IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jimfin/v63y2016icp112-136.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Optimal exchange rate flexibility with large labor unions

Author

Listed:
  • Cuciniello, Vincenzo
  • Lambertini, Luisa

Abstract

We study the optimal volatility of the exchange rate in a two-country model with sectoral non-atomistic wage setters, non-traded goods, nominal rigidities and alternative pricing assumptions – producer or local currency pricing. Labor unions internalize the sectoral impact of their wage settlements through firms' labor demand. With local currency pricing, exchange rate depreciation raises sales revenue, which in turn boosts domestic consumption and labor demand. Unions anticipate this effect and set higher wages accordingly. With small unions and low wage markup, optimal monetary policy enhances exchange rate movements to improve its terms of trade. With large unions and high wage markup, optimal monetary policy curbs exchange rate movements to restrain inflationary wage demands and to stabilize employment.

Suggested Citation

  • Cuciniello, Vincenzo & Lambertini, Luisa, 2016. "Optimal exchange rate flexibility with large labor unions," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 112-136.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jimfin:v:63:y:2016:i:c:p:112-136
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jimonfin.2016.01.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261560616000024
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jimonfin.2016.01.001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert C. Feenstra & Robert Inklaar & Marcel P. Timmer, 2015. "The Next Generation of the Penn World Table," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(10), pages 3150-3182, October.
    2. Engel, Charles & Rogers, John H, 1996. "How Wide Is the Border?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(5), pages 1112-1125, December.
    3. Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg & Michael M. Knetter, 1997. "Goods Prices and Exchange Rates: What Have We Learned?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 35(3), pages 1243-1272, September.
    4. Cukierman, Alex & Lippi, Francesco, 2001. "Labour Markets and Monetary Union: A Strategic Analysis," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 111(473), pages 541-565, July.
    5. Corsetti, Giancarlo & Pesenti, Paolo, 2005. "International dimensions of optimal monetary policy," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 281-305, March.
    6. Blanchard, Olivier & Wolfers, Justin, 2000. "The Role of Shocks and Institutions in the Rise of European Unemployment: The Aggregate Evidence," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 110(462), pages 1-33, March.
    7. Philip Du Caju & Erwan Gautier & Daphne Momferatu & Melanie Ward-Warmedinger, 2009. "Institutional Features of Wage Bargaining in 23 European Countries, the US and Japan," Ekonomia, Cyprus Economic Society and University of Cyprus, vol. 12(2), pages 57-108, Winter.
    8. José Manuel Campa & Linda S. Goldberg, 2005. "Exchange Rate Pass-Through into Import Prices," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 87(4), pages 679-690, November.
    9. Giuseppe Bertola & Andrea Ichino, 1995. "Wage Inequality and Unemployment: United States versus Europe," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1995, Volume 10, pages 13-66, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Corsetti, Giancarlo & Dedola, Luca & Leduc, Sylvain, 2010. "Optimal Monetary Policy in Open Economies," Handbook of Monetary Economics, in: Benjamin M. Friedman & Michael Woodford (ed.), Handbook of Monetary Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 16, pages 861-933, Elsevier.
    11. Vincenzo Cuciniello, 2011. "The Welfare Effect of Foreign Monetary Conservatism with Nonatomistic Wage Setters," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 43(8), pages 1719-1734, December.
    12. Ethan Ilzetzki & Carmen M Reinhart & Kenneth S Rogoff, 2019. "Exchange Arrangements Entering the Twenty-First Century: Which Anchor will Hold?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 134(2), pages 599-646.
    13. Cuciniello, Vincenzo, 2013. "Large labour unions and terms-of-trade externality," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 120(1), pages 135-138.
    14. De Paoli, Bianca, 2009. "Monetary policy and welfare in a small open economy," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 11-22, February.
    15. Marcelo Veracierto, 2008. "Firing Costs And Business Cycle Fluctuations," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 49(1), pages 1-39, February.
    16. Daniels, Joseph P. & Nourzad, Farrokh & VanHoose, David D., 2006. "Openness, centralized wage bargaining, and inflation," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 969-988, December.
    17. Richard Clarida & Jordi Gali & Mark Gertler, 2001. "Optimal Monetary Policy in Open versus Closed Economies: An Integrated Approach," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(2), pages 248-252, May.
    18. Michael W. L. Elsby & Bart Hobijn & Ayşegül Şahin, 2013. "Unemployment Dynamics in the OECD," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(2), pages 530-548, May.
    19. Vartiainen, Juhana, 2002. " Relative Prices in Monetary Union and Floating," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 104(2), pages 277-287, June.
    20. Alessandro Barattieri & Susanto Basu & Peter Gottschalk, 2014. "Some Evidence on the Importance of Sticky Wages," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 6(1), pages 70-101, January.
    21. Michael B. Devereux & Charles Engel, 2003. "Monetary Policy in the Open Economy Revisited: Price Setting and Exchange-Rate Flexibility," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 70(4), pages 765-783.
    22. Soskice, David & Iversen, Torben, 1998. "Multiple Wage-Bargaining Systems in the Single European Currency Area," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 14(3), pages 110-124, Autumn.
    23. Duarte, Margarida & Obstfeld, Maurice, 2008. "Monetary policy in the open economy revisited: The case for exchange-rate flexibility restored," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 949-957, October.
    24. Margarida Duarte & Diego Restuccia & Andrea L. Waddle, 2007. "Exchange rates and business cycles across countries," Economic Quarterly, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, vol. 93(Win), pages 57-76.
    25. Steinar Holden, 2003. "Wage-setting under Different Monetary Regimes," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 70(278), pages 251-265, May.
    26. Corsetti, Giancarlo, 2006. "Openness and the case for flexible exchange rates," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 1-21, March.
    27. Pierpaolo Benigno & Michael Woodford, 2005. "Optimal stabilization policy when wages and prices are sticky: the case of a distorted steady state," Proceedings, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.), pages 127-180.
    28. Acocella, Nicola & Di Bartolomeo, Giovanni & Tirelli, Patrizio, 2007. "Monetary conservatism and fiscal coordination in a monetary union," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 94(1), pages 56-63, January.
    29. Maurice Obstfeld & Kenneth Rogoff, 2002. "Global Implications of Self-Oriented National Monetary Rules," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 117(2), pages 503-535.
    30. Juhana Vartiainen, 2002. "Relative Prices in Monetary Union and Floating," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 104(2), pages 277-287, June.
    31. Cavallari, Lilia, 2001. "Inflation and Openness with Non-Atomistic Wage Setters," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 48(2), pages 210-225, May.
    32. Charles Engel, 2011. "Currency Misalignments and Optimal Monetary Policy: A Reexamination," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(6), pages 2796-2822, October.
    33. Hans Peter Grüner & Carsten Hefeker, 1999. "How Will EMU Affect Inflation and Unemployment in Europe?," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 101(1), pages 33-47, March.
    34. Stephen Nickell & Luca Nunziata & Wolfgang Ochel, 2005. "Unemployment in the OECD Since the 1960s. What Do We Know?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 115(500), pages 1-27, January.
    35. Cubitt, Robin P, 1992. "Monetary Policy Games and Private Sector Precommitment," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 44(3), pages 513-530, July.
    36. Henrik Jensen, 1993. "International monetary policy cooperation in economies with centralized wage setting," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 4(3), pages 269-285, September.
    37. Michael Bruno & Jeffrey D. Sachs, 1985. "Economics of Worldwide Stagflation," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number brun85-1, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Andini, Corrado, 2023. "Exchange-rate policy, institutions and wages: A macroeconomic quasi-experiment from Italy, 1997–2000," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 175(C), pages 158-170.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Corsetti, Giancarlo & Dedola, Luca & Leduc, Sylvain, 2010. "Optimal Monetary Policy in Open Economies," Handbook of Monetary Economics, in: Benjamin M. Friedman & Michael Woodford (ed.), Handbook of Monetary Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 16, pages 861-933, Elsevier.
    2. Vincenzo Cuciniello & Luisa Lambertini, 2009. "Optimal Exchange-Rate Targeting with Large Labor Unions," Working Papers 200901, Center for Fiscal Policy, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne.
    3. Fujiwara, Ippei & Wang, Jiao, 2017. "Optimal monetary policy in open economies revisited," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 300-314.
    4. Giancarlo Corsetti & Luca Dedola & Sylvain Leduc, 2007. "Optimal Monetary Policy and the Sources of Local-Currency Price Stability," NBER Chapters, in: International Dimensions of Monetary Policy, pages 319-367, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Ondra Kamenik & Michael Kumhof, 2014. "Trade Openness and Exchange Rate Regimes," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 46(8), pages 1657-1686, December.
    6. Lombardo, Giovanni & Ravenna, Federico, 2014. "Openness and optimal monetary policy," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(1), pages 153-172.
    7. Giancarlo Corsetti & Paolo Pesenti, 2009. "The Simple Geometry of Transmission and Stabilization in Closed and Open Economies," NBER Chapters, in: NBER International Seminar on Macroeconomics 2007, pages 65-116, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Gong, Liutang & Wang, Chan & Zou, Heng-fu, 2016. "Optimal monetary policy with international trade in intermediate inputs," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 140-165.
    9. Forlati, Chiara, 2015. "On the benefits of a monetary union: Does it pay to be bigger?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(2), pages 448-463.
    10. Wolfram Berger, 2008. "Monetary Policy Rules for a Small Open Economy," Economic Notes, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, vol. 37(1), pages 1-30, February.
    11. Chan Wang & Heng-fu Zou, 2013. "On the efficiency of monetary and fiscal policy in open economies," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 14(1), pages 179-206, May.
    12. Holden, Steinar, 2005. "Monetary regimes and the co-ordination of wage setting," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(4), pages 833-843, May.
    13. Vincenzo Cuciniello, 2011. "The Welfare Effect of Foreign Monetary Conservatism with Nonatomistic Wage Setters," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 43(8), pages 1719-1734, December.
    14. Corsetti, Giancarlo & Pesenti, Paolo, 2005. "International dimensions of optimal monetary policy," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 281-305, March.
    15. Chan Wang & Heng-fu Zou, 2013. "Optimal monetary policy in open economies: the role of reference currency in vertical production and trade," CEMA Working Papers 586, China Economics and Management Academy, Central University of Finance and Economics.
    16. Bastiaan Verhoef, 2006. "Pricing-to-market, sectoral shocks and gains from monetary cooperation," DNB Working Papers 110, Netherlands Central Bank, Research Department.
    17. Sutherland, Alan, 2005. "Incomplete pass-through and the welfare effects of exchange rate variability," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 375-399, March.
    18. Cuciniello, Vincenzo, 2013. "Large labour unions and terms-of-trade externality," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 120(1), pages 135-138.
    19. Monica Correa Lopez & Agustin Garcia Serrador & Ana Cristina Mingorance, 2010. "Product Market Competition and Inflation Dynamics: Evidence from a Panel of OECD Countries," Working Papers 1025, BBVA Bank, Economic Research Department.
    20. Kashiwagi, Masanori, 2017. "A vehicle currency country's welfare under optimal monetary policy," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 23-31.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Exchange rate flexibility; Local currency pricing; Non-atomistic labor unions; Optimal monetary policy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F3 - International Economics - - International Finance
    • F41 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance - - - Open Economy Macroeconomics
    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jimfin:v:63:y:2016:i:c:p:112-136. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/30443 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.