Misalignment, Liabilities Dollarization and Exchange Rate Adjustment in Latin America

Dollarization and Macroeconomic Stability in Latin America

This paper examines if dollarization has had a positive impact on the macroeconomic stability of Latin American countries. Dollarization refers to either the official or unofficial replacement of local currencies with the U.S. dollar. Currently four Latin American countries are officially dollarized and the rest experience varying levels of unofficial dollarization. Data from the World Bank Wor...

Real exchange rate and manufacturing growth in Latin America

The manufacturing sectors in Latin America have been more affected by the currency over/undervaluation than their counterpart in industrialized economies. From a panel data set covering 39 countries and 22 manufacturing sectors (2-digit) within 1995–2008, we formally test the hypothesis that there exists a Latin American effect and then investigate the possible reasons for this distinguished pa...

Sudden Stops and Exchange Rate Strategies in Latin America

Dollarization, Exchange Rate Regimes and Government Quality

The dollarization of the domestic banking system represents a source of vulnerability for emerging market countries, and a debate has emerged over whether the exchange rate regime has an impact on the degree of dollarization. This paper argues that the regime is far less important than the literature has previously claimed. Unofficial dollarization results from a lack of faith in the domestic c...

A Concise History of Exchange Rate Regimes in Latin America

The paper analyzes exchange rate regimes implemented by the major Latin American countries since the Second World War, with special attention on the period of the second globalization process beginning in the 1970s. The analysis follows a historical narrative aiming to provide an understanding of the domestic and external circumstances in which various regimes were adopted. A simple conceptual ...