On the determinants of exporters' currency pricing: History vs. expectations

The purpose of this paper is to investigate why the choice of invoice currency under exchange rate uncertainty depends not only on expectations but also on history. The analysis is motivated by the fact that the US dollar has historically been the dominant vehicle currency in developing countries. The theoretical analysis is based on an open economy model of monopolistic competition. When the market is competitive enough, the exporting firms tend to set their prices not to deviate from those of the competitors. As a result, a coordination failure can lead the third currency to be a less efficient equilibrium invoice currency. The role of expectations is important in selecting the equilibrium in the static framework. However, in the dynamic model with staggered price-setting, the role of history becomes another key determinant of the equilibrium currency pricing. The role of history may dominate the role of expectations when the firms are myopic, particularly in the competitive local market. It also becomes dominant in the staggered price setting when a fraction of the new price setters are backward-looking. The result suggests the importance of history in explaining why the firm tends to choose the US dollar as vehicle currency. J. Japanese Int. Economies 20 (4) (2006) 548–568.     

IT MAY BE OUR CURRENCY,BUT IT'S YOUR PROBLEM

The dollar's dominance of international transactions and role as a reserve currency is an exorbitant privilege that is a burden as well as a blessing for the US. It achieved this dominance early in the twentieth century, quite quickly in fact; it may also see that status change equally quickly were the world to move to a multipolar system of currencies. Among the most likely candidates for reserve currencies in such a world are the dollar, the euro, and the Chinese renminbi, Barry Eichengreen explained in his Butlin Lecture earlier in 2011.     

Effect of exchange rate return on volatility spill-over across trading regions

This paper examines the effect of realized exchange rate returns on the volatility spill-over between the euro–US dollar and US dollar–yen currency pairs across the five trading regions: Asia, Asia–Europe overlap, Europe, Europe–America overlap and America. Modelling the interaction between returns and volatility in an autoregressive five-equation system, we find evidence that depreciation of the US dollar against the yen has a greater impact on the US dollar–yen volatility spill-over than appreciation in the subprime crisis period. Appreciation and depreciation of the US dollar against the euro does not appear to have an asymmetric effect on the euro–US dollar volatility spill-over. Our results support the notion that the yen may have been preferred to the euro as a ‘safe-haven’ currency relative to the US dollar during the subprime crisis period.     

Monetary Integration In Eastern And Southern Africa: Choosing A Currency Peg For Comesa

African countries involved in monetary integration projects have been advised to peg their currencies against an external anchor before the definite fixing of exchange rates. In this study, we estimate optimum currency area indices to determine, between four alternatives, which international currency would be the most suitable anchor for Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) members and for a set of other selected African economies. We conclude that the euro and the British pound prevail over the US dollar or the yen; that the euro would be the best pegging for most, but not all, COMESA members; and that some of these economies display evidence of more intense integration with third countries, with which they share membership in other (overlapping) regional economic communities, than within COMESA.     

Is Asian Currency Unit Attractive to East Asian Economies？

Pegging the RMB exchange rate to the Asian currency unit (ACU) has not, at least in the short term, been proved a better solution than pegging to the US dollar or pegging to a G‐3 (US$, Japanese yen and euro) currency basket. Although the Asian currency unit can help Asian economies to keep the relative price of regional currencies stable, the cost of joining a formal regional monetary cooperation is the relinquishment of the autonomy of their domestic policies. Asian monetary cooperation needs to provide more potential benefits if it is to attract Asian economies. We argue that Asian monetary cooperation should be designed to solve the problem of regional trade imbalance, and regional exchange rate policy coordination should be adopted as the first step towards exchange rate cooperation. (Edited by Zhinan Zhang)     

The Euro as a Monetary Anchor in the CEECs

We study whether Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) have an incentive to use the euro as a monetary anchor. Adapting a cross-section estimation method initiated by Bayoumi and Eichengreen, we show that, compared to an optimum currency area standard, the CEECs have paid too much attention to the USD in the past and should prefer the euro to the dollar as a nominal anchor. Through a theoretical model that takes external constraints into account, we then show that the CEECs should also have an incentive to stabilize their currencies in real terms against a basket where the euro would be prominent.     

Renminbi Internationalization： Progress, Prospect and Comparison

Using principal component analyses, this paper constructs two internationalization indices for the renminbi (RMB) and 32 other major currencies. We find that the RMB's currency internationalization degree index (CIDI) is still low, and far behind the 4 most important international currencies. In 2009, it was ranked 18th among all important international currencies. However, in terms of the currency internationalization prospect index (CIPI), the RMB has remained the world's fifth highest since 2006. Although it is still far behind the US dollar and the euro, surpassing the ranking of the yen and the pound is possible in the near future. The dramatic difference in the ranking between the CIDI and the CIPI is a result of China's tight capital account control, the usage continuity of international currency due to network externalities, and the narrow foreign exchange and imperfect financial markets. Hence, to a large degree, the RMB's potential as an international currency depends on China's capital account liberalization.     

Optimal currency shares in international reserves: The impact of the euro and the prospects for the dollar

Foreign exchange reserve accumulation has risen dramatically in recent years. The introduction of the euro, greater liquidity in other major currencies, and the rising current account deficits and external debt of the United States have increased the pressure on central banks to diversify away from the US dollar. A major portfolio shift would significantly affect exchange rates and the status of the dollar as the dominant international currency. We develop a dynamic mean-variance optimization framework with portfolio rebalancing costs to estimate optimal portfolio weights among the main international currencies. Making various assumptions on expected currency returns and the variance–covariance structure, we assess how the euro has changed this allocation. We then perform simulations for the optimal currency allocations of four large emerging market countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China), adding constraints that reflect a central bank's desire to hold a sizable portion of its portfolio in the currencies of its peg, its foreign debt and its international trade. Our main results are: (i) The optimizer can match the large share of the US dollar in reserves, when the dollar is the reference (risk-free) currency. (ii) The optimum portfolios show a much lower weight for the euro than is observed. This suggests that the euro may already enjoy an enhanced role as an international reserve currency (“punching above its weight”). (iii) Growth in issuance of euro-denominated securities, a rise in euro zone trade with key emerging markets, and increased use of the euro as a currency peg, would all work towards raising the optimal euro shares, with the last factor being quantitatively the most important. J. Japanese Int. Economies 20 (4) (2006) 508–547.     

Pricing to Market： Chinese Export Pricing to the USA after the Peg

In July 2005, the Chinese Government unpegged the RMB from the US dollar. As the RMB has followed a remarkably predictable appreciation over time, I examine the price of Chinese exports to the USA after unpegging the exchange rate. Results suggest that the Chinese industries with greater import market share were able to raise their prices after the removal of the pegged exchange rate regime; however, over time there is a significant deflationary trend. Chinese export prices tended to decrease under an unanticipated RMB appreciation; this effect was more pronounced for industries with more pricing flexibility. This suggests that Chinese exporters are consistently ＂pricing to market＂ and thus creating a significant foreign exchange policy implication. Specifically, a more flexible exchange rate regime will likely have little impact on the prices of Chinese exports to the USA but might increase the profit volatility of Chinese firms.     

美元“币权”战略与中国之应对

纵观资本主义全球化的发展历史,在商业资本和产业资本阶段,因资本同质性扩张而形成的以对资源地理纵深控制为目标的地缘关系成为了殖民化时代国际关系的核心。自20世纪70年代以来,金融资本愈益成为世界分工和分配的核心,遂使货币权力超越地缘实力,成为金融资本主义时代国家间关系的新枢纽。苏联解体后,美国"单极"霸权赋权于美元,使其无约束地增发并顺势主导了金融资本全球化,这决定了美元霸权成为币缘政治时代国际关系的实质,并衍生出强化美国的全球币缘战略体系,即以美元资本、能源(石油)、食物(粮食)三大霸权为核心的新霸权体系。作者认为,在此背景下方能理解"币权"的时代特征,即以地缘关系为保障、以决定产业链安全的资源定价权为基础、以当代国家政治主权派生的信用体系以及自主的财政货币政策为核心,美元可以在全球经济金融化竞争的资本扩张中获取利益并转嫁成本。对此,中国亟须恢复人民币的主权货币性质,以实体经济为本来推进国内产业纵向一体化战略、"资源重商主义"战略和"新重农主义"战略,并以陆权为基础构建自己币缘战略安全的陆域纵深。     

Should East Asia’s currencies be pegged to the yen? The role of invoice currency

Growing concern that a dollar peg exposes East Asian economies to fluctuations in the dollar–yen exchange rate has stimulated research on currency basket regimes as alternatives for these economies. However, existing studies have mostly ignored an important characteristic of East Asia, i.e., most of its international trade is invoiced in the U.S. dollars. This paper investigates how the preponderance of dollar invoicing affects optimal currency basket regimes for East Asian economies. I develop a three-country center-periphery sticky-price dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model for the analysis. The model is solved numerically by taking second-order approximations to the policy functions with the expected lifetime utility of households chosen as the welfare criterion. Contrary to the conjecture of existing literature, I show that predominance of dollar invoicing implies that the dollar should receive a smaller weight than suggested by bilateral trade shares between emerging markets in East Asia and the United States. The results hinge on the interaction of different degrees of pass-through implied by the choice of invoice currency and endogenous responses of monetary policies in the center countries.     

Exchange rate exposure and risk management: The case of Japanese exporting firms

This paper investigates the relationship between Japanese firms’ exposure to the exchange rate risk and their risk management. Following Dominguez (1998) and others, we first estimate the firms’ exposure to the exchange rate risk by regressing their stock prices on the exchange rate and the market portfolio. We next investigate possible influences of various risk management measures on the firms’ foreign exchange exposure. Risk management variables include financial and operational hedging, the invoice currency choice, and the price revision strategy (pass-through) of 227 listed firms in 2009, which were collected from a questionnaire survey of Japanese firms listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Our main findings are as follows: First, firms with greater dependency on sales in foreign markets have greater foreign exchange exposure, judged by the market. Second, the higher the US dollar invoicing share, the greater the foreign exchange exposure is, which can be reduced by both financial and operational hedging. Third, yen invoicing reduces foreign exchange exposure. These findings indicate that Japanese firms use a combination of risk management tools to mitigate the degree of exchange rate risk.     

港元联系汇率制度可持续性研究

随着世界经济环境的变化,中国经济逐渐崛起,美国经济开始趋弱,欧盟经济逐渐提升;美元贬值、人民币升值压力加大,香港的联系汇率制度面临着新的挑战和冲击。本文就是在此背景下,通过定性分析和计量(Johansen协整检验)实证研究,得出香港联系汇率制度需要改革,港元最终与人民币统一的前期,钉住包括美元、欧元、人民币等"一篮子"货币是一个很好的选择,香港现在正处于改革汇率制度的良好时机。     

Managing the renminbi: should China peg to a trade‐weighted basket?

Pegging the renminbi (RMB) to the US dollar since 1994 has characterised China's exchange rate policy under a fixed peg or appreciating crawling peg. The current policy, announced in June 2010, of ‘floating with reference to a basket’ made the RMB 25 per cent stronger against a trade‐weighted basket by early August 2015, while it was 10 per cent stronger against the US dollar. Thus, 14 percentage points arose from changes in the cross rates of the other currencies, notably from the fall of the euro since December 2014. Devaluation of the RMB by 3 per cent in August 2015 just covered the effective appreciation since December 2014. Effects of the cross rates of other currencies could be eliminated by managing the external value of the RMB with reference to a genuine trade‐weighted basket. This could be a suitable intermediary exchange rate regime for China, as the risks associated with free floating are still great. Diversifying further the currency composition of the foreign exchange reserves and other foreign assets of the Chinese government, from US dollars towards euro and yen assets, would be a natural parallel shift. The euro–US dollar–yen exchange rates in late summer 2015 may offer a good opportunity to carry out this move.     

东亚货币合作的进展、障碍及中国的对策

尽管目前东亚货币合作取得了一些进展,但仍然面临着经济、政治等方面多层次的障碍,因此目前尚无法建立类似于欧元区的东亚统一货币区。中国从自身利益出发应在东亚货币合作中发挥积极作用,首先,应加强与东亚各国汇率政策的协调;其次,通过推动次区域的货币合作;最后,建立东亚共同货币区。     

Dominant Currencies and the Future of the Euro

The paper's thesis is that the US dollar, despite the inevitable erosion of market share that it will suffer at the hands of the euro, will remain the most important international currency. The transaction domain of an international currency depends on its ability to lower transaction costs relative to alternative currencies. The EMU financial markets will not be as integrated, and thus as liquid, as the US financial markets for quite some time, thus favoring the use of the dollar as a medium of exchange. Inertia and reputational considerations further favor the dollar. The future value of the exchange rate dollar-euro will depend on economic fundamentals more than on portfolio shifts. Portfolio shifts argue for an appreciation of the euro; but fundamentals can swamp the effects of portfolio shifts. Should the EMU fundamentals reflect the spirit of the Maastricht Treaty and the Growth and Stability Pact, the chances for a euro appreciation will increase. Some caution, however, is in order because the ECB is a new and untested central bank where consensus for a conservative policy may be harder to achieve than can be gleaned from a literal reading of the Maastricht Treaty.     

美联储货币互换工具的实践及对我国央行的启示

货币互换是指两国央行之间签订的为了解决流动性问题的一种金融管理工具。布雷顿森林体系成立以来,美联储基于不同目的多次与其它央行签订了货币互换协议。我国央行为便利双边贸易和投资于2001年开始使用货币互换工具。通过对比分析,我们认为美联储货币互换的实践对我国央行进一步实施、完善和拓展货币互换工具的使用有借鉴意义。     

Retrospect of the Chinese Exchange Rate Regime after Reform： Stylized Facts during the Period from 2005 to 2010

In the present paper, we estimate the de facto RMB exchange rate regime, the currency basket, the floating band and the foreign exchange market pressure before and after the reform of the Chinese exchange rate regime in 2005. We find the following stylized facts： the value of the RAIB became stable after the reform; the weight of the US dollar remained high in the basket, while other currencies remained statistically significant; and the floating band gradually increased to lO percent during 2005-2008, and then greatly narrowed from the late summer of 2008 under the assumption of a yearly resetting interval. We find that the foreign exchange market pressure increased from 2005 to 2008. A possible reason is that the weight of the US dollar in the basket was slightly lower than the share of the US dollar in total transactions on the Chinese foreign exchange market. Therefore, it is reasonable for China to adopt a dollar peg exchange rate regime.     

论国际储备货币体系能否实现多元化

欧元虽然在整个货币体系结构中地位逐渐增强,可就现阶段而言,美元的霸权地位仍然很难被其他货币所取代。但从长远来看,国际储备货币体系的多元化仍然是大势所趋。因为只有稳步地推进的多元化的货币体系,才能真正支撑起国际经济的稳定。     

Currency Invoicing in Japanese Exports to East Asia: Implications for Yen Internationalization

The present paper examines currency invoicing in Japanese exports to East Asia by applying the pricing-to-market (PTM) theory. The notable aims of the present paper are to: (i) use a number of sample commodities obtained from the data on monthly series of exports based on the nine-digit Harmonized System; and (ii) examine currency invoicing practices of Japanese exporters by making a distinction between the long-run and short-run PTM under the framework of the error-correction model. Contrary to the results of previous reports, our study shows that Japanese exporters of electric machinery tend to stabilize US Dollar (USD)-denominated export prices in the short run in East Asian markets, implying that electric machinery products tend to be invoiced in USD in exports to East Asia. Given the USD-invoicing practices by Japanese electric machinery exporters, it is hard to expect the further use of the Yen in trade transactions because the electric machinery industry plays a major role in facilitating trade and investment between Japan and East Asia.