Our empirical evidence supports the proposition that macroeconomic
policies in emerging economies can be countercyclical. Our results, for
both cross-country panel data and a time series for Chile, support the
hypothesis that fiscal and monetary authorities in countries with low to
moderate country risk--reflecting better fundamentals, stronger institutions,
and more stable policy rules--can afford and are able to of pursue
countercyclical policies. O n the contrary, countries that exhibit moderate to
high levels of country risk premiums will be forced to conduct procyclical
macroeconomic policies.