Currency

About: Currency is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 26697 publications have been published within this topic receiving 485370 citations. The topic is also known as: monetary unit & unit of money.

Country Size, Currency Unions, and International Asset Returns

Abstract: Differences in real interest rates across developed economies are puzzlingly large and persistent. I propose a simple explanation: bonds issued in the currencies of larger economies are expensive because they insure against shocks that affect a larger fraction of the world economy. I show that, indeed, differences in the size of economies explain a large fraction of the cross-sectional variation in currency returns. The data also support additional implications of the model: the introduction of a currency union lowers interest rates in participating countries, and stocks in the nontraded sector of larger economies pay lower expected returns.

The Euro as a Reserve Currency

Abstract: This paper presents historical and econometric evidence that the euro will come to rival the dollar as a reserve currency only slowly. The fact that it pays for central banks to hold their foreign reserves in a currency that is widely used in international transactions creates a network externality that gives the dollar an incumbency advantage. In addition, creating a market with sufficient stability to be attractive to international investors requires continuous liquidity management and periodic lender-of-last-resort operations by the issuing central bank. That the Maastricht Treaty assumes a strong separation between monetary policy and prudential regulation consequently bodes ill for the euro's prospects as a reserve currency.J. Japan. Int. Econ., Dec. 1998,12(4), pp. 483–506. Department of Economics and Department of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720.Copyright 1998 Academic Press. Journal of Economic LiteratureClassification Number F3.

The j curve: china versus her trading partners

Abstract: The short-run effects of currency depreciation are said to be different from its long-run effects. In the short run, the trade balance deteriorates and improvement comes after some time; hence, the J-curve phenomenon. Previous studies that tested the response of the trade balance to exchange rate changes in China employed aggregate trade data and provided mixed results. Indeed, most of them concluded that real depreciation has no long-run impact on the Chinese trade balance. In this paper, we disaggregate the data by country and using recent advances in time series modelling estimate a trade balance model between China and her 13 major trading partners. We show that real depreciation of the Chinese currency has a favourable impact on her trade balance with a few partners, especially the USA. Not much support is found for the J-curve hypothesis.

Dollarization in Argentina

Abstract: Argentina became highly "dollarized" during its hyperinflations of 1989 and early 1990. Although inflation has returned to very low rates, a high degree of dollarization has persisted during the early 1990s, counter to what the currency substitution hypothesis predicts. This paper provides new evidence that explains the continued dollarization of the Argentine economy. ; First, we develop a new measure of dollar currency circulating in foreign countries. This measure improves our ability to analyze dollariza­tion and currency substitution by distinguishing between dollar currency holdings and dollar deposits, and thereby represents an important advance over previous studies that focused on dollar deposit holdings only. Em­pirically, these components of dollar assets for Argentina have responded differently to recent macroeconomic shocks. ; Second, cointegration analysis of peso money demand in Argentina finds a negative "ratchet effect" from inflation on the demand for pesos. The reduction in peso money demand attributable to the ratchet effect is similar in magnitude to the estimated stock of all dollar assets held domestically by Argentine residents, consistent with the hypothesis of irreversible dollarization.

Interpreting the Erm Crisis: Country-Specific and Systemic Issues

Abstract: Most interpretations of the Exchange Rate Mechanism crisis in 1992-93 ignore the key role played by structural policy spillovers among European countries, and overlook the effects of coordination (or lack thereof) of monetary and exchange rate policies among the countries making up the periphery of the system. This paper provides a simple analytical framework, able to encompass the recent literature on currency crises, while developing it by bringing out the decisive role of the strategic interactions among national policy makers in a multi-country monetary and exchange rate game. In contrast to an approach that focuses exclusively on country-specific issues, a systemic view is ultimately able to unravel more coherently, and more convincingly, the "puzzles" of the ERM crisis.