Dollarization Persistence and Individual Heterogeneity

Dollarization Traps *

The paper analyzes dollarization in the sense of asset substitution, where a foreign currency competes with local assets, especially domestic capital, as a store of value, the impact of dollarization on capital accumulation and output, and why economies remain dollarized long after a successful inflation stabilization. We relate this dollarization hysteresis to a financial intermediation failur...

Individual Heterogeneity and Average Welfare∗

Individual heterogeneity is an important source of variation in demand. Allowing for general heterogeneity is needed for correct welfare comparisons. We consider general heterogenous demand where preferences and linear budget sets are statistically independent. We find that the dimension of heterogeneity and the individual demand functions are not identified. We also find that the exact consume...

Dollarization: Myths and Realities

Dollarization and financial integration

This paper builds a simple theoretical model designed to study dollarization. Each period, a benevolent government decides whether or not to dollarize, how much to borrow or lend on an international bond market, and, if dollarization has not occurred, the devaluation rate. In equilibrium, international borrowing is limited endogenously such that the government always chooses to repay when the p...

Four Essays on Individual Heterogeneity