Vehicle Currency
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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| Length: | 45 pages |
| Date of creation: | 25 Apr 2008 |
| Handle: | RePEc:tor:tecipa:tecipa-315 |
| Contact details of provider: | Postal: 150 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario Phone: (416) 978-5283
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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.:
- Krugman, Paul, 1980.
"Vehicle Currencies and the Structure of International Exchange,"
Journal of Money, Credit and Banking,
Blackwell Publishing, vol. 12(3), pages 513-526, August.
- Paul R. Krugman, 1979. "Vehicle Currencies And the Structure Of International Exchange," NBER Working Papers 0333, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
- Hélène Rey, 2001. "International Trade and Currency Exchange," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 68(2), pages 443-464.
- H Rey, 1997. "International Trade and Currency Exchange," CEP Discussion Papers dp0322, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
- Rey, Hélène, 1999. "International Trade and Currency Exchange," CEPR Discussion Papers 2226, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
- 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.
- Allen Head & Shouyong Shi, 2000. "A Fundamental Theory of Exchange Rates and Direct Currency Trades," Working Papers 993, Queen's University, Department of Economics.
- Allen Head & Shouyong Shi, 2002. "A Fundamental Theory of Exchange Rates and Direct Currency Trades," Working Papers shouyong-03-01, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
- Hartmann,Philipp, 2007. "Currency Competition and Foreign Exchange Markets," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521046930, Diciembre.
- Hartmann,Philipp, 1998. "Currency Competition and Foreign Exchange Markets," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521632737, Diciembre.
- 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.
- Goldberg, Linda S. & Tille, Cédric, 2008. "Vehicle currency use in international trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 177-192, December.
- Linda S. Goldberg & Cedric Tille, 2005. "Vehicle currency use in international trade," Staff Reports 200, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
- Linda S. Goldberg & Cedric Tille, 2005. "Vehicle Currency Use in International Trade," NBER Working Papers 11127, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
- Ronald McKinnon & Gunther Schnabl, 2004. "The East Asian Dollar Standard, Fear of Floating, and Original Sin," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 8(3), pages 331-360, 08.
- Ronald McKinnon & Gunther Schnabl, 2003. "The East Asian Dollar Standard, Fear of Floating, and Original Sin," Working Papers 03001, Stanford University, Department of Economics.
- 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.
- Ross M. Starr, 2003. "Why is there money? Endogenous derivation of `money' as the most liquid asset: a class of examples," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 21(2), pages 455-474, 03.
- 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 937-968, October.
- Huang, Roger D & Stoll, Hans R, 1997. "The Components of the Bid-Ask Spread: A General Approach," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 10(4), pages 995-1034.
- 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.
- Aliber, Robert Z. & Chowdhry, Bhagwan & Yan, Shu, 2000. "Transactions Costs in the Foreign Exchange Market," University of California at Los Angeles, Anderson Graduate School of Management qt4qw3p6rp, Anderson Graduate School of Management, UCLA.
- Wright Randall & Trejos Alberto, 2001. "International Currency," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 1(1), pages 1-17, April. Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)
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