Emerging market economies endure significantly more macroeconomic volatility than industrial countries. Output volatility in emerging market economies is more than twice as large as that in industrial economies, and consumption volatility is three times as large. Recent studies corroborate the view ...

One of the most serious problems that a central bank in an emerging market economy can face is the sudden reversal of capital inflows (or sudden stops). Hoarding international reserves can be used to smooth the impact of such reversals (see, for example, Lee, 2004), but these reserves are seldom ...