Exchange Rate Economics

This book describes and evaluates the literature on exchange rate economics. It provides a wide-ranging survey, with background on the history of international monetary regimes and the institutional characteristics of foreign exchange markets, an overview of the development of conceptual and empirical models of exchange rate behavior, and perspectives on the key issues that policymakers confront in deciding whether, and how, to try to stabilize exchange rates. The treatment of most topics is reasonably compact, with extensive references to the literature for those desiring to pursue individual topics further. The level of exposition is relatively easy to comprehend; the historical and institutional material (part I) and the discussion of policy issues (part III) contain no equations or technical notation, while the chapters on models of exchange rate behavior (part II) are written at a level intelligible to first-year graduate students or advanced undergraduates. The book will enlighten both students and policymakers, and should also serve as a valuable reference for many research economists.

'In summary, the book is valuable as a textbook both at the advanced undergraduate level and at the graduate level. It is also very useful for the economist who wants to be brought up-to-date on theoretical and empirical research on exchange rate behaviour.' "Journal of International Economics"

In the last few decades exchange rate economics has seen a number of developments, with substantial contributions to both the theory and empirics of exchange rate determination. Important developments in econometrics and the increasingly large availability of high-quality data have also been responsible for stimulating the large amount of empirical work on exchange rates in this period. Nonetheless, while our understanding of exchange rates has significantly improved, a number of challenges and open questions remain in the exchange rate debate, enhanced by events including the launch of the Euro and the large number of recent currency crises. This volume provides a selective coverage of the literature on exchange rates, focusing on developments from within the last fifteen years. Clear explanations of theories are offered, alongside an appraisal of the literature and suggestions for further research and analysis.

Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject Business economics - Banking, Stock Exchanges, Insurance, Accounting, grade: 1,3, California State University, Fullerton, course: International Economics, 8 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: This paper will discuss the general relationship between the two major currencies of the world: the US-Dollar and the Euro and the determinants for the exchange rate fluctuations since the introduction of the Euro as the common currency of Europe during the period between January 1999 and November 2005. Since the introduction of the Euro as the common currency of the European Monetary Union (EMU) in 1999 this relationship was first characterized by a sharp depreciation of the Euro followed by a three year lasting appreciation of the same that passed over in a slight depreciation again from the beginning of 2005 in the long run.1 This paper will first focus on the History of the international currency exchange system from the 19th century until the end of the Bretton Woods System in 1973 and on the history of the currency system in the European community. It will then discuss the general determinants of exchange rates in the short and long run. It will be pointed out that in the short run interest rate differentials and expectations of international portfolio investors matter and in the long run the economic fundamentals such as inflation rates and GDP growth rates of either economic region are the main factors for the behaviour of the exchange rate. In this context the theories of the Law of one price and the purchasing power parity are introduced. In the third part of the paper the exchange rate theories introduced in the previous part are applied to the -$ exchange rate in the time period between 1999 and 2005. Thus, the short term and long term factors are used to explain the relationship between the two currencies in this period. Finally, the last part serves as a conclusion.

Originally published in 1986. This helpful text sets out what appears to make exchange rates change and shows how these various factors contribute to an explanation of the past. It considers the problems of providing satisfactory forecasts of the exchange rate while presenting the methods used, outlining their drawbacks and speculating on future ways forward. Laid out to move from empirical issues to theory and on to policy, this book is easily of use to those interested in macroeconomics, applied economics and international economics as well as economic history.

We survey the literature on the two main views of exchange rate determination that have evolved since the early 1970s: the monetary approach to the exchange rate (in flex-price, sticky-price and real interest differential formulations) and the portfolio balance approach. We then go on to discuss the extant empirical evidence on these models and conclude by discussing how the future research strategy in the area of exchange rate determination is likely to develop. We also discuss the literature on foreign exchange market efficiency, on exchange rates and ‘news’ and on international parity conditions.

An empirical study of exchange rate regimes based on data compiled from 150 member countries of the International Monetary Fund over the past thirty years. Few topics in international economics are as controversial as the choice of an exchange rate regime. Since the breakdown of the Bretton Woods system in the early 1970s, countries have adopted a wide variety of regimes, ranging from pure floats at one extreme to currency boards and dollarization at the other. While a vast theoretical literature explores the choice and consequences of exchange rate regimes, the abundance of possible effects makes it difficult to establish clear relationships between regimes and common macroeconomic policy targets such as inflation and growth. This book takes a systematic look at the evidence on macroeconomic performance under alternative exchange rate regimes, drawing on the experience of some 150 member countries of the International Monetary Fund over the past thirty years. Among other questions, it asks whether pegging the exchange rate leads to lower inflation, whether floating exchange rates are associated with faster output growth, and whether pegged regimes are particularly prone to currency and other crises. The book draws on history and theory to delineate the debate and on standard statistical methods to assess the empirical evidence, and includes a CD-ROM containing the data set used.