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Vehicle Currency

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Author Info
Michael B. Devereux
Shouyong Shi

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Abstract

While in principle, international payments could be carried out using any currency or set of currencies, in practice, the US dollar is predominant in international trade and financial flows. The dollar acts as a `vehicle currency' in the sense that agents in non-dollar economies will generally engage in currency trade indirectly using the US dollar rather than using direct bilateral trade among their own currencies. Indirect trade is desirable when there are transactions costs of exchange. This paper constructs a dynamic general equilibrium model of a vehicle currency. We explore the nature of the efficiency gains arising from a vehicle currency, and show how this depends on the total number of currencies in existence, the size of the vehicle currency economy, and the monetary policy followed by the vehicle currency's government. We find that there can be very large welfare gains to a vehicle currency in a system of many independent currencies. But these gains are asymmetrically weighted towards the residents of the vehicle currency country. The survival of a vehicle currency places natural limits on the monetary policy of the vehicle country.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by University of Toronto, Department of Economics in its series Working Papers with number tecipa-315.

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Length: 45 pages
Date of creation: 25 Apr 2008
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:tor:tecipa:tecipa-315

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Related research
Keywords: Vehicle currency; Transactions cost; Welfare gains;

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:
F40 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance - - - General
F30 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - General
E42 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Monetary Sytsems; Standards; Regimes; Government and the Monetary System

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  1. Canadian Macro Study Group
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.:
  1. Krugman, Paul, 1980. "Vehicle Currencies and the Structure of International Exchange," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 12(3), pages 513-26, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  2. Ronald McKinnon & Gunther Schnabl, 2003. "The East Asian Dollar Standard, Fear of Floating, and Original Sin," Working Papers 112003, Hong Kong Institute for Monetary Research. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Peter Howitt, 2005. "Beyond Search: Fiat Money In Organized Exchange," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 46(2), pages 405-429, 05. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Robert Aliber & Bhagwan Chowdhry & Shu Yan, 2000. "Transactions Costs in the Foreign Exchange Market," University of California at Los Angeles, Anderson Graduate School of Management 1062, Anderson Graduate School of Management, UCLA. [Downloadable!]
  5. Rey, Helene, 2001. "International Trade and Currency Exchange," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 68(2), pages 443-64, April.
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  6. Glassman, Debra, 1987. "Exchange rate risk and transactions costs: Evidence from bid-ask spreads," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 479-490, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Linda S. Goldberg & Cedric Tille, 2005. "Vehicle Currency Use in International Trade," NBER Working Papers 11127, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. Shapley, Lloyd S & Shubik, Martin, 1977. "Trade Using One Commodity as a Means of Payment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 85(5), pages 937-68, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Huang, Roger D & Stoll, Hans R, 1997. "The Components of the Bid-Ask Spread: A General Approach," Review of Financial Studies, Oxford University Press for Society for Financial Studies, vol. 10(4), pages 995-1034.
  10. repec:bep:macadv:v:1:y:2001:i:advances/1/1:p:1020-1020 is not listed on IDEAS
  11. Ross M. Starr, 2003. "Why is there money? Endogenous derivation of `money' as the most liquid asset: a class of examples," Economic Theory, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 455-474, 03. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Head, Allen & Shi, Shouyong, 2003. "A fundamental theory of exchange rates and direct currency trades," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(7), pages 1555-1591, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Full references

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. Prakash Kannan, 2007. "On the Welfare Benefits of an International Currency," IMF Working Papers 07/49, International Monetary Fund. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Chinn, Menzie & Frankel, Jeffrey, 2005. "Will the Euro Eventually Surpass the Dollar as Leading International Reserve Currency?," Working Paper Series rwp05-064, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Linda Goldberg & Cedric Tille, 2006. "The internationalization of the dollar and trade balance adjustment," Staff Reports 255, Federal Reserve Bank of New York. [Downloadable!]
  4. Linda S. Goldberg & Cédric Tille, 2006. "The International Role of the Dollar and Trade Balance Adjustment," NBER Working Papers 12495, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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