What Has Foreign Market Intervention Since the Plaza Agreement Accomplished?

46 Pages Posted: 8 Jan 2008 Last revised: 26 Sep 2022

See all articles by Michael D. Bordo

Michael D. Bordo

Rutgers University, New Brunswick - Department of Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Anna J. Schwartz

City University of New York (CUNY); National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - NY Office

Date Written: December 1990

Abstract

We review the conduct and scale of official intervention by monetary authorities in the U.S.A., Japan, and West Germany since the Plaza Agreement. Relative to trading volume and the stock of internationally traded assets denominated in foreign currencies, intervention is small--scale and sporadic, hence at best limited to transitory effects. It does not appear to reduce volatility of daily exchange rates. Monetary authorities gamble that they will not suffer losses on their foreign currency holdings. Evidence in favor of sterilized foreign exchange market intervention as a way of conveying information to the private sector is far from convincing. Since changes in relative monetary growth rates are sufficient to alter bilateral exchange rates, monetary authorities can achieve their exchange rate preferences with domestic monetary policy, but at the cost of Possible distortionary effects on monetary growth rates, domestic interest rates, and international capital flows.

Suggested Citation

Bordo, Michael D. and Schwartz, Anna J., What Has Foreign Market Intervention Since the Plaza Agreement Accomplished? (December 1990). NBER Working Paper No. w3562, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=471534

Michael D. Bordo (Contact Author)

Rutgers University, New Brunswick - Department of Economics ( email )

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Anna J. Schwartz

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