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Openness and the Case for Flexible Exchange Rates

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  • Corsetti, Giancarlo

Abstract

Models of stabilization in open economy traditionally emphasize the role of exchange rates as a substitute for nominal price flexibility in fostering relative price adjustment. This view has been recently criticized on the ground that, to the extent that prices are sticky in local currency, the exchange rate does not play the stabilizing role envisioned by the received wisdom. An important question is whether, for this very reason, stabilization policies should limit exchange rate movements, or even eliminate them altogether. In this paper, I re-assess this issue by extending the Corsetti and Pesenti (2001) model to allow for home bias in consumption | so that I can exploit the advantages of closed-form solutions. While this extension leaves most properties of the model unaffected, home bias implies that the real exchange rate in an efficient equilibrium is not constant, but fluctuates with the terms of trade. The weight that monetary authorities optimally place on stabilizing domestic marginal costs is increasing in Home bias: with asymmetric shocks, fixed exchange rates are incompatible with efficient monetary rules. Yet, the adverse welfare consequences of exchange rate movements constrain the optimal intensity of monetary responses to domestic shocks. Openness matters: in our specification each country produces an equal share of the world value added; the lower the import content of consumption, the higher the exchange rate volatility implied by optimal stabilization rules. In relatively closed economy, optimal monetary rules tend to converge, regardless of the nature of nominal rigidities in the exports market.

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  • Corsetti, Giancarlo, 2006. "Openness and the Case for Flexible Exchange Rates," CEPR Discussion Papers 5612, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:5612
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    Cited by:

    1. Corsetti, Giancarlo & Dedola, Luca & Leduc, Sylvain, 2010. "Optimal Monetary Policy in Open Economies," Handbook of Monetary Economics, in: Benjamin M. Friedman & Michael Woodford (ed.), Handbook of Monetary Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 16, pages 861-933, Elsevier.
    2. Giancarlo Corsetti, 2008. "A Modern Reconsideration of the Theory of Optimal Currency Areas," Economics Working Papers ECO2008/12, European University Institute.
    3. Giancarlo Corsetti & Luca Dedola & Sylvain Leduc, 2007. "Optimal Monetary Policy and the Sources of Local-Currency Price Stability," NBER Chapters, in: International Dimensions of Monetary Policy, pages 319-367, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Stéphane Auray & Aurélien Eyquem, 2007. "On Financial Markets Incompleteness, Price Stickiness, and Welfare in a Monetary Union," Cahiers de recherche 0748, CIRPEE.
    5. Corsetti, Giancarlo, 2007. "New Open Economy Macroeconomics," CEPR Discussion Papers 6578, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Ahmad, Yamin & Lo, Ming Chien & Mykhaylova, Olena, 2013. "Volatility and persistence of simulated DSGE real exchange rates," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 119(1), pages 38-41.
    7. Auray, Stéphane & de Blas, Beatriz & Eyquem, Aurélien, 2011. "Ramsey policies in a small open economy with sticky prices and capital," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 35(9), pages 1531-1546, September.
    8. Jean-Christophe Poutineau & Aurélien Eyquem & Stéphane Auray, 2010. "Politique monétaire optimale et effet de variété en économie ouverte," Économie et Prévision, Programme National Persée, vol. 193(2), pages 43-58.
    9. Cuciniello, Vincenzo & Lambertini, Luisa, 2016. "Optimal exchange rate flexibility with large labor unions," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 112-136.
    10. Stéphane Auray & Aurélien Eyquem, 2013. "On Financial Market Incompleteness, Price Stickiness, and Welfare in a Monetary Union," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 109-110, pages 205-233.
    11. De Paoli, Bianca, 2009. "Monetary policy and welfare in a small open economy," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 11-22, February.
    12. Christoph Bierbrauer, 2017. "Fiscal policy transmission in a non-Ricardian model of a monetary union," IEER Working Papers 109, Institute of Empirical Economic Research, Osnabrueck University.
    13. Auray, Stéphane & Eyquem, Aurélien & Poutineau, Jean-Christophe, 2010. "The Welfare Gains Of Trade Integration In The European Monetary Union," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(5), pages 645-676, November.
    14. Stéphane Auray & Aurélien Eyquem & Gérard Hamiache & Jean‐Christophe Poutineau, 2008. "Sharing Money Creation in a Monetary Union," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(5), pages 817-834, November.
    15. Aurélien Eyquem, 2007. "Fiscal Policy in an Estimated Model of the European Monetary Union," Economics Working Paper Archive (University of Rennes 1 & University of Caen) 200705, Center for Research in Economics and Management (CREM), University of Rennes 1, University of Caen and CNRS.
    16. Lombardo, Giovanni & Ravenna, Federico, 2014. "Openness and optimal monetary policy," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(1), pages 153-172.
    17. Sousa, Teresa, 2011. "International transmission of shocks, money illusion and the velocity of money," Economics Discussion Papers 2011-49, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    18. Ondra Kamenik & Michael Kumhof, 2014. "Trade Openness and Exchange Rate Regimes," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 46(8), pages 1657-1686, December.
    19. Lagoa, Sérgio, 2014. "Inflation dynamics in open economies: Empirical evidence for G7 countries on the role of import prices and the cost channel," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(4), pages 354-371.
    20. Teresa Sousa, 2011. "International macroeconomic interdependence and imports of oil in a small open economy," Portuguese Economic Journal, Springer;Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestao, vol. 10(1), pages 35-60, April.
    21. Siok Kun, Sek, 2009. "The impacts of economic structures on the performance of simple policy rules in a small open economy," MPRA Paper 25065, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    22. Victor Shevchuk & Roman Kopych, 2021. "Exchange Rate Volatility, Currency Misalignment, and Risk of Recession in the Central and Eastern European Countries," Risks, MDPI, vol. 9(5), pages 1-19, May.
    23. Lars Calmfors & Giancarlo Corsetti & Michael P. Devereux & Seppo Honkapohja & Gilles Saint-Paul & Hans-Werner Sinn & Jan-Egbert Sturm & Xavier Vives, 2007. "Chapter 2: Macroeonomic adjustment in the euro area – the cases of Ireland and Italy," EEAG Report on the European Economy, CESifo, vol. 0, pages 59-72, February.
    24. Christoph Bierbrauer, 2017. "Fiscal policy transmission in a non-Ricardian model of a monetary union," Working Papers 109, Institute of Empirical Economic Research, Osnabrueck University.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Optimal monetary policy; Nominal rigidities; Exchange rate pass-through; Exchange rate regimes; International policy cooperation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation
    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy
    • F42 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance - - - International Policy Coordination and Transmission

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