Inflation targeting and exchange rate regimes in emerging markets

This paper investigates the effects of the adoption of inflation targeting (IT) on the choice of exchange rate regime in emerging markets (EMs), conditional on certain macroeconomic conditions. Using a large sample of EMs and after dampening the endogeneity of the adoption of IT using a selection on observables, we find that IT countries on average have a relatively more flexible exchange rate regime than other EMs. However, the flexibility of the exchange rate regime shows strong heterogeneity among IT countries. IT countries with low trade and financial openness and with a large share of external debt exhibit a lower exchange rate flexibility than others. Moreover, the marginal effect of IT adoption on the exchange rate flexibility increases with the duration of the IT regime in place, and with the propensity scores to adopt it.