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We document how the entire distribution of exchange rate returns responds to changes in global financial conditions. We measure global financial conditions as the common component of country-specific financial condition indices, computed consistently across a large panel of developed and emerging economies. Using quantile regression, we provide a characterisation and ranking of the tail behaviour of a large sample of currencies in response to a tightening of global financial conditions, corroborating (and quantifying) some of the prevailing narratives about safe haven and risky currencies. Compared to most standard approaches, our methodology delivers a more nuanced picture of exchange rate behaviour, allowing for example to make probabilistic statements about the likelihood of observing large swings in returns given the prevailing global financial environment. We also identify macroeconomic fundamentals associated with different tail dynamics: currencies of countries with higher interest rates, low levels of international reserves and large fiscal deficits display more marked increases in the likelihood of large losses in response to a tightening of global financial conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the international propagation of tax rate shocks originating in the USA using a global vector error correction model. We identify shocks to corporate and personal income tax rates by using narrative series as external instruments, following the proxy-SVAR methodology. The main results are the following: (1) In terms of fiscal multiplier, domestic effects of corporate tax shocks are stronger than those of personal income tax shock; (2) spillovers are in most cases positive and significant, albeit of small size; (3) the boost to exports in recipient economies, stimulated both by stronger US demand and, to a lesser extent, by real exchange rate depreciation, is the main transmission channel; and financial channels (through long-term interest rates) also play a role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyze conventional and unconventional monetary policies in a dynamic small open-economy model with financial frictions. In the model, financial intermediaries or banks borrow from the world market and lend to domestic households. Banks can borrow abroad up to a multiple of their equity; in turn, there is a limit to how much bank equity households can hold. The combination of external and domestic frictions results in an economy-wide credit constraint and an endogenous interest rate spread. It also magnifies the amplitude and persistence of aggregate responses to exogenous shocks. In response to external balance shocks, fixed exchange rates are contractionary and flexible exchange rates expansionary (although less so in the presence of currency mismatches); the opposite is true in response to increases in the world interest rate. Unconventional policies, including central bank direct credit, discount lending, and equity injections to banks, have real effects only if financial constraints bind. Because of bank leverage, central bank discount lending and equity injections are more effective than direct credit. Sterilized foreign exchange intervention is equivalent to lending directly to domestic agents. Unconventional policies are feasible only to the extent that the central bank holds a sufficient amount of international reserves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]