THE CHOICE OF AN EXCHANGE RATE SYSTEM
Perfectly fixed or pegged exchange rates would work much as a gold standard does. All currencies would fix their exchange rate in terms of another currency, say, the dollar, and thereby would fix their rate relative to every other currency. Under such an arrangement each country would
International Monetary Arrangements 45
have to follow the monetary policy of the key currency in order to expe-rience the same inflation rate and keep the exchange rate fixed.
Flexible or floating exchange rates occur when the exchange rate is determined by the market forces of supply and demand. As the demand for a currency increases relative to supply, that currency will appreciate, whereas currencies in which the quantity supplied exceeds the quantity demanded will depreciate.
Economists do not all agree on the advantages and disadvantages of a floating as opposed to a pegged exchange rate system. For instance, some would argue that a major advantage of flexible rates is that each country can follow domestic macroeconomic policies independent of the policies of other countries. To maintain fixed exchange rates, countries have to share a common inflation experience, which was often a source of pro-blems under the post World War II system of fixed exchange rates. If the dollar, which was the key currency for the system, was inflating at a rate faster than, say, Japan desired, then the lower inflation rate followed by the Japanese led to pressure for an appreciation of the yen relative to the dollar. Thus the existing pegged rate could not be maintained. Yet with flexible rates, each country can choose a desired rate of inflation and the exchange rate will adjust accordingly. Thus, if the United States chooses 8 percent inflation and Japan chooses 3 percent, there will be a steady depreciation of the dollar relative to the yen (absent any relative price movements). Given the different political environment and cultural heri-tage existing in each country, it is reasonable to expect different countries to follow different monetary policies. Floating exchange rates allow for an orderly adjustment to these differing inflation rates.
Still there are those economists who argue that the ability of each country to choose an inflation rate is an undesirable aspect of floating exchange rates. These proponents of fixed rates indicate that fixed rates are useful in providing an international discipline on the inflationary poli-cies of countries. Fixed rates provide an anchor for countries with infla-tionary tendencies. By maintaining a fixed rate of exchange to the dollar (or some other currency), each country’s inflation rate is “anchored” to the dollar, and thus will follow the policy established for the dollar.
Critics of flexible exchange rates have also argued that flexible exchange rates would be subject to destabilizing speculation. By destabiliz-ing speculation we mean that speculators in the foreign exchange market will cause exchange rate fluctuations to be wider than they would be in the absence of such speculation. The logic suggests that, if speculators
46 International Money and Finance
expect a currency to depreciate, they will take positions in the foreign exchange market that will cause the depreciation as a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. But speculators should lose money when they guess wrong, so that only successful speculators will remain in the market, and the success-ful players serve a useful role by “evening out” swings in the exchange rate. For instance, if we expect a currency to depreciate or decrease in value next month, we could sell the currency now, which would result in a current depreciation. This will lead to a smaller future depreciation than would occur otherwise. The speculator then spreads the exchange rate change more evenly through time and tends to even out big jumps in the exchange rate. If the speculator had bet on the future depreciation by sell-ing the currency now and the currency appreciates instead of depreciates, then the speculator loses and will eventually be eliminated from the mar-ket if such mistakes are repeated.
Research has shown that there are systematic differences between countries choosing to peg their exchange rates and those choosing float-ing rates. One very important characteristic is country size in terms of economic activity or GDP. Large countries tend to be more independent and less willing to subjugate domestic policies with a view toward main-taining a fixed rate of exchange with foreign currencies. Since foreign trade tends to constitute a smaller fraction of GDP the larger the country is, it is perhaps understandable that larger countries are less attuned to for-eign exchange rate concerns than are smaller countries.
The openness of the economy is another important factor. By open-ness, we mean the degree to which the country depends on international trade. The greater the fraction of tradable (i.e., internationally tradable) goods in GDP, the more open the economy will be. A country with little or no international trade is referred to as a closed economy. As previously mentioned, openness is related to size. The more open the economy, the greater the weight of tradable goods prices in the overall national price level, and therefore the greater the impact of exchange rate changes on the national price level. To minimize such foreign-related shocks to the domestic price level, the more open economy tends to follow a pegged exchange rate.
Countries that choose higher rates of inflation than their trading part-ners will have difficulty maintaining an exchange rate peg. We find, in fact, that countries whose inflation experiences are different from the average follow floating rates, or a crawling-peg-type system in which the
International Monetary Arrangements 47
exchange rate is adjusted at short intervals to compensate for the inflation differentials.
Countries that trade largely with a single foreign country tend to peg their exchange rate to that country’s currency. For instance, since the United States accounts for the majority of Barbados trade, by pegging to the U.S. dollar, Barbados imparts to its exports and imports a degree of stability that would otherwise be missing. By maintaining a pegged rate between the Barbados dollar and the U.S. dollar, Barbados is not unlike another state of the United States as far as pricing goods and services in United States Barbados trade. Countries with diversified trading patterns will not find exchange rate pegging so desirable.
The evidence from previous studies indicates quite convincingly the systematic differences between peggers and floaters, which is summarized in Table 2.4. But there are exceptions to these generalities because neither all peggers nor all floaters have the same characteristics. We can safely say that, in general, the larger the country is, the more likely it is to float its exchange rate; the more closed the economy is, the more likely the coun-try will float; and so on. The point is that economic phenomena, and not just political maneuvering, ultimately influence foreign exchange rate practices.
There is also concern about how the choice of an exchange rate sys-tem affects the stability of the economy. If the domestic policy authorities seek to minimize unexpected fluctuations in the domestic price level, then they will choose an exchange rate system that best minimizes such fluctuations. For instance, the greater the foreign tradable goods price fluctuations are, the more likely there will be a float, since the floating exchange rate helps to insulate the domestic economy from foreign price disturbances. The greater the domestic money supply fluctuations are, the more likely there will be a peg, since international money flows serve as shock absorbers that reduce the domestic price impact of domestic money supply fluctuations. With a fixed exchange rate, an excess supply of domestic money will cause a capital outflow because some of this excess
THE CHOICE OF AN EXCHANGE RATE SYSTEMPerfectly fixed or pegged exchange rates would work much as a gold standard does. All currencies would fix their exchange rate in terms of another currency, say, the dollar, and thereby would fix their rate relative to every other currency. Under such an arrangement each country would International Monetary Arrangements 45have to follow the monetary policy of the key currency in order to expe-rience the same inflation rate and keep the exchange rate fixed.Flexible or floating exchange rates occur when the exchange rate is determined by the market forces of supply and demand. As the demand for a currency increases relative to supply, that currency will appreciate, whereas currencies in which the quantity supplied exceeds the quantity demanded will depreciate.Economists do not all agree on the advantages and disadvantages of a floating as opposed to a pegged exchange rate system. For instance, some would argue that a major advantage of flexible rates is that each country can follow domestic macroeconomic policies independent of the policies of other countries. To maintain fixed exchange rates, countries have to share a common inflation experience, which was often a source of pro-blems under the post World War II system of fixed exchange rates. If the dollar, which was the key currency for the system, was inflating at a rate faster than, say, Japan desired, then the lower inflation rate followed by the Japanese led to pressure for an appreciation of the yen relative to the dollar. Thus the existing pegged rate could not be maintained. Yet with flexible rates, each country can choose a desired rate of inflation and the exchange rate will adjust accordingly. Thus, if the United States chooses 8 percent inflation and Japan chooses 3 percent, there will be a steady depreciation of the dollar relative to the yen (absent any relative price movements). Given the different political environment and cultural heri-tage existing in each country, it is reasonable to expect different countries to follow different monetary policies. Floating exchange rates allow for an orderly adjustment to these differing inflation rates.Still there are those economists who argue that the ability of each country to choose an inflation rate is an undesirable aspect of floating exchange rates. These proponents of fixed rates indicate that fixed rates are useful in providing an international discipline on the inflationary poli-cies of countries. Fixed rates provide an anchor for countries with infla-tionary tendencies. By maintaining a fixed rate of exchange to the dollar (or some other currency), each country’s inflation rate is “anchored” to the dollar, and thus will follow the policy established for the dollar.Critics of flexible exchange rates have also argued that flexible exchange rates would be subject to destabilizing speculation. By destabiliz-ing speculation we mean that speculators in the foreign exchange market will cause exchange rate fluctuations to be wider than they would be in the absence of such speculation. The logic suggests that, if speculators 46 International Money and Financeexpect a currency to depreciate, they will take positions in the foreign exchange market that will cause the depreciation as a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. But speculators should lose money when they guess wrong, so that only successful speculators will remain in the market, and the success-ful players serve a useful role by “evening out” swings in the exchange rate. For instance, if we expect a currency to depreciate or decrease in value next month, we could sell the currency now, which would result in a current depreciation. This will lead to a smaller future depreciation than would occur otherwise. The speculator then spreads the exchange rate change more evenly through time and tends to even out big jumps in the exchange rate. If the speculator had bet on the future depreciation by sell-ing the currency now and the currency appreciates instead of depreciates, then the speculator loses and will eventually be eliminated from the mar-ket if such mistakes are repeated.Research has shown that there are systematic differences between countries choosing to peg their exchange rates and those choosing float-ing rates. One very important characteristic is country size in terms of economic activity or GDP. Large countries tend to be more independent and less willing to subjugate domestic policies with a view toward main-taining a fixed rate of exchange with foreign currencies. Since foreign trade tends to constitute a smaller fraction of GDP the larger the country is, it is perhaps understandable that larger countries are less attuned to for-eign exchange rate concerns than are smaller countries.The openness of the economy is another important factor. By open-ness, we mean the degree to which the country depends on international trade. The greater the fraction of tradable (i.e., internationally tradable) goods in GDP, the more open the economy will be. A country with little or no international trade is referred to as a closed economy. As previously mentioned, openness is related to size. The more open the economy, the greater the weight of tradable goods prices in the overall national price level, and therefore the greater the impact of exchange rate changes on the national price level. To minimize such foreign-related shocks to the domestic price level, the more open economy tends to follow a pegged exchange rate.Countries that choose higher rates of inflation than their trading part-ners will have difficulty maintaining an exchange rate peg. We find, in fact, that countries whose inflation experiences are different from the average follow floating rates, or a crawling-peg-type system in which the
International Monetary Arrangements 47
exchange rate is adjusted at short intervals to compensate for the inflation differentials.
Countries that trade largely with a single foreign country tend to peg their exchange rate to that country’s currency. For instance, since the United States accounts for the majority of Barbados trade, by pegging to the U.S. dollar, Barbados imparts to its exports and imports a degree of stability that would otherwise be missing. By maintaining a pegged rate between the Barbados dollar and the U.S. dollar, Barbados is not unlike another state of the United States as far as pricing goods and services in United States Barbados trade. Countries with diversified trading patterns will not find exchange rate pegging so desirable.
The evidence from previous studies indicates quite convincingly the systematic differences between peggers and floaters, which is summarized in Table 2.4. But there are exceptions to these generalities because neither all peggers nor all floaters have the same characteristics. We can safely say that, in general, the larger the country is, the more likely it is to float its exchange rate; the more closed the economy is, the more likely the coun-try will float; and so on. The point is that economic phenomena, and not just political maneuvering, ultimately influence foreign exchange rate practices.
There is also concern about how the choice of an exchange rate sys-tem affects the stability of the economy. If the domestic policy authorities seek to minimize unexpected fluctuations in the domestic price level, then they will choose an exchange rate system that best minimizes such fluctuations. For instance, the greater the foreign tradable goods price fluctuations are, the more likely there will be a float, since the floating exchange rate helps to insulate the domestic economy from foreign price disturbances. The greater the domestic money supply fluctuations are, the more likely there will be a peg, since international money flows serve as shock absorbers that reduce the domestic price impact of domestic money supply fluctuations. With a fixed exchange rate, an excess supply of domestic money will cause a capital outflow because some of this excess
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