling a large sample of monthly multilateral real exchange rates from 1960 to 1994. The objective is twofold. First, the paper studies the dynamics of appreciations, avoiding the sample selection of analyzing exclusively the crisis (or devaluation) cases. Second, the paper analyzes the mechanism by which overvaluations are corrected. In particular, we are interested in the proportion of the reversions that occur through nominal devaluations, rather than cumulative inflation differentials. We calculate the probability of undoing appreciations without nominal depreciations for various degrees of misalignment. The overall conclusion is that it is very unlikely t...