TY - JOUR AU - Frankel,Jeffrey A. AU - Wei,Shang-Jin TI - Managing Macroeconomic Crises JF - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series VL - No. 10907 PY - 2004 Y2 - November 2004 UR - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10907 L1 - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10907.pdf N1 - Author contact info: Jeffrey A. Frankel Kennedy School of Government Harvard University 79 JFK Street Cambridge, MA 02138 Tel: 617/496-3834 Fax: 617/496-5747 E-Mail: jeffrey_frankel@harvard.edu Shang-Jin Wei Graduate School of Business Columbia University Uris Hall 619 3022 Broadway New York, NY 10027-6902 Tel: 212/854-9139 E-Mail: shangjin.wei@columbia.edu AB - This study reviews broadly the experience of the last decade on crisis prevention and management. It seeks to draw greater attention to policy decisions that are made during the phase when capital inflows come to a sudden stop. Procrastination---the period of financing a balance of payments deficit rather than adjusting---had serious consequences in some cases. Crises are more frequent and more severe when short-term borrowing and dollar denomination external debt are high, and foreign direct investment (FDI) and reserves are low, in large part because balance sheets are then very sensitive to increases in exchange rates and short-term interest rates. If countries that are faced with a fall in inflows adjusted more promptly, rather than stalling for time by running down reserves or shifting to loans that are shorter-termed and dollar-denominated, they might be able to adjust on more attractive terms. ER -