Official central bank interventions and exchange rate volatility: Evidence from a regime-switching analysis

In this paper, we investigate the effect of central bank interventions on the weekly returns and volatility of the DEM/USD and YEN/USD exchange rate returns. In contrast with previous analyses, we allow for regime-dependent specifications and investigate whether official interventions can explain the observed volatility regime switches. It is found that, depending on the prevailing volatility level, coordinated central bank interventions can lead to either a stabilizing or a destabilizing effect. Our results lead us to challenge the usual view that such interventions always imply increases in volatility. (C) 2002 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.