Predicting Real Exchange Rates From Real Interest Rate Differentials And Net Foreign Asset Stocks

This paper analyzes the recent behavior of real exchange rates, the trade balance and the net foreign asset position of the United States in an intertemporal optimizing model of the world economy that incorporates heterogeneity across countries and imperfect international capital and good markets. While the model successfully tracks the dynamics of trade balances and net foreign assets it generates too much consumption smoothing and excessively volatile relative prices. Resolving these inadequacies simultaneously is difficult as the elasticity of substitution between tradables and nontradables affects in opposite ways the degree of consumption smoothing and the volatility of relative prices.

This paper examines the long-run determinants of the real exchange rate from a stock-flow perspective. The empirical analysis estimates a long-run relationship between the real exchange rate, net foreign assets and other factors affecting trade flows. Using postwar data for the United States and Japan, cointegration analysis supports the finding that the structural factors underlying each country’s net trade and net foreign asset positions determine the long-run path for the real value of the dollar and the yen. The empirical analysis also provides estimates for the underlying stochastic trend in each real exchange rate series.

The paper presents an N-country model with stock markets, in which a closed-form solution for the real exchange rate is derived. Risky asset prices and allocation of risky assets among countries are determined endogenously. Such a framework allows an analysis of how fundamental parameters, such as the variance and covariance of the risky assets or demographic variables, affect the real exchange rate. The predictions of the model are contrasted with the Balassa-Samuelson effect. A new transmission channel of the real exchange rate for parameters such as income on net foreign assets, risk aversion, and risk-hedging opportunities is also explored.

This paper presents a theoretical and empirical analysis of policies aimed at setting a more depreciated level of the real exchange rate. An intertemporal optimizing model suggests that, in the absence of changes in fiscal policy, a more depreciated level of the real exchange can only be attained temporarily. This can be achieved by means of higher inflation and/or higher real interest rates, depending on the degree of capital mobility. Evidence for Brazil, Chile, and Colombia supports the model’s prediction that undervalued real exchange rates are associated with higher inflation.

Chapter 1 uses real interest rates to show that the long-term real exchange rate and a risk premium are more volatile than the nominal exchange rate for four developing countries. Chapter 2 finds country-level effects of foreign portfolio investment in 18 developing countries and proposes a channel for real exchange rate volatility driven by foreign portfolio investment. Chapter 3 shows that there are plant-level productivity gains in Chile from small levels and small increases in foreign ownership typical of portfolio investment. Nominal exchange rate changes can be decomposed into inflation differentials and real components, each having different causes and consequences. Although we have explanations for each component, the relative importance of the long-run real exchange rate has previously not been quantified. Chapter 1 uses inflation-linked bond data for Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, and Turkey to quantify the contribution of those components to exchange rate changes against the United States. We find that the long-term expected real exchange rate plus its risk premium is even more volatile than the nominal exchange rate. Volatility and unforecastability of real exchange rates is a fundamental puzzle of international economics, and these features are even more pronounced in developing countries. In chapter 2, we present a new fact, that inward portfolio investment in equities predicts the extensive margin of imports in 18 developing countries. With this we build a purely real model in which foreign investors finance new intermediate inputs and increase productivity in the tradeable goods sector. We express the Balassa-Samuelson determined real exchange rate as a function of foreign investment. We use the established fact that investors in developed countries exhibit positive feedback or operate under portfolio constraints and show how therefore the real exchange rate reacts positively to equity prices. We test and confirm the prediction of the model that equity portfolio investment predicts exchange rates at quarterly frequencies. We also confirm that the extensive margin of imports comoves with the real exchange rate at annual frequencies, and do not reject that equity portfolio investment acts through this channel only. In chapter 3, we measure the effect of foreign ownership on the productivity of Chilean manufacturers between 1998 and 2001. Total factor productivity is measured at the plant level using multiple alternative methods. Both the level of foreign ownership and increases in foreign ownership are significant predictors of productivity. These effects remain when restricting the sample to plants with low foreign ownership and small changes in foreign ownership, showing the importance of foreign portfolio investment on productivity. A non-parametric fit suggests that low levels of foreign ownership are as significant as larger stakes. When controlling for endogeneity in the foreign investment decision by instrumenting with total developed countries' portfolio outflows the positive effects on productivity remain. Finally we show that foreign ownership predicts that firms source more of their intermediate inputs from abroad.

This volume grew out of a National Bureau of Economic Research conference on exchange rates held in Bellagio, Italy, in 1982. In it, the world's most respected international monetary economists discuss three significant new views on the economics of exchange rates - Rudiger Dornbusch's overshooting model, Jacob Frenkel's and Michael Mussa's asset market variants, and Pentti Kouri's current account/portfolio approach. Their papers test these views with evidence from empirical studies and analyze a number of exchange rate policies in use today, including those of the European Monetary System.

''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""

Textbook, research papers on international economic theory, economic policy and practice - includes a literature survey of theoretical studies in trade relations; covers evolution of economic models explaining the determinants of trade structure, capital flow, labour mobility, trade in natural resources, etc.; examines macroeconomics aspects of balance of payments, exchange rate, international monetary system, economic relations and dependence, etc. Bibliography, graphs, statistical tables.