The main goal of this paper is to investigate the hypothesis that currency crisis models based on macroeconomic fundamentals explain, to some extent, the occurrence of speculative attacks and currency crisis in Brazil. An adaptation of one of the main first generation models of currency crisis was used as theoretical background, producing an equation of the probability of occurrence of speculative attacks as function of macroeconomic variables. As an empirical application for the case of Brazil, an econometric model was utilized to estimate the parameters of this equation. The results were compatible with the hypothesis of the model. The most relevant variables identified were the monetary suply, the international interest rate, the exchange rate fixed by the government, and the liberalization of capital controls. The estimated equations for the probability of occurrence of currency crises and speculative attacks showed its usefulness to predict the imminence of these events.
monetary policy; international finance; crisis
