Too Big to Change: The Stabilizing Force of Reserve Currency Preferences in the International Monetary System

We empirically investigate whether reserve currency preferences have been a source of stability for the international monetary system. Our findings suggest that reserve-hoarding countries, especially the emerging/developing countries, tend to adopt a stabilizing diversification strategy in their reserve portfolio allocation, buying (selling) assets denominated in depreciated (appreciated) currency. The result is robust to both International Monetary Fund and Bank for International Settlements measures of quantity changes of reserve shares. The stabilizing diversification strategy reveals the fact that reserve-hoarding countries may fall into a "dollar trap," and escaping from it may cause more valuation loss of their existing reserve portfolios.     

Foreign currency debt,financial crises and economic growth: A long-run view

Foreign currency debt is widely believed to increase risks of financial crisis, especially after being implicated as a cause of the East Asian crisis in the late 1990s. In this paper, we study the effects of foreign currency debt on currency and debt crises and its indirect effects on short-term growth and long-run output effects in both 1880–1913 and 1973–2003 for 45 countries. Greater ratios of foreign currency debt to total debt are associated with increased risks of currency and debt crises, although the strength of the association depends crucially on the size of a country's reserve base and its policy credibility. We found that financial crises, driven by exposure to foreign currency, resulted in significant permanent output losses. We estimate some implications of our findings for the risks posed by currently high levels of foreign currency liabilities in eastern Europe.     

Current account balance and dollar standard: Exploring the linkages

This paper examines whether the international role of the dollar as main global reserve currency has contributed to persistent current account imbalances. To this end, we analyse how central banks' accumulation of reserve assets affects the current account balance of both reserve-accumulating and reserve-providing countries.Based on a simple portfolio balance model we show theoretically that the global demand for reserve assets by central banks may lower the current account balance of the reserve-issuing country. Our panel data analysis over the period 1970–2009 confirms this hypothesis: Any dollar of provided reserve assets decreases the US current account by more than one dollar. On average, the demand for dollar reserves has lowered the US current account by 1–2 percentage points relative to GDP. The flip side of this effect is a higher current account balance in reserve-accumulating countries. These novel findings show that the worldwide demand for international reserves has contributed to the buildup of global imbalances.     

从中美经济相互依存看我国高额外汇储备管理

美债危机爆发后,中国作为美国在海外最大的债券持有者仍然不得不继续增持美债,一方面是由于人民币汇率长期与美元挂钩,国际贸易和金融交易主要以美元结算以及我国出口导向型经济增长方式短期内无法改变均导致外汇储备被动积累,另一方面更是因为一旦我国大规模减持美元资产,将引起全球外汇市场对美元的恐慌性抛售,并最终危及我国在美金融资产安全。美债危机表明我国经济对美国高度依赖,并凸显了经济增长方式转变以及对高额外汇储备有效管理的重要性与紧迫性。     

Has the euro affected the choice of invoicing currency?

We present a new approach to study empirically the effect of the introduction of the euro on the pattern of currency invoicing. Our approach uses a compositional multinomial logit model, in which currency choice is explained by both currency-specific and country-specific determinants. We use unique quarterly panel data on the invoicing of Norwegian imports from OECD countries for the 1996–2006 period. We find that eurozone countries have substantially increased their share of home currency invoicing after the introduction of the euro, whereas the home currency share of non-eurozone countries fell slightly. In addition, the euro as a vehicle currency has overtaken the role of the US dollar in Norwegian imports. The substantial rise in producer currency invoicing by eurozone countries is primarily caused by a drop in inflation volatility and can only to a small extent be explained by an unobserved euro effect.     

Behind the scenes of abandoning a fixed exchange rate regime

This paper explores the process of abandoning a fixed exchange rate regime during sudden stops in a small open economy. The Bank of Korea’s exchange rate policy reports during the East Asian crisis suggest that its fixed exchange rate regime was forced to collapse due to the depletion of usable foreign reserves, which resulted from the credit policy of the Korean central bank to support domestic banks in need of foreign currency liquidity. To capture the Korean crisis experience, I build a quantitative small open economy model in which, in response to the country risk premium shock, the foreign-currency credit policy of a central bank under fixed regime leads to the exhaustion of international reserves and consequent exchange rate regime shift. This model does well at replicating the observed contraction in Korean aggregate variables.     

Accounting for reserves

Views on the effectiveness of sterilized reserve intervention vary. Sterilized intervention is generally seen as ineffective in advanced countries while persistent intervention by some emerging markets is often cited as contributing to undervalued exchange rates and current account surpluses. This paper argues that capital controls reconcile these views. We find strong and highly robust evidence that sterilized intervention is fully offset by outflows of private money in countries without controls, while controls partially block this offset. For a country with extensive capital controls, every dollar in additional reserves increases the current account by some 50–100 cents. This is mainly offset by an opposite adjustment in the current account of the United States—the dominant reserve currency issuer with the deepest and most liquid bond markets—with a smaller diversion to emerging markets.     

Cross-border trading as a mechanism for implicit capital flight: ADRs and the Argentine crisis

Cross-listed shares may confound government efforts to control capital outflows by providing a legal means through which investors can transfer their wealth outside the country. We study the recent experience of investors who while subject to capital controls, were able to purchase cross-listed shares using local currency, convert them into dollar-denominated shares, re-sell them abroad, and deposit the dollar proceeds in foreign bank accounts. Capital controls drive a wedge between the price of local shares and their corresponding cross-listed shares. This wedge provides an implicit devaluation forecast and the market's valuation of capital control circumvention.     

Oil Currency and the Dollar Standard: A Simple Analytical Model of an International Trade Currency

The U.S. dollar is the central reference currency for international trade pricing and the main invoicing currency for primary commodities. This paper links these two observations within a stylized theoretical framework, and shows how to obtain a quantitative estimate of the gain to the U.S. economy when the dollar is a reference currency. With dollar invoicing of primary commodities, U.S. firms bear less exchange rate risk than foreign firms. This asymmetry leads to a dollar standard in international goods pricing. We then derive a simple analytical formula to calculate the gains and find that they are extremely small.     

The introduction of the Euro and its effects on portfolio decisions

Examining investment behavior related to the Euro introduction, we address the relevance of different investment determinants. With the advent of the currency union two potential sources of portfolio reallocation can be distinguished: First, the diminishment of exchange rate risk and transaction costs within the EMU. Second, the increase of correlation of EMU returns so that diversification benefits decreased. We test for structural breaks in the holdings of German investors and estimate a market model to account for the two effects. A significant decrease in national and an increase in EMU and rest-of-the-world investments can be observed. Comparing the observed holdings with benchmark portfolios, we find that investment home bias has diminished since the Euro introduction.     

Dollarization and currency exchange

We use a dual currency money search model to study dollarization. Agents hold portfolios consisting of two currencies, one of which is risky. We use numerical methods to solve for the steady-state distributions of currency portfolios, transaction patterns, and value functions. As risk increases, agents increasingly use the safe currency as a medium of exchange—dollarization occurs. Furthermore, the safe currency trades for multiple units of the risky currency. This type of currency exchange, and the corresponding nominal exchange rate, are often observed in black market or unofficial currency exchange markets in developing countries. Due to decentralized trading, a distribution of exchange rates arises, whose mean and variance change in predictable ways when currency risk increases.     

Adjustment patterns to commodity terms of trade shocks: The role of exchange rate and international reserves policies

We analyze the way in which Latin American countries have adjusted to commodity terms of trade (CTOT) shocks in the 1970–2007 period. Specifically, we investigate the degree to which the active management of international reserves and exchange rates impacted the transmission of international price shocks to real exchange rates. We find that active reserve management not only lowers the short run impact of CTOT shocks significantly, but also affects the long run adjustment of REER, effectively lowering its volatility. We also show that relatively small increases in the average holdings of reserves by Latin American economies (to levels still well below other emerging regions current averages) would provide a policy tool as effective as a fixed exchange rate regime in insulating the economy from CTOT shocks. Reserve management could be an effective alternative to fiscal or currency policies for relatively trade closed countries and economies with relatively poor institutions or high government debt. Finally, we analyze the effects of active use of reserve accumulation aimed at smoothing REERs. The result support the view that “leaning against the wind” is potent, but more effective when intervening to support weak currencies rather than intervening to slow down the pace of real appreciation. The active reserve management reduces substantially REER volatility.     

Foreign currency borrowing by small firms in emerging markets: When domestic banks intermediate dollars

This paper investigates what induces small firms in an emerging market economy to borrow dollar credit from domestic banks. Our data are from a unique survey of firms in Lebanon. The findings complement studies of large firms with foreign currency loans from foreign lenders. Exporters, naturally hedged against currency risk, are more likely to incur dollar debt. Firms also partly hedge themselves by passing currency risk to customers and suppliers. Less opaque firms with easily verifiable collateral and higher net worth are more likely to access dollar credit. Firms reliant on formal financing (banks and supplier credit) are more likely to contract dollar debt than firms reliant on informal financing (family, friends and moneylenders). Bank relationships, however, do not increase the dollar debt likelihood. And finally, profitable firms are less likely to have dollar debt. Information frictions and limited collateral, therefore, constrain dollar credit even when it is intermediated domestically.     

The puzzling peso

In the past decade, some observers have noted an unusual aspect of the Mexican peso’s behavior: During periods when the U.S. dollar has risen (fallen) against other major currencies such as the euro, the peso has risen (fallen) against the dollar. Very few other currencies display this behavior. In this paper, we attempt to explain the unusual pattern of the peso’s correlation with the dollar by developing some general empirical models of exchange rate correlations. Based on a study of 29 currencies, we find that most of the cross-country variation in exchange rate correlations with the dollar and the euro can be explained by just a few variables. First, a country’s currency is more likely to rise against the dollar as the dollar rises against the euro, the closer it is to the United States and the farther it is from the euro area. In this result, distance likely proxies for the role of economic integration in affecting exchange rate correlations. Second, a country’s currency is more likely to exhibit this unusual pattern when its sovereign credit rating is more risky. This may reflect that currencies of riskier countries are less substitutable in investor portfolios than those of better-rated countries. All told, these factors well explain the peso’s unusual behavior, as Mexico both is very close to the United States and has a lower credit rating than most industrial economies.     

Does Bitcoin behave as a currency?: A standard monetary model approach

We derive the Bitcoin exchange rate dynamics by solving the exchange rate equation of the standard flexible-price monetary model to investigate any characteristics of Bitcoin like a currency. The dynamics is driven by an asymmetric mean-reverting fundamental shock which can be attributed to a money demand shock. A crash occurs when the exchange rate with a weakened mean-reverting force breaches a lower boundary where a smooth-pasting condition is imposed. The empirical results show the exchange rate dynamics can be calibrated according to the model, in which the mean reversion of the dynamics is positively co-integrated with the Bitcoin transaction volume indicating demand for Bitcoin; and with the risk reversals of the commodity currencies (Australian dollar and Canadian dollar) in currency option markets. The analysis shows that the Bitcoin exchange rate shares some characteristics of commodity currencies with crash risk. This suggests that Bitcoin behaves as a currency between fiat money and a crypto-commodity used for trading and investment purposes.     

谁将挑战美元

1976年以来,美元作为国际货币的作用逐渐减弱,一些新兴市场经济体的货币开始登上历史舞台。而美元作为国际货币的地位并没有发生直线下降,尤其是2010年以来,美元在各国中央银行外汇储备中的占比止跌企稳,在外汇市场交易中的占比也开始回升。目前来看,欧元和人民币均难以替代美元。但未来美元仍存在被其他货币超越和取代的可能。     

Internal capital networks as a source of MNC competitive advantage: Evidence from foreign subsidiary capital structure decisions

This paper documents multinational company (MNC) strategic advantages arising from its internal financial network. Using data from US multinational company affiliates in 62 countries, we show that MNC affiliates in countries with low credit availability, poor creditor protections, high political risks, and high inflation are found to bear high interest costs and multinational affiliate debt ratios are high in high tax countries. In addition, affiliates in countries with high (low) credit availability, a high (low) corruption index, low (high) political risks and high (low) currency depreciation are found to carry high external (parent) debt ratios. We also find that currency depreciation, credit availability, and location in common law countries are negatively associated with the use of parent (relative to external) debt. Thus, our findings suggest that affiliates substitute external debt with parent debt using internal capital markets to overcome weak external financial markets and institutional environments. This is important evidence of the strategic competitive advantage based on financial networks enjoyed by MNCs.     

多极世界中的美元政策:从“善意忽视”走向“积极管理”

美元作为世界主要储备货币和国际交换媒介,降低了美国消费者和企业的交易成本,减少了美元借款人的融资成本。当前国际货币体系走向多极化,国际经济、政治、社会和科学技术等发生重大变化,美元政策变革势在必行。短期内美元作为世界主要储备货币的地位难以动摇,但关于美元政策应该尽快从"善意忽视"转变为"积极管理"。     

What determines the composition of banks’ loan portfolios? Evidence from transition countries

This paper explores how bank characteristics and the institutional environment influence the composition of banks’ loan portfolios. We use a new and unique data set based on the EBRD Banking Environment and Performance Survey (BEPS), which was conducted for 220 banks in 20 transition countries. We show that bank ownership, bank size, and legal creditor protection are important determinants of the composition of banks’ loan portfolios. In particular, we find that foreign banks play an active role in mortgage lending. Moreover, banks that perceive pledge and mortgage laws to be of high quality choose to focus more on mortgage lending.