Effects of capital controls on foreign exchange liquidity

摘要

This paper investigates from a theoretical and empirical perspective the effects of capital controls on cost-based measures of foreign exchange (FX) market liquidity. First, we propose a market microstructure model of the exchange rate where capital controls reduce the trades of constrained dealers. The effect is a tightening of the effective spread, which increases market liquidity. Then, we propose a new measure of capital account restrictiveness that, in contrast to other traditional measures, can account for intensive changes in capital controls policies. Using this measure in a panel of emerging market economies, we provide empirical evidence showing that capital controls can reduce the implicit cost component of FX market liquidity. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.