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Fixed vs. Floating Exchange Rates: How Price Setting Affects the Optimal Choice of Exchange-Rate Regime

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Author Info
Michael B. Devereux
Charles Engel

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Abstract

We investigate the welfare properties of fixed and floating exchange rate regimes in a two-country, dynamic, infinite-horizon model with agents optimizing in an environment of uncertainty created by monetary shocks. The optimal exchange rate regime may depend on whether prices are set in the currency of producers or the currency of consumers. When prices are set in consumers' currency, the variance of home consumption is not influenced by foreign monetary variance under floating exchange rates, while there is transmission of foreign disturbances under floating rates if prices are set in producers' currencies, or under fixed exchange rates. An important feature of the model is the exchange rate regime affects not just the variance of consumption and output, but also their average levels. When prices are set in producer's currency, as in the traditional framework, we find that there is a trade-off between floating and fixed exchange rates. Exchange rate adjustment under floating rates allows for a lower variance of consumption, but exchange rate volatility itself leads to a lower average level of consumption. When prices are set in consumer's currency, floating exchange rates always dominate fixed exchange rates.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 6867.

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Date of creation: Dec 1998
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:6867

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F3 - International Economics - - International Finance
F4 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance

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  5. Glick, Reuven & Wihlborg, Clas, 1990. "Real exchange rate effects of monetary shocks under fixed and flexible exchange rates," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(3-4), pages 267-290, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  7. Aizenman, Joshua & Frenkel, Jacob A, 1985. "Optimal Wage Indexation, Foreign Exchange Intervention, and Monetary Policy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(3), pages 402-23, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. Hamada, Koichi & Sakurai, Makoto, 1978. "International Transmission of Stagflation under Fixed and Flexible Exchange Rates," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 86(5), pages 877-95, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  10. Lapan, Harvey E. & Enders, Walter, 2003. "Random Disturbances and the Choice of Exchange Regimes in an Intergenerational Model," Staff General Research Papers 10824, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
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  18. Obstfeld, M., 1998. "Risk and Exchange Rate," Papers 193, Princeton, Woodrow Wilson School - Public and International Affairs.
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  19. Kollman, R., 1996. "The Exchange Rate in a Dynamic-Optimizing Current Account Model with Nominal Rigidities: A Quantitative Investigation," Cahiers de recherche 9614, Centre interuniversitaire de recherche en économie quantitative, CIREQ.
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  20. Helpman, Elhanan, 1981. "An Exploration in the Theory of Exchange-Rate Regimes," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 89(5), pages 865-90, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  22. Flood, Robert P & Marion, Nancy Peregrim, 1982. "The Transmission of Disturbances under Alternative Exchange-Rate Regimes with Optimal Indexing," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 97(1), pages 43-66, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  23. Rogers, J.H. & Jenkins, M.A., 1993. "Haircuts or Hysteresis? Sources of Movements in Real Exchange Rates," Papers 4-93-6, Pennsylvania State - Department of Economics.
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