Exchange rate regimes and the Feldstein-Horioka puzzle:: the French evidence

This paper investigates whether the Feldstein and Horioka (Economic Journal, 90, 314-29, 1980) argument on domestic saving-investment relationship is supported by the French data when an endogenous structural break corresponding to a major policy regime change is taken into account. The evidence suggests that the saving-investment cointegration disappears after the estimated endogenous structural break point in 1973 coinciding with the end of the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates. Consistent with a current account targeting policy, an investment-driven saving process appears to be the case for the fixed exchange rate regime period.