IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/erg/wpaper/1004.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Does Exchange Rate Undervaluation Matter for Exports and Trade Margins? Evidence from Firm-Level Data

Author

Listed:
  • Ibrahim Elbadawi
  • Chahir Zaki

    (Cairo University and ERF)

Abstract

Exploiting a new dataset available for four countries (Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait and Yemen), this paper assesses the claim that real exchange rate undervaluation affects both the quantity of exports (intensive margin) and the probability of exporting a certain product to a certain destination (extensive margin) of trade in Arab countries. We find robust evidence suggesting that RER depreciation/undervaluation promotes exports at both the intensive and the extensive margins. Moreover, when financial openness is driven by FDI the latter reinforces the RER effects, but it tends to counter it when it is mainly dominated by non-FDI flows. In this case there will be even a more dire need for a higher economy-wide subsidy through an undervalued real currency in order for manufacturing exporting firms to grow at the intensive margin, and especially for overcoming the more challenging impediments of opening new markets or developing new export products.

Suggested Citation

  • Ibrahim Elbadawi & Chahir Zaki, 2016. "Does Exchange Rate Undervaluation Matter for Exports and Trade Margins? Evidence from Firm-Level Data," Working Papers 1004, Economic Research Forum, revised May 2016.
    • Handle: RePEc:erg:wpaper:1004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://erf.org.eg/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/1004.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://bit.ly/2aOQcoy
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nicolas Berman & Philippe Martin & Thierry Mayer, 2012. "How do Different Exporters React to Exchange Rate Changes?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 127(1), pages 437-492.
    2. Antoine Berthou & Lionel Fontagné, 2013. "How do Multiproduct Exporters React to a Change in Trade Costs?," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 115(2), pages 326-353, April.
    3. Alvaro Aguirre & César Calderón, 2005. "Real Exchange Rate Misalignments and Economic Performance," Working Papers Central Bank of Chile 316, Central Bank of Chile.
    4. Aghion, Philippe & Banerjee, Abhijit, 2005. "Volatility and Growth," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199248612, Decembrie.
    5. Aghion, Philippe & Bacchetta, Philippe & Rancière, Romain & Rogoff, Kenneth, 2009. "Exchange rate volatility and productivity growth: The role of financial development," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(4), pages 494-513, May.
    6. Elbadawi,Ibrahim & Selim,Hoda, 2019. "Understanding and Avoiding the Oil Curse in Resource-rich Arab Economies," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781316506677.
    7. Philippe Aghion & Philippe Bacchetta & Romain Rancière & Kenneth Rogoff, 2005. "Productivity growth and the exchange rate regime: The role of financial development," Economics Working Papers 850, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    8. Auboin, Marc & Ruta, Michel, 2011. "The relationship between exchange rates and International Trade: A review of economic literature," WTO Staff Working Papers ERSD-2011-17, World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division.
    9. Ibrahim Elbadawi & Taye Mengistae & Albert Zeufack, 2006. "Market access, supplier access, and Africa's manufactured exports: A firm level analysis," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(4), pages 493-523.
    10. Mr. Helge Berger & Volker Nitsch, 2010. "The Euro’s Effecton Trade Imbalances," IMF Working Papers 2010/226, International Monetary Fund.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Jérôme Héricourt & Sandra Poncet, 2015. "Exchange Rate Volatility, Financial Constraints, and Trade: Empirical Evidence from Chinese Firms," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 29(3), pages 550-578.
    2. Ibrahim A. Elbadawi & Linda Kaltani, 2014. "Real Exchange Rates and Export Performance in Oil-Dependent Arab Economies," Working Papers 878, Economic Research Forum, revised Nov 2014.
    3. Miao, Zhuang & Li, Yifan, 2017. "Trade Scopes across Destinations: Evidence from Chinese Firm," MPRA Paper 80863, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 15 Aug 2017.
    4. Khalid Sekkat, 2016. "Export Orientation and Exchange Rate Changes: Do Firms React Differently and Why?," Working Papers 989, Economic Research Forum, revised Apr 2016.
    5. Rodolfo Cermeño & María Roa García & Claudio González-Vega, 2012. "Financial Development and Volatility of Growth: Time Series Evidence for Mexico and USA," DEGIT Conference Papers c017_035, DEGIT, Dynamics, Economic Growth, and International Trade.
    6. Rodolfo Cermeño & María José Roa, 2013. "Desarrollo financiero, crecimiento y volatidad: Revisión de la literatura reciente," Documentos de Investigación - Research Papers 9, CEMLA.
    7. Brahmbhatt, Milan & Canuto, Otaviano & Vostroknutova, Ekaterina, 2010. "Dealing with Dutch Disease," World Bank - Economic Premise, The World Bank, issue 16, pages 1-7, June.
    8. Frederick van der Ploeg & Steven Poelhekke, 2007. "Volatility, Financial Development and the Natural Resource Curse," Economics Working Papers ECO2007/36, European University Institute.
    9. Ronald MacDonald & Flávio Vieira, "undated". "A panel data investigation of real exchange rate misalignment and growth," Working Papers 2010_13, Business School - Economics, University of Glasgow.
    10. di Giovanni, Julian & Shambaugh, Jay C., 2008. "The impact of foreign interest rates on the economy: The role of the exchange rate regime," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(2), pages 341-361, March.
    11. Head, Keith & Mayer, Thierry, 2014. "Gravity Equations: Workhorse,Toolkit, and Cookbook," Handbook of International Economics, in: Gopinath, G. & Helpman, . & Rogoff, K. (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 131-195, Elsevier.
    12. Jérôme Héricourt & Clément Nedoncelle, 2015. "Relative Real Exchange-Rate Volatility, Multi-Destination Firms and Trade: Micro Evidence and Aggregate Implications," Working Papers 2015-03, CEPII research center.
    13. Jonathan Kearns & Nikhil Patel, 2016. "Does the financial channel of exchange rates offset the trade channel?," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, December.
    14. Inmaculada Martínez-Zarzoso, 2019. "The Euro and the CFA Franc: Evidence of Sectoral Trade Effects," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 483-504, July.
    15. Kirill Sosunov & Oleg Zamulin, 2007. "Monetary Policy in an Economy Sick with Dutch Disease," Working Papers w0101, Center for Economic and Financial Research (CEFIR).
    16. Bernard Njindan Iyke, 2018. "The real effect of currency misalignment on productivity growth: evidence from middle-income economies," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 55(4), pages 1637-1659, December.
    17. Arezki, Rabah & Dumitrescu, Elena & Freytag, Andreas & Quintyn, Marc, 2014. "Commodity prices and exchange rate volatility: Lessons from South Africa's capital account liberalization," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(C), pages 96-105.
    18. Antonio Fatas & Ilian Mihov, 2009. "Macroeconomic Policy," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 28025, December.
    19. Andreas Hoffmann & Gunther Schnabl, 2011. "The theory of optimum currency areas and growth in emerging markets," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(6), pages 513-517.
    20. Samba Mbaye, 2012. "Beggar-thy-Neighbor Effects of Currency Undervaluation: Is China the Tip of the Iceberg?," Working Papers halshs-00761380, HAL.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:erg:wpaper:1004. 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: Sherine Ghoneim (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/erfaceg.html .

    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.