Advanced Search
MyIDEAS: Login

Chile's Peso: Better Than (Just) Living with the Dollar?

Contents:

Author Info

  • Felipe Morandé
  • Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel

Abstract

The choice between maintaining or giving up the national currency is determined by putting on balance the benefits of macroeconomic flexibility derived from a floating exchange rate and an independent monetary policy, and the microeconomic benefits derived from joining a currency union or adopting unilaterally a foreign currency. This paper assesses this choice for Chile. The country’s financial development and macroeconomic stability imply low microeconomic and efficiency costs in sticking to the peso. An evaluation of optimal currency-area criteria shows that Chile is not a natural candidate for joining a monetary union with prospective partners in Latin America, NAFTA, or the European Union. Unilateral dollarization is even less beneficial. Among Southern Hemisphere countries with various exchange rate regimes, Chile would gain the least from giving up its national currency. For a country like Chile, subject to large idiosyncratic shocks and significant temporary price and wage rigidity, a flexible exchange rate and an independent monetary policy anchored to an inflation target comprise the dominant regime choice.

Download Info

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
File URL: http://www.bcentral.cl/estudios/documentos-trabajo/pdf/dtbc68.pdf
Download Restriction: no

Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Central Bank of Chile in its series Working Papers Central Bank of Chile with number 68.

as in new window
Length:
Date of creation: Mar 2000
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:chb:bcchwp:68

Contact details of provider:
Postal: Casilla No967, Santiago
Phone: (562) 670 2000
Fax: (562) 698 4847
Web page: http://www.bcentral.cl/
More information through EDIRC

Related research

Keywords:

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

References

References listed on IDEAS
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.:
as in new window
  1. Barry Eichengreen., 1998. "Does Mercosur Need a Single Currency?," Center for International and Development Economics Research (CIDER) Working Papers C98-103, University of California at Berkeley.
  2. Juan Pablo Medina & Rodrigo O. Valdés, 2002. "Optimal Monetary Policy Rules under Inflation Range Targeting," Central Banking, Analysis, and Economic Policies Book Series, in: Norman Loayza & Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel & Norman Loayza (Series Editor) & Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel (Series (ed.), Monetary Policy: Rules and Transmission Mechanisms, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 5, pages 095-116 Central Bank of Chile.
  3. Sachs, Jeffrey & Sala-i-Martin, Xavier, 1992. "Fiscal Federalism and Optimum Currency Areas: Evidence for Europe from the United States," CEPR Discussion Papers 632, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  4. Devereux, M.B., 1999. "A Simple Dynamic General Equilibrium Analysis of the Trade-Off Between Fixed and Floating Exchange Rates," UBC Departmental Archives 99-22, UBC Department of Economics.
  5. Richard Clarida & Jordi Gali & Mark Gertler, 1999. "The Science of Monetary Policy: A New Keynesian Perspective," NBER Working Papers 7147, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  6. Tamim Bayoumi and Barry Eichengreen., 1992. "Is There a Conflict Between EC Enlargement and European Monetary Unification?," Economics Working Papers 92-188, University of California at Berkeley.
  7. Jeanne, Olivier & Rose, Andrew K, 1999. "Noise Trading and Exchange Rate Regimes," CEPR Discussion Papers 2142, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  8. Francisco A. Gallego & Leonardo Hernandez & Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel, 2000. "Capital Controls in Chile: Effective? Efficient?," Econometric Society World Congress 2000 Contributed Papers 0330, Econometric Society.
  9. Mahadeva, Lavan & Sterne, Gabriel, 2002. "Inflation Targets as a Stabilization Device," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 70(4), pages 619-50, Special I.
  10. Jonathan David Ostry & Anne Marie Gulde & Atish R. Ghosh & Holger C. Wolf, 1995. "Does the Nominal Exchange Rate Regime Matter?," IMF Working Papers 95/121, International Monetary Fund.
  11. Stephen G. Cecchetti & Michael Ehrmann, 1999. "Does Inflation Targeting Increase Output Volatility? An International Comparison of Policymakers' Preferences and Outcomes," NBER Working Papers 7426, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  12. 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.).
  13. Norman Loayza & Humberto Lopez & Angel Ubide, 1999. "Comovement and Macroeconomic Interdependence: Evidence for Latin America, East Asia, and Europe," Working Papers Central Bank of Chile 60, Central Bank of Chile.
  14. repec:fth:coluec:414 is not listed on IDEAS
  15. Tamim Bayoumi and Barry Eichengreen., 1996. "Ever Closer to Heaven? An Optimum-Currency-Area Index for European Countries," Center for International and Development Economics Research (CIDER) Working Papers C96-078, University of California at Berkeley.
  16. Erica Groshen & Mark Schweitzer, 1999. "Identifying Inflation’s Grease and Sand Effects in the Labor Market," NBER Chapters, in: The Costs and Benefits of Price Stability, pages 273-314 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  17. Mark P. Taylor, 1995. "The Economics of Exchange Rates," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 33(1), pages 13-47, March.
  18. Peter Montiel & Bijan B. Aghevli & Mohsin S. Khan, 1991. "Exchange Rate Policy in Developing Countries: Some Analytical Issues," IMF Occasional Papers 78, International Monetary Fund.
  19. David Hargreaves & C John McDermott, 1999. "Issues relating to optimal currency areas: theory and implications for New Zealand," Reserve Bank of New Zealand Bulletin, Reserve Bank of New Zealand, vol. 62, September.
  20. Jeffrey A. Frankel, 1999. "No Single Currency Regime is Right for All Countries or At All Times," NBER Working Papers 7338, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  21. Bennett T. McCallum, 1999. "Theoretical Issues Pertaining to Monetary Unions," NBER Working Papers 7393, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  22. Jacob A. Frenkel & Joshua Aizenman, 1983. "Aspects of the Optimal Management of Exchange Rates," NBER Working Papers 0748, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  23. Feldstein, Martin & Horioka, Charles, 1980. "Domestic Saving and International Capital Flows," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 90(358), pages 314-29, June.
  24. Giovanni Dell'Ariccia, 1998. "Exchange Rate Fluctuations and Trade Flows - Evidence from the European Union," IMF Working Papers 98/107, International Monetary Fund.
  25. Robert Shiller, 1998. "Indexed Units of Account: Theory and Assessment of Historical Experience," Working Papers Central Bank of Chile 28, Central Bank of Chile.
  26. Bayoumi, Tamim & Masson, Paul R., 1995. "Fiscal flows in the United States and Canada: Lessons for monetary union in Europe," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 253-274, February.
  27. Caballero, R. & Corbo, V., 1988. "Real Exchange Rate Uncertainty And Exports: Multi-Country Empirical Evidence," Discussion Papers 1988_12, Columbia University, Department of Economics.
  28. Sebastian Edwards & Miguel A. Savastano, 1999. "Exchange Rates in Emerging Economies: What Do We Know? What Do We Need to Know?," NBER Working Papers 7228, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  29. Shang-Jin Wei, 1996. "Intra-National versus International Trade: How Stubborn are Nations in Global Integration?," NBER Working Papers 5531, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  30. Eichengreen, Barry & Bayoumi, Tamim, 1996. "Is Asia an Optimum Currency Area? Can It Become One? Regional, Global and Historical Perspectives on Asian Monetary Relations," Center for International and Development Economics Research, Working Paper Series qt1td5x343, Center for International and Development Economics Research, Institute for Business and Economic Research, UC Berkeley.
  31. Martin S. Feldstein, 1997. "The Costs and Benefits of Going from Low Inflation to Price Stability," NBER Chapters, in: Reducing Inflation: Motivation and Strategy, pages 123-166 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  32. Bayoumi, T. & Eichengreen, B., 1994. "One Money or Many? Analysing the Prospects for Monetary Unification in Various Parts of the World," Princeton Studies in International Economics 76, International Economics Section, Departement of Economics Princeton University,.
  33. Ricardo Hausmann & Michael Gavin & Carmen Pagés-Serra & Ernesto H. Stein, 1999. "Financial Turmoil and Choice of Exchange Rate Regime," Research Department Publications 4170, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
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 in new window

Cited by:
  1. Araújo, Aloísio Pessoa de & Leon, Márcia Saraiva, 2002. "Speculative Attacks on Debts, Dollarization and Optimum Currency Areas," Economics Working Papers (Ensaios Economicos da EPGE) 446, Graduate School of Economics, Getulio Vargas Foundation (Brazil).
  2. Vittorio Corbo & Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel, 2002. "Inflation Targeting in Latin America," Documentos de Trabajo 230, Instituto de Economia. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile..
  3. Vittorio Corbo, 2002. "Exchange Rate Regimes in the Americas: Is Dollarization the Solution?," Documentos de Trabajo 229, Instituto de Economia. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile..
  4. Eduard Hochreiter & Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel & Georg Winckler, 2002. "Monetary Union: European Lessons, Latin American Prospects," Working Papers Central Bank of Chile 167, Central Bank of Chile.
  5. Corbo, Vittorio, 2001. "Is it time for a common currency for the Americas?," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 241-248, April.
  6. Martin Grandes & Helmut Reisen, 2003. "Hard Peg versus Soft Float. A Tale of Two Latin-American Countries," Revue économique, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 54(5), pages 1057-1090.
  7. Aloisio Araujo & Marcia Leon, 2002. "Speculative Attacks on Debts, Dollarization and Optimum Currency Areas," Working Papers Series 40, Central Bank of Brazil, Research Department.
  8. Felipe Morandé L. & Matías Tapia G., 2002. "Exchange Rate Policy in Chile: the Abandonment of the Band and the Floating Experience," Journal Economía Chilena (The Chilean Economy), Central Bank of Chile, vol. 5(3), pages 67-94, December.

Lists

This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

Statistics

Access and download statistics

Corrections

When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:chb:bcchwp:68

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Claudio Sepulveda).

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 references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link 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 profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

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