Exchange-rate Attack as a Coordination Game: Theory and Experimental Evidence

Abstract

This paper compares theoretical predictions for a coordination game, used to explain the onset of a currency crisis, with observations from laboratory experiments. Theories that assume full rationality suggest that public information may destabilize an economy by creating self-fulfilling belief equilibria, while private information leads to a unique equilibrium. In experiments, differences in behaviour for these two kinds of information are small. Public information increases efficiency and coordination among …