Capital Flows And The Twin Crises

This paper develops a model that focuses on the interaction of liquidity creation by financial intermediaries with capital flows and exchange rate collapses. The intermediaries’ role of transforming maturities is shown to result in larger movements of capital and a higher probability of crisis. These movements resemble the observed cycle in capital flows: large inflows, crisis and abrupt outflows. The model highlights how adverse productivity and international interest rate shocks may trigger a sudden outflow of capital and an exchange collapse. The initial shock is magnified by the behavior of individual foreign investors linked through their deposits in the intermediaries. The expectation of an eventual exchange rate crisis links investors’ behavior even further.

An analysis of the connections between capital flows and financial crises as well as between capital flows and economic growth.

Bachelorarbeit aus dem Jahr 2009 im Fachbereich VWL - Internationale Wirtschaftsbeziehungen, Note: 2,3, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster (Institut für Internationale Ökonomie), Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: The occurrence of twin crises can evoke serious recessions. From 1976 to 2002 there were 38 countries afflicted by at least one twin crisis. McKinnon and Pill (1996, 1997, 1998, 1999) set basic milestones in respect of international overborrowing and drew a linkage to twin crises. Their papers are still increasingly cited by current publications. This paper at first systemizes literature on currency, banking and twin crises and gives a review on several contributions. The second section deals with the third generation model of McKinnon and Pill concerning “The Overborrowing Syndrome”. Their key finding is that loan guarantees may lead via excessive borrowing to a twin crisis. After this, policy conclusions to counteract international overborrowing and a review on the development of theoretical overborrowing papers will complete the second section. In section three it will refer to empirical studies on crises and overborrowing. Section four closes with final remarks.

Capital flows to the developing economies have long displayed a boom-and-bust pattern. However, rarely has the cycle turned as abruptly as it did in the 1990s, when the surges in lending were followed by the Mexican peso crisis of 1994-95, and the sudden collapse of currencies in Asia in 1997 and 1998. The volume maps an uncertain financial landscape in which volatile private capital flows and fragile banking systems produce sudden reversals of fortune for governments and economies. This environment creates dilemmas for both national policy-makers who confront the mixed blessing of capital inflows and the international institutions that manage the recurrent crises.

The coincidence of banking and currency crises associated with the Asian financial crisis has drawn renewed attention to causal and common factors linking the two phenomena. In this paper, we analyze the incidence and underlying causes of banking and currency crises in 90 industrial and developing countries over the 1975-97 period. We measure the individual and joint (quot;twinquot;) occurrence of bank and currency crises and assess the extent to which each type of crisis provides information about the likelihood of the other.We find that the twin crisis phenomenon is most common in financially liberalized emerging markets. The strong contemporaneous correlation between currency and bank crises in emerging markets is robust, even after controlling for a host of macroeconomic and financial structure variables and possible simultaneity bias. We also find that the occurrence of banking crises provides a good leading indicator of currency crises in emerging markets. The converse does not hold, however, as currency crises are not a useful leading indicator of the onset of future banking crises. We conjecture that the openness of emerging markets to international capital flows, combined with a liberalized financial structure, make them particularly vulnerable to twin crises.

This paper reviews the literature on financial crises focusing on three specific aspects. First, what are the main factors explaining financial crises? Since many theories on the sources of financial crises highlight the importance of sharp fluctuations in asset and credit markets, the paper briefly reviews theoretical and empirical studies on developments in these markets around financial crises. Second, what are the major types of financial crises? The paper focuses on the main theoretical and empirical explanations of four types of financial crises—currency crises, sudden stops, debt crises, and banking crises—and presents a survey of the literature that attempts to identify these episodes. Third, what are the real and financial sector implications of crises? The paper briefly reviews the short- and medium-run implications of crises for the real economy and financial sector. It concludes with a summary of the main lessons from the literature and future research directions.

Describes understanding of the causes of financial crises and the best ways to reduce their frequency and severity. Analyses ways in which developing countries can best reduce their vulnerability to capital-flow reversals. Examines suggestions for reforming the international financial system.

The coincidence of having both banking and currency crises associated with the Asian financial crisis has drawn renewed attention to causal and common factors linking the two phenomena. In this paper, we analyse the incidence and underlying causes of banking and currency crises in 90 industrial and developing countries over the 1975-97 period. We measure the individual and joint (twin) occurrence of bank and currency crises and assess the extent to which each type of crisis provides information about the likelihood of the other.We find that the twin crisis phenomenon is most common in financially liberalized emerging markets. The strong contemporaneous correlation between currency and bank crises in emerging markets is robust, even after factoring in a host of macroeconomic and financial structure variables and possible simultaneity bias. We also find that the occurrence of banking crises provides a good leading indicator of currency crises in emerging markets. The converse does not hold true, however, as currency crises are not a useful leading indicator of the onset of future banking crises. We conjecture that the openness of emerging markets to international capital flows, combined with a liberalised financial structure, make them particularly vulnerable to twin crises.