Classifying Exchange Rate Regimes: 20 Years Later

Abstract

Twenty years ago, in Levy-Yeyati and Sturzenegger (2001) we proposed a de facto classification of exchange rate regimes which contrasted with the –at the time, standard– de jure classifications based on self-reporting by monetary authorities. This paper extends our original classification through 2021 more than doubling the number of country-year observations (from 3335 to 8491). It also introduces an updating methodology to keep the classification updated in real time. Also, based on this extension, the paper documents the main stylized facts about exchange rate regime choices in the past two decades, which shows a jump in the prevalence of flexible regimes in the early 2000s and a gradual convergence between de jure and de facto groupings over time.