Real exchange rate fluctuations, endogenous tradability and exchange rate regimes

The real exchange rate is driven by fluctuations of the relative price of traded goods and the relative price of nontraded to traded goods. This study explains the variance decomposition of the real exchange rate using a stochastic dynamic general equilibrium model of comparative advantage with money. Given interest rate shocks, exchange rate stability reduces the covariance between the two relative prices and raises the contribution of the relative price of nontraded to traded goods. Productivity shocks do not alter the covariance across exchange rate regimes and let the relative price of traded goods drive the real exchange rate.     

Endogenous tradability and some macroeconomic implications

While nontraded goods play an important role in many open economy macroeconomic models, these models have difficulty explaining the low volatility in the relative price of nontraded goods. In contrast to macroeconomic convention, this paper argues that the share of nontraded goods is endogenous, a time-varying product of macroeconomic shocks and trade costs that are heterogeneous across goods. A simple open economy model demonstrates that trade cost heterogeneity and a time-varying margin of tradedness dramatically reduces the volatility of nontraded prices. This also reduces the ability of real exchange rate adjustments to dampen current account imbalances.     

Real exchange rates under alternative nominal exchange-rate systems

The paper develops an equilibrium model of the determination of exchange rates, the relative price of nontraded goods, and the current account. The focus is on the effects of various real and nominal disturbances and the conditions under which the nominal exchange-rate system is neutral with respect to real variables in the economy. The model demonstrates an assymetry in the roles of trade and nontraded goods in affecting exchange rates. An econometric investigation of the raltion between the exchange-rate system and the variability of real exchange rates provides some evidence against the neutrality hypothesis.     

中美双边汇率对美国消费价格传递效应的实证研究

人民币升值的价格传递效果是近年来的一个研究热点。已有学者利用人民币汇率变动与关国对我国进口价格指数等数据进行研究，得出了人民币汇率变动的价格传递极低的结论。本文选择美国与我国贸易品相关性较高的消费品价格指数，利用2005年7月至2008年10月之间的月度数据，采用Johsen＆Juselius协整检验、误差修正模型分析汇改以来人民币汇率升值期间中关双边名义汇率变动的价格传递效应。研究发现中关双边名义汇率波动对美国消费物价的影响是显著的，长短期传递系数分别为O．1871、0．1917，并在此研究中得到几点政策启示。     

Nontraded goods, market segmentation, and exchange rates

Empirical evidence suggests that movements in international relative prices are large and persistent. Nontraded goods, both in the form of final consumption goods and as an input into the production of final tradable goods, are an important aspect driving international relative price movements. In this paper we show that nontraded goods play an important role in the context of an otherwise standard open-economy macromodel. Our quantitative study with nontraded goods generates implications along several dimensions that are more closely in line with the data relative to the model that abstracts from nontraded goods.     

双边出口全球价值链实际有效汇率弹性理论测度及解析

近年来,汇率与出口弱相关现象引起理论界和实务界的广泛关注。本文通过考虑全球价值链带来的供给侧联系和第三国汇率效应,使用双边出口全球价值链实际有效汇率弹性指标对双边层面的相对价格竞争力与出口关系作出新的测度和结构贡献度分解。研究发现,对相对价格竞争力与出口关系修正后测度的双边出口全球价值链实际有效汇率弹性值显著为负。出口对修正的汇率变动依旧富有弹性。“汇率对出口影响弱化”并没有传统实际有效汇率和双边汇率表现的那么严重,更没有出现“贬值抑制出口”等不符合理论预期的反常情况。双边出口全球价值链实际有效汇率弹性结构分解贡献度结果显示,伴随我国在全球价值链中参与度和地位的提升,中国对主要贸易伙伴出口中由相对价格变动引起中间产品结构变动对总弹性的贡献度不断提升。     

A fundamental theory of exchange rates and direct currency trades

In this paper we construct a two-country search model to determine the nominal exchange rate between two fiat monies. Our model allows agents to use any currency to trade for goods in all countries. However, search frictions restrict agents’ opportunities for instantaneous arbitrage, and hence make the nominal exchange rate determinate. The nominal exchange rate depends on the two countries’ economic fundamentals, including the stocks and growth rates of the two monies. Direct exchanges between currencies are essential and they imply a nominal exchange rate that is different from the relative price between the two currencies in the goods markets. There are persistent violations of the law of one price and purchasing power parity in equilibrium, despite the fact that prices are perfectly flexible and all goods are tradeable between countries. Nominal and real exchange rates can move together in the steady state in response to money growth shocks.     

International house prices and macroeconomic fluctuations

The paper investigates linkages between general macroeconomic conditions and the housing market for the G-7 area. Among the key results of the paper, we find that the US are an important source of global fluctuations not only for real activity, nominal variables and stock prices, but also for real housing prices. Secondly, albeit distinct driving forces for real activity and financial factors can be pointed out, sizeable global interactions are also evident. In particular, global supply-side shocks are an important determinant of G-7 house prices fluctuations. The linkage between real housing prices and macroeconomic developments is however bidirectional, with investment showing in general a stronger reaction than consumption and output to housing price shocks. Implications for the real effects of the sub-prime crisis are also explored.     

Openness,relative prices,and macro-policies

This paper analyzes the role of relative prices in the conduct of wage indexation, monetary policy, and exchange rate policy in a small economy producing traded and nontraded goods under a managed float exchange rate regime. It is shown that the beneficial effect of using relative prices in addition to aggregate prices as indicators for the conduct of the above policies increases with openness. The response of policies to relative prices rises with openness, and has dampening effects on the volatility of deviations from purchasing power parity.     

Real exchange rates and nontradables: A relative price approach

In this paper, we study long-run comovements of real exchange rates and relative prices of nontradables and tradables. This approach is complementary to many existing approaches to investigating real exchange rate movements. In many theoretical models of exchange rate determination, the relative prices of nontradables and tradables are linked to the real exchange rates by identities. However, they do not necessarily move with real exchange rates in reality because of many factors. For example, many tradables contain nontradable components in the form of retailing services, so that Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) may not hold for these tradable goods even in the long run. Hence real exchange rates may not move in the direction predicted by theoretical models when the producers of these tradable goods experience changes in productivity. In this paper, we identify time periods, countries and relative price measures for which comovements between real exchange rates and relative prices of nontradables and tradables are observed.     

World food prices and monetary policy

How should monetary policy respond to large fluctuations in world food prices? We study this question in an open economy model in which imported food has a larger weight in domestic consumption than abroad and international risk sharing can be imperfect. A key novelty is that the real exchange rate and the terms of trade can move in opposite directions in response to world food price shocks. This exacerbates the policy trade-off between stabilizing output prices vis a vis the real exchange rate, to an extent that depends on risk sharing and the price elasticity of exports. We characterize implications for dynamics, optimal monetary policy, and the relative performance of practical monetary rules. While CPI targeting and expected CPI targeting can dominate PPI targeting if international risk sharing is perfect, even seemingly mild departures from the latter make PPI targeting a winner.     

Real Exchange Rates and Fundamentals: A Cross‐Country Perspective

This paper employs newly constructed measures for productivity differentials, external imbalances, and commodity terms of trade to estimate a panel cointegrating relationship between real exchange rates and a set of fundamentals for a sample of 48 industrial countries and emerging markets. It finds evidence of a strong positive relation between the consumer price index‐based real exchange rate and commodity terms of trade. The estimated impact of productivity growth differentials between traded and nontraded goods, while statistically significant, is small. Increases in net foreign assets, government consumption, and trade restrictions tend to be associated with appreciating real exchange rates.     

A Short History of Price Level Convergence in Europe

We study the evolution of price level dispersion in Europe by combining time-series information on harmonized indices of consumer prices (HICPs) with occasional observations of absolute price levels. We find that European price levels converged over much of the last 40 to 50 years. In the United States, our benchmark, price level dispersion is more or less stable. A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that indirect tax rate harmonization, convergence of nontraded input costs, and convergence of traded input costs (in the form of exchange rate stability and increased openness) are all important in explaining European price level convergence.     

Exchange-rate indexation in a monetary model: Theory and evidence

Using a familiar monetary model with nontraded goods, we derive the stability properties of the price level and reserve stock when the exchange rate is partially or completely indexed to the home price level divided by foreign prices. In the stable case, it is shown that indexing results in a system with properties of both fixed and flexible regimes. Our method is to impose conditions of short-run (but not long-run) equilibrium in a discrete period model. The model is tested with monthly data from Brazil.     

人民币汇率与我国股价、房价的联动关系研究

近年来,我国人民币汇率形成机制、股票市场和房地产市场发生了巨大变化,人民币汇率和股价、房价之间的信息传导和波动关联备受瞩目。本文采用VAR-MGARCH-BEKK模型,分析了我国人民币汇率、股价和房价之间的联动关系。研究结果表明,从波动的溢出效应来看,人民币汇率的波动率、股票价格的增长率和房地产价格的增长率之间存在非常明显的波动溢出效应;从资产价格的水平影响来看,人民币汇率与股票价格、房地产价格等国内资产价格的水平相关性较弱,而股票价格对房地产价格的影响较明显,并就该结论提出了相关的理论解释和政策建议。     

International price dispersion in state-dependent pricing models

Menu-cost models predict a hump-shaped relationship between real and nominal exchange rate volatility. The hump occurs at higher values of nominal exchange rate volatility, the higher trade costs and lower international substitution elasticities are. These predictions accord well with the negative relationship between relative price and nominal exchange rate volatility I document using a data set of prices collected in Eastern Europe in a volatile environment. In contrast, trade costs must be sufficiently high or international substitution elasticities low in order for the model to account for the positive correlation between real and nominal exchange rate volatility in the aggregate data.     

Productivity,Demand, and Regulated Price Effects Revisited: An Analysis of the Real Bilateral Exchange Rates of Four New EU Member States

This paper examines the behavior of internal price ratios and bilateral real exchange rates of a group of four new EU member states-Estonia, Hungary, Slovakia, and Slovenia. We employ a dynamic ordinary least squares panel estimator to investigate the relative importance of demand and supply influences on the internal and external exchange rates of these countries. Our analysis shows that both supply- and demand-side effects are important, though supply-side effects dominate. The paper also examines the role that administrated or regulated prices and the productivity of the distribution sector play in real exchange rate dynamics. We show that administrated prices have been a powerful force behind price and real exchange developments for our group of accession countries.     

An examination of the effects of government purchases in an open economy

This paper examines the effects of permanent and transitory changes in government purchases in the context of a model of a small open economy that produces and consumes both traded and nontraded goods. The model incorporates an equilibrium interpretation of the business cycle that emphasizes the responsiveness of agents to intertemporal relative price changes. It is demonstrated that transitory increases in government purchases lead to an appreciation of the real exchange rate and an ambiguous change (although a likely worsening) in the current account, while permanent increases have an ambiguous impact on the real exchange rate and no effect on the current account. When agents do not know whether a given increase in government purchases is permanent or transitory the effect is a weighted average of these separate effects. The weights depend on the relative variances of the transitory and permanent components of government purchases.     

Convergence,capital accumulation and the nominal exchange rate

This paper develops a flexible price, two-sector growth model with a nominal side to study the role of the exchange rate in transition dynamics. We adopt a standard small open economy model with traded and nontraded goods, where the engines of growth are exogenous productivity improvements and capital accumulation. We enhance this standard framework by adding a preference for real money holdings, captured by money-in-the-utility. We follow Schmitt-Grohé and Uribe (2003) and assume that the interest rate on bonds issued by the small open economy is debt-dependent, and interpret it as a simple financial friction. We show analytically that the choice of the exchange rate regime influences the transition dynamics of a small open economy through the balance sheet of the central bank. We then calibrate the model to explore the quantitative significance of our results. We find that the choice of the exchange rate regime has significant and lasting effects on prices, consumption, investment and sectoral allocations, and the composition of financial assets.     

Expenditure switching versus real exchange rate stabilization: Competing objectives for exchange rate policy

This paper develops a view of exchange rate policy as a trade-off between the desire to smooth fluctuations in real exchange rates so as to reduce distortions in consumption allocations, and the need to allow flexibility in the nominal exchange rate so as to facilitate terms of trade adjustment. We show that optimal nominal exchange rate volatility will reflect these competing objectives. The key determinants of how much the exchange rate should respond to shocks will depend on the extent and source of price stickiness, the elasticity of substitution between home and foreign goods, and the amount of home bias in production. Quantitatively, we find the optimal exchange rate volatility should be significantly less than would be inferred based solely on terms of trade considerations. Moreover, we find that the relationship between price stickiness and optimal exchange rate volatility may be non-monotonic.