Do Real Exchange Rate Appreciations Matter for Growth?

Matthieu Bussiere, Claude Lopez and Cédric Tille

No 06-2014, IHEID Working Papers from Economics Section, The Graduate Institute of International Studies

Abstract: While the impact of exchange rate changes on economic growth has long been an issue of key importance in international macroeconomics, it has received renewed attention in recent years, owing to weaker growth rates and the debate on “currency wars”. However, in spite of its prevalence in the policy debate, the connection between real exchange rates and growth remains an unsettled question in the academic literature. We fill this gap by providing an empirical assessment based on a broad sample of emerging and advanced economies. We assess the impact of appreciations, productivity booms and capital flow surges using a propensity-score matching approach to address causality issues. We show that appreciations associated with higher productivity have a larger impact on growth than appreciations associated with capital inflows. Furthermore, the appreciation per se tends to have a negative impact on growth. We provide a simple theoretical model that delivers the contrasted growth-appreciation pattern depending on the underlying shock. The model also implies adverse effects of shocks to international capital flows, so concerns about an appreciation are not inconsistent with concerns about a depreciation. The presence of an externality through firms’ destruction leads to inefficient allocations. Nonetheless, addressing them does not require a dampening of exchange rate movements.

Keywords: exchange rate; currency crises; endaka; international trade; international capital flows; lending booms; small open economy macroeconomics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F10 F30 F41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 40 pages
Date: 2014-04-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-fdg and nep-opm
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Do real exchange rate appreciations matter for growth? (2015)
Working Paper: Do Real Exchange Rate Appreciations Matter for Growth? (2014)
Working Paper: Do real exchange rate appreciations matter for growth? (2014)
Working Paper: Currency Crises in Reverse: Do Large Real Exchange Rate Appreciations Matter for Growth? (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gii:giihei:heidwp06-2014

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