This paper studied the extent and the features of the transmission of US shocks to Mexico,
Panama, Ecuador, Argentina, Uruguay, Peru, Brazil and Chile. I identify US structural shocks
using the two-step procedure of Canova and De Nicol´o (2002), which first extracts orthogonal
innovations from reduced form residuals and then studies whether their informational content is
consistent with the restrictions imposed by a large class of theoretical dynamic models. Then I
feed these statistical shocks into VAR models for each Latin American economy, study the pattern
of propagation, measure their contribution to the variability of domestic variables, and describe
conditional comovements in the continent using posterior estimators which efficiently combine
cross-sectional information.
Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. J. Appl. Econ. 20: 229–251 (2005)
THE TRANSMISSION OF US SHOCKS 249
Four major conclusions can be drawn from the analysis. First, while US real demand and supply
shocks generate insignificant fluctuations in the typical Latin American economy, US monetary
disturbances induce large and significant responses in several Latin American macroeconomic
variables. The interest rate channel is a crucial amplifier of US monetary disturbances, while
the trade channel appears to play a negligible role. Transmission, when it occurs, is almost
instantaneous with Latin American variables peaking within a couple of quarters of the shocks.
Second, the patterns of transmission differ somewhat from those documented in developed
countries. Third, US disturbances account for an important portion of the variability of Latin
American macrovariables; induce significant continental output and inflation comovements and,
at least in two episodes, have important destabilizing effects on nominal exchange rates. Fourth,
while there are differences in the responses of countries with floating and non-floating exchange
rates, these differences have more to do with the magnitude of the effects than with the pattern of
transmission.
The results of the investigation have important policy implications: putting the house in order is
far from being sufficient to avoid cyclical fluctuations in Latin American economies. Given that the
majority of domestic fluctuations are of foreign origin, Latin American policymakers are required to
carefully monitor international conditions and to disentangle the informational content of US disturbances
in order to properly react to external imbalances. Moreover, since US monetary policy has
important destabilizing exchange rate effects, the Fed ought to adopt a broader point of view when
choosing the level of US interest rates, possibly internalizing some of the external consequences.
Finally, since the exchange rate regime and/or the degree of dollarization of the economy do
not appear to matter either for the transmission of US shocks or for the size of domestic real
fluctuations, the question of whether Latin American countries should dollarize or not, a question
currently at the forefront of policy debates, seems somewhat ill-posed. Whether our results are due
to fear of floating, mix of different regimes, shortage of data or insignificant differences across
regimes is hard to tell.
The literature has highlighted another aspect of dollarization which is relevant here: the
sustainability of the arrangement. It is often stressed that the feasibility of currency areas
crucially depends on the presence of comovements in macroeconomic variables across countries.
In particular, a fixed exchange rate regime is more easily sustainable if shocks are internationally
contemporaneously correlated or if there is a quick transmission of shocks from one country to
another. Dollarization imposes a further constraint on this picture as local currency varies only to
the extent that ‘dollars’ enter the country.
The evidence I have collected suggests that important continental comovements in response to
monetary shocks do exist, but also that the other two shocks generate mixed output and inflation
comovements. Hence, the sustainability of certain international arrangements may well depend
on the type of shocks experienced by the US economy. Since interest rates move significantly
only in response to monetary shocks, discovering the relative frequency of real demand, monetary
and supply shocks affecting the US economy may provide valuable information on whether theThis paper studied the extent and the features of the transmission of US shocks to Mexico,
Panama, Ecuador, Argentina, Uruguay, Peru, Brazil and Chile. I identify US structural shocks
using the two-step procedure of Canova and De Nicol´o (2002), which first extracts orthogonal
innovations from reduced form residuals and then studies whether their informational content is
consistent with the restrictions imposed by a large class of theoretical dynamic models. Then I
feed these statistical shocks into VAR models for each Latin American economy, study the pattern
of propagation, measure their contribution to the variability of domestic variables, and describe
conditional comovements in the continent using posterior estimators which efficiently combine
cross-sectional information.
Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. J. Appl. Econ. 20: 229–251 (2005)
THE TRANSMISSION OF US SHOCKS 249
Four major conclusions can be drawn from the analysis. First, while US real demand and supply
shocks generate insignificant fluctuations in the typical Latin American economy, US monetary
disturbances induce large and significant responses in several Latin American macroeconomic
variables. The interest rate channel is a crucial amplifier of US monetary disturbances, while
the trade channel appears to play a negligible role. Transmission, when it occurs, is almost
instantaneous with Latin American variables peaking within a couple of quarters of the shocks.
Second, the patterns of transmission differ somewhat from those documented in developed
countries. Third, US disturbances account for an important portion of the variability of Latin
American macrovariables; induce significant continental output and inflation comovements and,
at least in two episodes, have important destabilizing effects on nominal exchange rates. Fourth,
while there are differences in the responses of countries with floating and non-floating exchange
rates, these differences have more to do with the magnitude of the effects than with the pattern of
transmission.
The results of the investigation have important policy implications: putting the house in order is
far from being sufficient to avoid cyclical fluctuations in Latin American economies. Given that the
majority of domestic fluctuations are of foreign origin, Latin American policymakers are required to
carefully monitor international conditions and to disentangle the informational content of US disturbances
in order to properly react to external imbalances. Moreover, since US monetary policy has
important destabilizing exchange rate effects, the Fed ought to adopt a broader point of view when
choosing the level of US interest rates, possibly internalizing some of the external consequences.
Finally, since the exchange rate regime and/or the degree of dollarization of the economy do
not appear to matter either for the transmission of US shocks or for the size of domestic real
fluctuations, the question of whether Latin American countries should dollarize or not, a question
currently at the forefront of policy debates, seems somewhat ill-posed. Whether our results are due
to fear of floating, mix of different regimes, shortage of data or insignificant differences across
regimes is hard to tell.
The literature has highlighted another aspect of dollarization which is relevant here: the
sustainability of the arrangement. It is often stressed that the feasibility of currency areas
crucially depends on the presence of comovements in macroeconomic variables across countries.
In particular, a fixed exchange rate regime is more easily sustainable if shocks are internationally
contemporaneously correlated or if there is a quick transmission of shocks from one country to
another. Dollarization imposes a further constraint on this picture as local currency varies only to
the extent that ‘dollars’ enter the country.
The evidence I have collected suggests that important continental comovements in response to
monetary shocks do exist, but also that the other two shocks generate mixed output and inflation
comovements. Hence, the sustainability of certain international arrangements may well depend
on the type of shocks experienced by the US economy. Since interest rates move significantly
only in response to monetary shocks, discovering the relative frequency of real demand, monetary
and supply shocks affecting the US economy may provide valuable information on whether the