IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/amerec/v43y1999i1p47-51.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Puzzle Resolved: Japan's High Currency Value and Trade Surplus

Author

Listed:
  • Yochanan Shachmurove

Abstract

Trade between the United States and Japan has been characterized by Japanese surpluses and American deficits. This prolonged pattern of trade has caused much debate in political, social, and academic spheres. In the political and social spheres the American public is angered by what is perceived as unfair Japanese trade polices. The academic debate concerns the disparity between economic theory and the real situation of trade. Theory predicts that a strong currency and a current account surplus can not coexist indefinitely. As the yen appreciates, American imports to Japan should increase and Japanese exports to the United States should decrease thereby eliminating Japan's current account surplus. However, since the 1985 Plaza Announcement, the yen appreciation has been accompanied by a Japanese trade surplus. This paper looks to reasons rooted in both American and Japanese policies and institutions that account for the counter—theoretical coexistence of Japan's strong yen and trade surplus.

Suggested Citation

  • Yochanan Shachmurove, 1999. "A Puzzle Resolved: Japan's High Currency Value and Trade Surplus," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 43(1), pages 47-51, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:amerec:v:43:y:1999:i:1:p:47-51
    DOI: 10.1177/056943459904300105
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/056943459904300105
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/056943459904300105?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Baldwin, Richard, 1988. "Hyteresis in Import Prices: The Beachhead Effect," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 78(4), pages 773-785, September.
    2. Maurice Obstfeld, 1988. "The Effectiveness of Foreign-Exchange Intervention: Recent Experience," NBER Working Papers 2796, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    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. Agnès Bénassy‐Quéré & Lionel Fontagné & Horst Raff, 2011. "Exchange‐rate Misalignments in Duopoly: The Case of Airbus and Boeing," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(4), pages 623-641, April.
    2. Yuko Imura, 2023. "Reassessing Trade Barriers with Global Production Networks," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 51, pages 77-116, December.
    3. Chenzi Xu, 2022. "Reshaping Global Trade: The Immediate and Long-Run Effects of Bank Failures [“Shift-Share Designs: Theory and Inference,”]," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 137(4), pages 2107-2161.
    4. Robert, Anderton & Baldwin, Richard & Taglioni, Daria, 2007. "The impact of monetary union on trade prices," Journal of Financial Transformation, Capco Institute, vol. 19, pages 35-48.
    5. Mundaca, Gabriela, 2015. "Multi-product firms, exports and exchange rate policies. Evidence from an emerging economy," MPRA Paper 65751, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Hsu, Chih-Chiang & Yau, Ruey & Wu, Jyun-Yi, 2009. "Asymmetric Exchange Rate Exposure and Industry Characteristics : Evidence from Japanese Data," Hitotsubashi Journal of Economics, Hitotsubashi University, vol. 50(1), pages 57-69, June.
    7. Parsley, David C & Wei, Shang-Jin, 1993. "Insignificant and Inconsequential Hysteresis: The Case of U.S. Bilateral Trade," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 75(4), pages 606-613, November.
    8. Martina Lawless & Zuzanna Studnicka, 2018. "Old Firms and New Products: Does Experience Increase Survival?," Working Papers 201805, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    9. Yunus Aksoy & Hanno Lustig, 2007. "Exchange Rates, Prices And International Trade In A Model Of Endogenous Market Structure," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 75(2), pages 160-192, March.
    10. Richard E. Baldwin & Frédéric Robert-Nicoud, 2007. "Entry and Asymmetric Lobbying: Why Governments Pick Losers," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 5(5), pages 1064-1093, September.
    11. Andrew B. Bernard & J. Bradford Jensen, 2004. "Entry, Expansion, and Intensity in the US Export Boom, 1987–1992," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(4), pages 662-675, September.
    12. Guney, Selin, 2015. "An Analysis of the Pass-Through of Exchange Rates in Tropical Forest Product Markets: A Smooth Transition Approach," 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 26-28, San Francisco, California 205107, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    13. Mario Cimoli & Jose Antonio Ocampo & Gabriel Porcile & Nunzia Saporito, 2020. "Choosing sides in the trilemma: international financial cycles and structural change in developing economies," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(7), pages 740-761, October.
    14. Karunaratne, Neil Dias, 1996. "Exchange rate intervention in Australia (December 1983 to May 1993)," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 397-417, August.
    15. Hai Yue Liu & Xiao Lan Chen, 2017. "The imported price, inflation and exchange rate pass-through in China," Cogent Economics & Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(1), pages 1279814-127, January.
    16. Svensson, Lars E. O., 1992. "The foreign exchange risk premium in a target zone with devaluation risk," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1-2), pages 21-40, August.
    17. Chaney, Thomas, 2016. "Liquidity constrained exporters," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 141-154.
    18. Bozhechkova, Alexandra (Божечкова, Александра) & Ivanov, Evgeny (Иванов, Евгений) & Orekhov, Mikhail (Орехов, Михаил) & Trunin, Pavel (Трунин, Павел) & Chembulatova, Maria (Чембулатова, Мария) & Yakov, 2021. "Analysis of the Behavior of Banks and Companies in the Conditions of Exchange Volatility in Russia [Анализ Поведения Банков И Компаний В Условиях Курсовой Волатильности В России]," Working Papers w20220176, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.
    19. Bhattacharya, Utpal & Weller, Paul, 1997. "The advantage to hiding one's hand: Speculation and central bank intervention in the foreign exchange market," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 251-277, July.
    20. Ito, Tadashi, 2012. "Revisiting the determinants of unit values," IDE Discussion Papers 356, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).

    More about this item

    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:sae:amerec:v:43:y:1999:i:1:p:47-51. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://journals.sagepub.com/home/aex .

    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.