Producer Currency Pricing Research Articles

International Transmission Effects of Monetary Policy Shocks: Can Asymmetric Price Setting Explain the Stylized Facts?

How does an unexpected domestic monetary expansion affect the foreign economy? Does it induce an increase or a decline in foreign production? In the traditional two-country Mundell-Fleming model, monetary policy has«beggar-thy-neighbor»effects. Yet, empirical evidence from VARs indicates that U.S. monetary policy has positive international transmission effects on both foreign (non-U.S. G-7) output and aggregate demand. In this paper, I will show that a two-country dynamic general equilibrium model with sticky prices can account for these «stylized facts» if we allow for international asymmetries in the price-setting behavior of firms. If U.S. firms set export prices in their own currency only (producer-currency pricing), whereas producers in the rest of the world price their exports to the U.S. in the local currency of the export market (local-currency pricing), a U.S. monetary expansion is found to increase output and aggregate demand abroad.

Exchange Rate Pass-Through into Import Prices: A Macro or Micro Phenomenon?

Exchange rate regime optimality, as well as monetary policy effectiveness, depends on the tightness of the link between exchange rate movements and import prices. Recent debates hinge on whether producer-currency-pricing (PCP) or local currency pricing (LCP) of imports is more prevalent, and on whether exchange rate pass-through rates are endogenous to a country's macroeconomic conditions. We provide cross-country and time series evidence on both of these issues for the imports of twenty-five OECD countries. Across the OECD and especially within manufacturing industries, there is compelling evidence of partial pass-through in the short-run- rejecting both PCP and LCP. Over the long run, PCP is more prevalent for many types of imported goods. Higher inflation and exchange rate volatility are weakly associated with higher pass-through of exchange rates into import prices. However, for OECD countries, the most important determinants of changes in pass-through over time are microeconomic and relate to the industry composition of a country's import bundle.

Designing targeting rules for international monetary policy cooperation

This study analyzes a two-country dynamic general equilibrium model with nominal rigidities, monopolistic competition and producer currency pricing. A quadratic approximation to the utility of the consumers is derived and assumed as the policy objective function of the policymakers. It is shown that only under special conditions there are no gains from cooperation and moreover that the paths of the exchange rate and prices in the constrained-efficient solution depend on the kind of disturbance that affects the economy. Despite this result, simple targeting rules that involve only targets for the growth of output and for both domestic GDP and CPI inflation rates can replicate the cooperative allocation.

International transmission effects of monetary policy shocks: can asymmetric price setting explain the stylized facts?

How does an unexpected domestic monetary expansion affect the foreign economy? Does it induce an increase or a decline in foreign production? In the traditional two-country Mundell–Fleming model, monetary policy reveals ‘beggar-thy-neighbour’ effects. Yet, empirical evidence from VARs indicates that US monetary policy has positive international transmission effects on both foreign (non-US G-7) output and aggregate demand. In this paper, I show that a two-country dynamic general equilibrium model with sticky prices can account for these ‘stylized facts’ if we introduce international asymmetries in the price-setting behaviour of firms insofar as home (US) firms set export prices in their own currency only (producer-currency pricing), whereas producers in the rest of the world price their exports to the US in the local currency of the export market (local-currency pricing). Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Exchange Rate Pass-Through into Import Prices

We provide cross-country and time series evidence on the extent of exchange rate pass-through into the import prices of 23 OECD countries. We find compelling evidence of partial pass-through in the short run, especially within manufacturing industries. Over the long run, producer-currency pricing is more prevalent for many types of imported goods. Countries with higher rates of exchange rate volatility have higher pass-through elasticities, although macroeconomic variables have played a minor role in the evolution of pass-through elasticities over time. Far more important for pass-through changes in these countries have been the dramatic shifts in the composition of country import bundles.

Explaining the exchange rate pass-through in different prices

This paper examines the performance of a variety of new open economy macroeconomic models in explaining the exchange rate pass-through in a wide range of prices. Quantitative versions of different models are used to derive the dynamic response of various prices to an exchange rate shock. Predicted responses are compared with the evidence based on VAR models to examine how well different models fit the data. The results show that the best-fitting model incorporates a number of features highlighted by different strands of the literature: sticky prices, sticky wages, distribution costs and a combination of local (LCP) and producer currency pricing (PCP).

Price Stability in Open Economies

This paper studies the conditions under which price stability is the optimal policy in a two-country open-economy model with imperfect competition and price stickiness. Special conditions on the levels of country-specific distortionary taxation and the intratemporal and intertemporal elasticities of substitution need to be satisfied. These restrictions apply to both cooperative and non-cooperative settings. Most importantly, we show that cooperative and non-cooperative solutions do not coincide despite market completeness and producer currency pricing. In this framework, our analysis suggests a role for international policy coordination.

Designing Targeting Rules for International Monetary Policy Cooperation

This study analyses international monetary policy co-operation in a two-country dynamic general equilibrium model with nominal rigidities, monopolistic competition and producer currency pricing. A quadratic approximation to the utility of the consumers is derived and assumed as the policy objective function of the policymakers. It is shown that only under special conditions there are no gains from co-operation and moreover that the paths of the exchange rate and prices in the constrained-efficient solution depend on the kind of disturbance that affects the economy. It might be the case either for fixed or floating exchange rates. Despite this result, simple targeting rules that involve only targets for the growth of output and for both domestic GDP and CPI inflation rates can replicate the co-operative allocation.

Explaining the Exchange Rate Pass-Through in Different Prices

This paper examines the performance of different new open economy macroeconomic models in explaining the exchange rate pass-through in a wide range of prices. Quantitative versions of different models are used to derive the dynamic response of various prices to an exchange rate shock. Predicted responses are compared with the evidence based on VAR models to examine how well different models fit the data. The results show that the best-fitting model incorporates a number of features highlighted by different strands of the literature: sticky prices, sticky wages, distribution costs, and a combination of local and producer currency pricing.

Explaining the Exchange Rate Pass-Through in Different Prices

This paper examines the performance of different new open economy macroeconomic models in explaining the exchange rate pass-through in a wide range of prices. Quantitative versions of different models are used to derive the dynamic response of various prices to an exchange rate shock. Predicted responses are compared with the evidence based on VAR models to examine how well different models fit the data. The results show that the best-fitting model incorporates a number of features highlighted by different strands of the literature: sticky prices, sticky wages, distribution costs, and a combination of local and producer currency pricing.