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Financial versus Monetary Mercantilism: Long-run View of Large International Reserves Hoarding

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Author Info
Joshua Aizenman
Jaewoo Lee

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Abstract

The sizeable hoarding of international reserves by several East Asian countries has been frequently attributed to a modern version of monetary mercantilism - hoarding international reserves in order to improve competitiveness. From a long-run perspective, manufacturing exporters in East Asia adopted 'financial' mercantilism - subsidising the cost of capital - during decades of high growth. They switched to hoarding large international reserves when growth faltered, making it harder to disentangle the monetary mercantilism from the precautionary response to the heritage of past financial mercantilism. Monetary mercantilism also lowers the cost of hoarding, but may be associated with negative externalities leading to competitive hoarding. From this viewpoint, this paper makes three observations on the East Asian reserve accumulation. First, the recent large hoarding of reserves in Japan and Korea occurred in the aftermath of the growth strategy that combined export promotion and credit subsidisation (financial mercantilism). Second, whether the ultimate motive is mercantilist or precautionary, the ongoing reserve hoarding in Asia contains an element of competitive hoarding, which is likely to have negative externalities among countries involved. Finally, China's hoarding of reserves partly reflects the precaution against the financial fragility that is likely to follow the slowing of economic growth. Copyright 2008 The Authors.

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File URL: http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/links/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9701.2008.01095.x/enhancedabs
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Article provided by Blackwell Publishing in its journal World Economy.

Volume (Year): 31 (2008)
Issue (Month): 5 (05)
Pages: 593-611
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Handle: RePEc:bla:worlde:v:31:y:2008:i:5:p:593-611

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Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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  3. Graciela L. Kaminsky & Carmen M. Reinhart, 1996. "The twin crises: the causes of banking and balance-of-payments problems," International Finance Discussion Papers 544, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). [Downloadable!]
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  4. Caballero, Ricardo & Farhi, Emmanuel & Gourinchas, Pierre-Olivier, 2006. "An Equilibrium Model of 'Global Imbalances' and Low Interest Rates," CEPR Discussion Papers 5573, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  5. Marcus Noland, 2005. "South Korea's Experience with International Capital Flows," Peterson Institute Working Paper Series WP05-4, Peterson Institute for International Economics. [Downloadable!]
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  6. Spencer, Barbara J & Brander, James A, 1983. "International R & D Rivalry and Industrial Strategy," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 50(4), pages 707-22, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  7. Ben-Bassat, Avraham & Gottlieb, Daniel, 1992. "Optimal international reserves and sovereign risk," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(3-4), pages 345-362, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. Hutchison, Michael M & Noy, Ilan, 2005. "How Bad Are Twins? Output Costs of Currency and Banking Crises," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 37(4), pages 725-52, August.
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  10. Barry Eichengreen, 2006. "Insurance Underwriter or Financial Development Fund: What Role for Reserve Pooling in Latin America?," NBER Working Papers 12451, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  11. Roberto Chang & Andres Velasco, 1999. "Liquidity crises in emerging markets: Theory and policy," Working Paper 99-15, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. [Downloadable!]
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  12. J.P Neary & D Leahy, 1995. "Learning by Doing," CEP Discussion Papers 0251, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
  13. Joshua Aizenman & Nancy Marion, 2002. "The High Demand for International Reserves in the Far East: What's Going On?," NBER Working Papers 9266, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  14. Robert McCauley, 2005. "Distinguishing global dollar reserves from official holdings in the United States," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, September. [Downloadable!]
  15. Pablo García & Claudio Soto, 2004. "Large Hoardings of International Reserves: Are They Worth It?," Working Papers Central Bank of Chile 299, Central Bank of Chile. [Downloadable!]
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Stanley Watt & Saade Chami & Donal McGettigan, 2007. "Jordan's International Reserve Position: Justifiably Strong," IMF Working Papers 07/103, International Monetary Fund. [Downloadable!]
  2. Abhijit Sen Gupta, 2008. "Cost of Holding Excess Reserves: The Indian Experience," Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, New Delhi Working Papers 206, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, New Delhi, India. [Downloadable!]
  3. Joshua Aizenman & Reuven Glick, 2008. "Sterilization, Monetary Policy, and Global Financial Integration," NBER Working Papers 13902, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  4. Joshua Aizenman & Jaewoo Lee, 2008. "The Real Exchange Rate, Mercantilism and the Learning by Doing Externality," NBER Working Papers 13853, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Guido Sandleris & Filippo Taddei, 2007. "Indexed Sovereign Debt: a Survey and a Framework of Analysis," Carlo Alberto Notebooks 66, Collegio Carlo Alberto. [Downloadable!]
  6. Marta Ruiz-Arranz & Milan Zavadjil, 2008. "Are Emerging Asia’s Reserves Really Too High?," IMF Working Papers 08/192, International Monetary Fund. [Downloadable!]
  7. Rod Tyers & Jane Golley & Bu Yongxiang & Iain Bain, 2007. "China's Economic Growth and its Real Exchange Rate," DEGIT Conference Papers c012_014, DEGIT, Dynamics, Economic Growth, and International Trade. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  8. Rod Tyers & Jane Golley & Iain Bain, 2007. "China'S Real Exchange Rate Puzzle," CAMA Working Papers 2007-14, Australian National University, Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis. [Downloadable!]
  9. Joshua Aizenman, 2006. "International Reserves Management and the Current Account," NBER Working Papers 12734, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  10. Joshua Aizenman & Yi Sun, 2008. "Globalization and the Sustainability of Large Current Account Imbalances: Size Matters," NBER Working Papers 13734, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Rod Tyers & Jane Golley, 2007. "China’s Real Exchange Rate," ANUCBE School of Economics Working Papers 2007-479, Australian National University, College of Business and Economics, School of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  12. Rod Tyers & Iain Bain, 2007. "Appreciating the Renminbi," Departmental Working Papers 2007-09, Australian National University, Economics RSPAS. [Downloadable!]
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