Are international capital markets a source of stable and reliable financing for emerging market economies, or a source of instability? Is the pattern of capital flows from poor to rich countries observed in the past decade sustainable? What is the optimal degree of capital account openness both for inflows and for outflows? Should small emerging economies actively try to issue external liabilities in domestic currency?

This volume is an attempt to answer some of these questions, at both the theoretical and empirical level. All 15 papers add substantially to the body of theoretical findings, empirical research, and policy lessons on the behavior of the current account and the sources of external financing. Novel evidence is provided regarding sudden stops, international reserve management and fundamentals driving current accounts in commodity-exporting countries. Other analytical research addresses the adjustment of global imbalances and the causes and consequences of capital flows, current account adjustment in emerging economies, and the impact of stocks of international assets and liabilities and their valuation on international adjustment.

Article by Sebastian Edwards in this volume: On Current Account Surpluses and the Correction of Global Imbalances

With Cowan, Kevin and Valdes, Rodrigo O. Santiago

From Central Bank of Chile, 2008,