Exchange Rates Co-Movement and International Trade

67 Pages Posted: 1 Dec 2020

See all articles by Aleksandra Babii

Aleksandra Babii

University of Toulouse 1 - Toulouse School of Economics (TSE)

Date Written: November 1, 2018

Abstract

Nominal exchange rates strongly co-move. However, little is known about the economic source of common variation. This paper examines how international trade links nominal exchange rates. First, I document that two countries that trade more intensively with each other have more correlated exchange rates against the U.S dollar. Second, I develop a general equilibrium multi-country model, where a shock to a single country propagates to the exchange rates of its trading partners and serves as a source of common variation. In the baseline three-country model, I show that the sign and the strength of correlation between exchange rates depend on the elasticities of trade balances of countries with respect to both exchange rates. As a result, the model’s prediction about the relationship between bilateral trade intensity and exchange rates correlation depends on the currency in which international prices are set. Lastly, an augmented model is calibrated to twelve countries to quantitatively assess the importance of trade linkages. I find that trade linkages alone, with uncorrelated shocks across countries, account for 50% of the empirical trade-exchange rates-correlation slope coefficient.

Keywords: Exchange Rates, Trade Network, International Finance, Multi-Country Models

JEL Classification: F31, F32, F41

Suggested Citation

Babii, Aleksandra, Exchange Rates Co-Movement and International Trade (November 1, 2018). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3705644 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3705644

Aleksandra Babii (Contact Author)

University of Toulouse 1 - Toulouse School of Economics (TSE) ( email )

Place Anatole-France
Toulouse Cedex, F-31042
France

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