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Identifying the effects of an exchange rate depreciation on country risk: Evidence from a natural experiment

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  • Bordo, Michael D.
  • Meissner, Christopher M.
  • Weidenmier, Marc D.

Abstract

A natural experiment is used to study exchange rate depreciation and perceived sovereign risk. France suspended coinage of silver in 1876 provoking a significant exogenous depreciation of all silver standard countries versus gold standard currencies like the British pound - the currency in which their debt was payable. The evidence suggests an exchange rate depreciation can significantly increase sovereign risk if a country is exposed to foreign currency debt. We implement a difference-in-differences estimator and find that the average silver country's spread on hard currency debt increased over ten percent relative to non-silver countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Bordo, Michael D. & Meissner, Christopher M. & Weidenmier, Marc D., 2009. "Identifying the effects of an exchange rate depreciation on country risk: Evidence from a natural experiment," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(6), pages 1022-1044, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jimfin:v:28:y:2009:i:6:p:1022-1044
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    2. Gábor Regős & Xibin Zhang, 2015. "Modeling the exchange rate using price levels and country risk," Cogent Economics & Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 3(1), pages 1056928-105, December.
    3. Colin Weiss, 2020. "Contractionary Devaluation Risk: Evidence from the Free Silver Movement, 1878-1900," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 102(4), pages 705-720, October.
    4. Fernholz, Ricardo T. & Mitchener, Kris James & Weidenmier, Marc, 2017. "Pulling up the tarnished anchor: The end of silver as a global unit of account," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 209-228.
    5. Jelena Stankevičiene & Tatjana Sviderske & Algita Miečinskiene, 2013. "Relationship between Economic Security and Country Risk Indicators in EU Baltic Sea Region Countries," Entrepreneurial Business and Economics Review, Centre for Strategic and International Entrepreneurship at the Cracow University of Economics., vol. 1(3), pages 21-33.
    6. Wang, Alan T. & Yang, Sheng-Yung & Yang, Nien-Tzu, 2013. "Information transmission between sovereign debt CDS and other financial factors – The case of Latin America," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 586-601.
    7. Iva Petrova & Mr. Michael G. Papaioannou & Mr. Dimitri Bellas, 2010. "Determinants of Emerging Market Sovereign Bond Spreads: Fundamentals vs Financial Stress," IMF Working Papers 2010/281, International Monetary Fund.
    8. Diptes C. P. Bhimjee, 2023. "The euro area sovereign debt crisis and the sovereign debt Laffer curve: a historic assessment for 1999–2014," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-12, December.
    9. Bajaj, Vimmy & Kumar, Pawan & Singh, Vipul Kumar, 2022. "Linkage dynamics of sovereign credit risk and financial markets: A bibliometric analysis," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    10. Rockoff, Hugh & White, Eugene N., 2012. "Monetary Regimes and Policy on a Global Scale: The Oeuvre of Michael D. Bordo," MPRA Paper 49672, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised May 2013.

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