The Choice of Exchange Rate Regime
回顾了1990年代英国汇率政策从窄幅波动的ERM转向无明确汇率角色的货币政策，并探讨了固定汇率与忽略汇率之间的折中方案，即弱汇率目标制。
In the 1990s, UK policy towards the exchange rate shifted from an attempt to be part of an ERM committed to narrow exchange rate bands to a monetary policy where the exchange rate has no explicit role. In particular, during the latter half of 1996 and the beginning of 1997 Sterling appreciated substantially, and yet the Bank of England continued to suggest that interest rates needed to rise to meet inflation targets.1 However, the government has not ruled out the possibility of irrevocably fixing its exchange rate against key European currencies by joining a European Monetary Union. Dramatic shifts in policy towards the exchange rate are not unusual historically.2 These shifts, like recent changes in UK policy, give the impression that governments should either fix the exchange rate or ignore it. Although textbook discussions of exchange rate policy often compare these two extremes, in reality compromise positions are possible and have been pursued in the past. What I shall describe as ‘weak exchange rate targeting’ can be implemented either in the form of wide currency bands,3 or if the exchange rate appears as an argument in an (explicit or implicit) interest rate reaction function.