Dealing with the Trilemma: Optimal Capital Controls with Fixed Exchange Rates

Emmanuel Farhi and Iván Werning

No 18199, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We lay down a standard macroeconomic model of a small open economy with a fixed exchange rate and study optimal capital controls (defined as maximizing the utility of a representative household). We provide sharp analytical and numerical characterizations for a variety of shocks. We find that capital controls are employed to respond to some shocks but not others. They are particularly effective to address risk-premium shocks that affect the interest rate differential foreign investors require in a particular country. We also discuss how the solution depends on the degree of nominal rigidity and the openness of the economy. We show that capital controls may be optimal even if the exchange rate is not fixed in response to risk premium shocks or if wages, in addition to prices, are sticky. Finally, we compare the single country's optimum to a coordinated world solution. Our results show a limited need for coordination. However, the uncoordinated solution features the same capital controls as the coordinated solution.

JEL-codes: E5 F3 F32 F33 F41 F42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cba, nep-mac, nep-mon and nep-opm
Note: EFG IFM ME
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (195)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w18199.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18199

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w18199

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().