IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jimfin/v131y2023ics0261560623000037.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Technology and the geography of the foreign exchange market

Author

Listed:
  • Eichengreen, Barry
  • Lafarguette, Romain
  • Mehl, Arnaud
  • Ferrari Minesso, Massimo

Abstract

We analyze the impact of technology on the production and trade in services, focusing on the location of foreign exchange transactions and the effect of submarine fiber-optic cable connections. Cable connections between local markets and major financial centers reduce the costs of trading currencies locally and increase the share of currency transactions taking place in the issuing country. But they also attenuate the effect of existing spatial frictions that prevent transactions from moving offshore to take advantage of agglomeration economies and thick-market advantages of major financial centers. In practice, this second effect dominates. Our estimates suggest that the advent of cable connections boosted the share in global turnover of London, the world’s largest trading venue, by as much as one-third.

Suggested Citation

  • Eichengreen, Barry & Lafarguette, Romain & Mehl, Arnaud & Ferrari Minesso, Massimo, 2023. "Technology and the geography of the foreign exchange market," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:jimfin:v:131:y:2023:i:c:s0261560623000037
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jimonfin.2023.102802
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261560623000037
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jimonfin.2023.102802?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 look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chiţu, Livia & Eichengreen, Barry & Mehl, Arnaud, 2014. "History, gravity and international finance," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 104-129.
    2. Xavier Gabaix & Matteo Maggiori, 2015. "International Liquidity and Exchange Rate Dynamics," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 130(3), pages 1369-1420.
    3. repec:zbw:bofitp:2015_020 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Krugman, Paul, 1980. "Scale Economies, Product Differentiation, and the Pattern of Trade," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(5), pages 950-959, December.
    5. Malgouyres, Clément & Mayer, Thierry & Mazet-Sonilhac, Clément, 2021. "Technology-induced trade shocks? Evidence from broadband expansion in France," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    6. 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.
    7. Robert McCauley & Michela Scatigna, 2011. "Foreign exchange trading in emerging currencies: more financial, more offshore," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, March.
    8. Paul Krugman, 2011. "The New Economic Geography, Now Middle-aged," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(1), pages 1-7.
    9. Andrés Fernández & Michael W Klein & Alessandro Rebucci & Martin Schindler & Martín Uribe, 2016. "Capital Control Measures: A New Dataset," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 64(3), pages 548-574, August.
    10. He, Qing & Korhonen, Iikka & Guo, Junjie & Liu, Fangge, 2016. "The geographic distribution of international currencies and RMB internationalization," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 442-458.
    11. Gabriele Galati, 2001. "Why has global FX turnover declined? Explaining the 2001 triennial survey," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, December.
    12. Marco Pagano, 1989. "Trading Volume and Asset Liquidity," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 104(2), pages 255-274.
    13. Edward E. Leamer, 2007. "A Flat World, a Level Playing Field, a Small World After All, or None of the Above? A Review of Thomas L Friedman's The World is Flat," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 45(1), pages 83-126, March.
    14. Lane, Philip R. & Milesi-Ferretti, Gian Maria, 2007. "The external wealth of nations mark II: Revised and extended estimates of foreign assets and liabilities, 1970-2004," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(2), pages 223-250, November.
    15. Krugman, Paul, 1995. "Increasing returns, imperfect competition and the positive theory of international trade," Handbook of International Economics, in: G. M. Grossman & K. Rogoff (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 24, pages 1243-1277, Elsevier.
    16. Paul Krugman & Anthony J. Venables, 1995. "The Seamless World: A Spatial Model of International Specialization," NBER Working Papers 5220, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. repec:zbw:bofitp:urn:nbn:fi:bof-201506101281 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Robert N McCauley & Chang Shu & Guonan Ma, 2014. "Non-deliverable forwards: 2013 and beyond," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, March.
    19. Anders Akerman & Edwin Leuven & Magne Mogstad, 2022. "Information Frictions, Internet, and the Relationship between Distance and Trade," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 14(1), pages 133-163, January.
    20. Harald Hau, 2001. "Location Matters: An Examination of Trading Profits," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(5), pages 1959-1983, October.
    21. Andrés Fernández & Michael W Klein & Alessandro Rebucci & Martin Schindler & Martín Uribe, 2016. "Capital Control Measures: A New Dataset," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 64(3), pages 548-574, August.
    22. Bollerslev, Tim & Domowitz, Ian, 1993. "Trading Patterns and Prices in the Interbank Foreign Exchange Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 48(4), pages 1421-1443, September.
    23. Huang, Roger D & Masulis, Ronald W, 1999. "FX Spreads and Dealer Competition across the 24-Hour Trading Day," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 12(1), pages 61-93.
    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. Cariolle, Joël & Elkhateeb, Yasmine & Maurel, Mathilde, 2024. "Misinformation technology: Internet use and political misperceptions in Africa," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 400-433.

    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. Eichengreen, Barry & Mehl, Arnaud & Lafarguette, Romain, 2016. "Cables, Sharks and Servers: Technology and the Geography of the Foreign Exchange Market," CEPR Discussion Papers 11053, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Sebastián Fanelli & Ludwig Straub, 2021. "A Theory of Foreign Exchange Interventions [The Cost of Foreign Exchange Intervention: Concepts and Measurement]," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 88(6), pages 2857-2885.
    3. Javier Bianchi & Guido Lorenzoni, 2021. "The Prudential Use of Capital Controls and Foreign Currency Reserves," Working Papers 787, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
    4. Georgiadis, Georgios & Jančoková, Martina, 2020. "Financial globalisation, monetary policy spillovers and macro-modelling: Tales from 1001 shocks," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    5. Choi, Woo Jin & Taylor, Alan M., 2022. "Precaution versus mercantilism: Reserve accumulation, capital controls, and the real exchange rate," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    6. Georgiadis, Georgios & Mehl, Arnaud, 2016. "Financial globalisation and monetary policy effectiveness," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 200-212.
    7. Norring, Anni, 2022. "Taming the tides of capital: Review of capital controls and macroprudential policy in emerging economies," BoF Economics Review 1/2022, Bank of Finland.
    8. Wenwen Sheng & M. C. Sunny Wong, 2017. "Capital Flow Management Policies and Riskiness of External Liability Structures: the Role of Local Financial Markets," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 461-498, July.
    9. Oleg Itskhoki, 2021. "The Story of the Real Exchange Rate," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 13(1), pages 423-455, August.
    10. Tanna, Sailesh & Luo, Yun & De Vita, Glauco, 2017. "What is the net effect of financial liberalization on bank productivity? A decomposition analysis of bank total factor productivity growth," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 67-78.
    11. Bekaert, Geert & Mehl, Arnaud, 2019. "On the global financial market integration “swoosh” and the trilemma," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 227-245.
    12. Cesa-Bianchi, Ambrogio & Ferrero, Andrea & Rebucci, Alessandro, 2018. "International credit supply shocks," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 219-237.
    13. MacDonald, Margaux, 2017. "International capital market frictions and spillovers from quantitative easing," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 135-156.
    14. Wei, Shang-Jin, 2018. "Managing Financial Globalization: A Guide for Developing Countries Based on the Recent Literature," ADBI Working Papers 804, Asian Development Bank Institute.
    15. Comunale, Mariarosaria, 2022. "A panel VAR analysis of macro-financial imbalances in the EU," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    16. Cantú, Carlos, 2019. "Effects of capital controls on foreign exchange liquidity," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 201-222.
    17. Jon Frost & Hiro Ito & René van Stralen, 2020. "The effectiveness of macroprudential policies and capital controls against volatile capital inflows," Working Papers 686, DNB.
    18. Md Arif-Ur-Rahman & Kazuo Inaba, 2020. "Financial integration and total factor productivity: in consideration of different capital controls and foreign direct investment," Journal of Economic Structures, Springer;Pan-Pacific Association of Input-Output Studies (PAPAIOS), vol. 9(1), pages 1-20, December.
    19. Ha,Jongrim & Kose,Ayhan & Ohnsorge,Franziska Lieselotte & Yilmazkuday,Hakan, 2023. "Understanding the Global Drivers of Inflation : How Important Are Oil Prices ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10283, The World Bank.
    20. Hippolyte d’Albis & Agnès Bénassy-Quéré, 2022. "Taxing capital and labor when both factors are imperfectly mobile internationally," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 29(1), pages 147-190, February.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • F30 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - General

    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:131:y:2023:i:c:s0261560623000037. 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.