American Economic Review
ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)
Capital Flows: Expansionary or Contractionary?
American Economic Review
vol. 106,
no. 5, May 2016
(pp. 565–69)
Abstract
The workhorse open-economy macro model suggests that capital inflows are contractionary because they appreciate the currency and reduce net exports. Emerging market policy makers, however, believe that inflows lead to credit booms and rising output; the evidence appears to go their way. To reconcile theory and reality, we extend the set of assets in the Mundell-Fleming model to include both bonds and non-bonds. At a given policy rate, inflows may decrease the rate on non-bonds, stimulating financial intermediation and, potentially, output as well. We explore the implications, and find support for the key predictions in the data.Citation
Blanchard, Olivier, Jonathan D. Ostry, Atish R. Ghosh, and Marcos Chamon. 2016. "Capital Flows: Expansionary or Contractionary?" American Economic Review, 106 (5): 565–69. DOI: 10.1257/aer.p20161012Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- E43 Interest Rates: Determination, Term Structure, and Effects
- E44 Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy
- E52 Monetary Policy
- F31 Foreign Exchange
- F32 Current Account Adjustment; Short-Term Capital Movements