Official Exchange Rate Arrangements and Real Exchange Rate Behavior

We study the behavior of real exchange rates under various official designations of exchange rate arrangements. Examining many currencies, we find important differences across the designations. Most notably, real exchange rate mean reversion is fastest when nominal exchange rates are officially pegged. We also find a large nonlinear effect: adjustment is fastest when the real exchange rate deviates greatly from its mean. This nonlinear effect is also most striking among officially pegged currencies. Finally, we find that nominal exchange rates, rather than prices, do most of the adjusting.