Capital Controls and the Cost of Debt

Capital Controls and the Cost of Debt
Author: Eugenia Andreasen
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 26
Release: 2017-06-09
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1484303318

Using a panel data set for international corporate bonds and capital account restrictions in advanced and emerging economies, we show that restrictions on capital inflows produce a substantial and economically meaningful increase in corporate bond spreads. A number of heterogeneities suggest that the effect of capital controls on inflows is particularly strong for more financially constrained firms, establishing a novel channel through which capital controls affect economic outcomes. By contrast, we do not find a robust significant effect of restrictions on outflows.

Capital Controls

Capital Controls
Author: Ms.Inci Ötker
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 135
Release: 2000-05-17
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1557758743

This paper examines country experiences with the use and liberalization of capital controls to develop a deeper understanding of the role of capital controls in coping with volatile capital flows, as well as the issues surrounding their liberalization. Detailed analyses of country cases aim to shed light on the motivations to limit capital flows; the role the controls may have played in coping with particular situations, including in financial crises and in limiting short-term inflows; the nature and design of the controls; and their effectivenes and potential costs. The paper also examines the link between prudential policies and capital controls and illstrates the ways in which better prudential practices and accelerated financial reforms could address the risks in cross-border capital transactions.

Capital Flight and Capital Controls in Developing Countries

Capital Flight and Capital Controls in Developing Countries
Author: Gerald A. Epstein
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2005-01-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9781781008058

Capital flight - the unrecorded export of capital from developing countries - often represents a significant cost for developing countries. It also poses a puzzle for standard economic theory, which would predict that poorer countries be importers of capital due to its scarcity. This situation is often reversed, however, with capital fleeing poorer countries for wealthier, capital-abundant locales. Using a common methodology for a set of case studies on the size, causes and consequences of capital flight in developing countries, the contributors address the extent of capital flight, its effects, and what can be done to reverse it. Case studies of Brazil, China, Chile, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey and the Middle East provide rich descriptions of the capital flight phenomena in a variety of contexts. The volume includes a detailed description of capital flight estimation methods, a chapter surveying the impact of financial liberalization, and several chapters on controls designed to solve the capital flight problem. The first book devoted to the careful calculation of capital flight and its historical and policy context, this volume will be of great interest to students and scholars in the areas of international finance and economic development.

Controlling Capital? Legal Restrictions and the Asset Composition of International Financial Flows

Controlling Capital? Legal Restrictions and the Asset Composition of International Financial Flows
Author: Mr.Martin Schindler
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 34
Release: 2009-09-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1451873557

How effective are capital account restrictions? We provide new answers based on a novel panel data set of capital controls, disaggregated by asset class and by inflows/outflows, covering 74 countries during 1995-2005. We find the estimated effects of capital controls to vary markedly across the types of capital controls, both by asset categories, by the direction of flows, and across countries' income levels. In particular, both debt and equity controls can substantially reduce outflows, with little effect on capital inflows, but only high-income countries appear able to effectively impose debt (outflow) controls. The results imply that capital controls can affect both the volume and the composition of capital flows.

The New Economics of Capital Controls Imposed for Prudential Reasons+L4888

The New Economics of Capital Controls Imposed for Prudential Reasons+L4888
Author: Mr.Anton Korinek
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 38
Release: 2011-12-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1463927843

This paper provides an introduction to the new economics of prudential capital controls in emerging economies. This literature is based on the notion that there are externalities associated with financial crises because individual market participants do not internalize their contribution to aggregate financial instability when they make their finacing decisions. As a result they impose externalities in the form of greater financial instability on each other, and the private financing decisions of individuals are distorted towards excessive risk-taking. We discuss how prudential capital controls can induce private agents to internalize these externalities and thereby increase macroeconomic stability and enhance welfare.

Capital Controls

Capital Controls
Author: Forrest Capie
Publisher:
Total Pages: 132
Release: 2002
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

Free capital movements played an important part in the economic integration and globalisation of the nineteenth century. This work analyses historical experience with capital controls, in Britain and elsewhere, and reviews the theory. It concludes that such controls are damaging and that there is no case for reviving them.

Who Benefits from Capital Account Liberalization? Evidence from Firm-Level Credit Ratings Data

Who Benefits from Capital Account Liberalization? Evidence from Firm-Level Credit Ratings Data
Author: Mr.Martin Schindler
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 36
Release: 2009-09-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1451873573

We provide new firm-level evidence on the effects of capital account liberalization. Based on corporate foreign-currency credit ratings data and a novel capital account restrictions index, we find that capital controls can substantially limit access to, and raise the cost of, foreign currency debt, especially for firms without foreign currency revenues. As an identification strategy, we exploit, via a difference-in-difference approach, within-country variation in firms' access to foreign currency, measured by whether or not a firm belongs to the nontradables sector. Nontradables firms benefit substantially more from capital account liberalization than others, a finding that is robust to a broad range of alternative specifications.

Capital Controls or Macroprudential Regulation?

Capital Controls or Macroprudential Regulation?
Author: Mr.Anton Korinek
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 35
Release: 2015-10-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1513528378

International capital flows can create significant financial instability in emerging economies because of pecuniary externalities associated with exchange rate movements. Does this make it optimal to impose capital controls or should policymakers rely on domestic macroprudential regulation? This paper presents a tractable model to show that it is desirable to employ both types of instruments: Macroprudential regulation reduces overborrowing, while capital controls increase the aggregate net worth of the economy as a whole by also stimulating savings. The two policy measures should be set higher the greater an economy's debt burden and the higher domestic inequality. In our baseline calibration based on the East Asian crisis countries, we find optimal capital controls and macroprudential regulation in the magnitude of 2 percent. In advanced countries where the risk of sharp exchange rate depreciations is more limited, the role for capital controls subsides. However, macroprudential regulation remains essential to mitigate booms and busts in asset prices.