With the breakdown of the Bretton Woods System and the begin of floating between the major currencies, central banks have been formally freed from their obligations to defend the fixed parities of bilateral exchange rates. Nev ertheless, since then there have been countless occasions on which monetary authorities have officially intervened in the foreign exchange market. More over, numerous studies indicate that exchange rates have been much more variable than originally anticipated - in real and in nominal, as well as in short run and longer run measures (see for example Hesse and Braasch [1989] and Marston [1988]). Through the experience of high real sector costs, the topic of optimal exchange rate management soon reentered policy discussions. The term exchange rate management encompasses both the choice of ex change rate regime as well as active intervention policies within the given 1 system. Much of the recent policy discussion has focussed on the first issue, in particular proposals of how to reform the present international monetary order. And new systems such as the European Monetary System (EMS) have emerged for subgroups of countries. However, the question of finding the optimal system has not yet been resolved.

The paper provides a theoretical framework for analyzing policy formation among independent authorities operating in an interdependent environment. This is then applied to the analysis of optimal monetary policy in a stochastic two country model with rational expectations. The main conclusions are 1) Optimal monetary policy requires a finite response of the money supply to the exchange rate (which is the only contemporaneously observed variable.) Neither a fixed nor a freely floating exchange rate is likely to be optimal. 2) Output stabilizing monetary policy may well require 'leaning with the wind' in the foreign exchange market, expanding the money supply when the home currency depreciates, thus increasing the volatility of the exchange rate. 3) The ability of the monetary authorities to influence real variables is due to the assumption that the private sector does not make exchange rate-contingent forward contracts.4) There are likely to be gains from policy coordination

An examination of the economic justification for foreign exchange market intervention, the potential for such intervention to stabilize an economy and the distinction between sterilized and non-sterilized intervention.

With the loss of Soviet control in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as the move toward economic liberalization in many developing countries, a huge increase in the number of convertible currencies in the world has occurred. A key aspect of the management of these currencies involves their relationships with the world economy, which is determined

GAO sponsored a symposium of specialists on exchange rate behavior. The seminar participants addressed the yen-dollar exchange rates and analyzed the implications of floating exchange rates and economic interdependence on the conduct of national macroeconomic policy and the future of the international financial system. GAO found that it is questionable whether some policy to manage exchange rates can mitigate or reverse the adverse economic effects of exchange rate behavior. One analyst noted that there are alternative definitions of exchange rate overvaluation and several plausible sources of overvaluation. The limits to research in exchange rate behavior partially explain the disagreement over exchange rate management policy, and forecasting long-range exchange rates has not been successful. Although the symposium participants agreed that floating exchange rates cannot insulate an open economy from external economic disturbances or contain domestic disturbances within a single economy, they agreed that flexible exchange rates are superior to fixed rates. Panelists also agreed that policies aimed at countering misaligned exchange rates will have limited success if national macroeconomic policies differ markedly. Furthermore, a policy that addresses only the exchange rate, without addressing monetary and fiscal policies, can have only limited success.

External sector policies and exchange rate policy are central to a country's economic performance and to the IMF's surveillance functions. The papers in this book, edited by Richard Barth and Chorng-Huey Wong, were presented at a seminar on Exchange Rate Policy in Developing and Transition Economies held by the IMF Institute. They analyze choices of exchange rate regimes, issues affecting management of exchange regimes, and specific types of regimes, including case studies from the former Soviet Union, Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

This book demystifies the foreign exchange market by focusing on the people who comprise it. Drawing on the expertise of the very professionals whose decisions help shape the market, Thomas Oberlechner describes the highly interdependent relationship between financial decision makers and news providers, showing that the assumption that the foreign exchange market is purely economic and rational has to be replaced by a more complex market psychology.