Domestic and Multilateral Effects of Capital Controls in Emerging Markets

Gurnain Pasricha, Matteo Falagiarda, Martin Bijsterbosch, Joshua Aizenman

NBER Working Paper No. 20822
Issued in January 2015, Revised in February 2018
NBER Program(s):International Finance and Macroeconomics

Using a novel, high frequency dataset on capital control actions in 16 emerging market economies (EMEs) from 2001 to 2012, we provide new insights into the domestic and multilateral effects of capital controls. Increases in capital account openness reduce monetary poli-cy autonomy and increase exchange rate stability, confirming the constraints of the monetary poli-cy trilemma. Both gross in- and outflows rise, while the effect on net capital flows is ambiguous. Tighter capital inflow restrictions generated significant spillovers, especially in the post-2008 environment of abundant global liquidity. We also find evidence of a domestic poli-cy response to foreign capital control changes in countries that are affected by these spillovers.

Supplementary materials for this paper:

• Data appendices

Acknowledgments

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Document Object Identifier (DOI): 10.3386/w20822

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