Productivity and the Euro-Dollar Real Exchange Rate

This paper analyses how productivity differentials between the United States and the euro area drive the euro-dollar real exchange rate. We derive impulse responses from a two-sector new open economy macro (NOEM) model. These are used as sign restrictions to identify a structural vector autoregression. Our results show that the Balassa–Samuelson effect, through traded sector productivity shocks, is less important in explaining the variation in the euro-dollar exchange rate than are demand and nominal shocks. In particular, productivity can explain part of the appreciation of the dollar in the late 1990s only to the extent that it created a boost to aggregate demand in the United States. JEL no. F41, F31