Chronicle of currency collapses: Re examining the effects on output

Matthieu Bussiere, Sweta Saxena and Camilo Tovar ()

Journal of International Money and Finance, 2012, vol. 31, issue 4, 680-708

Abstract: The impact of currency collapses (i.e. large nominal depreciations or devaluations) on real output remains unsettled in the empirical macroeconomic literature. This paper provides new empirical evidence on this relationship using a dataset for 108 emerging and developing economies over the period 1960–2006. We provide estimates of how these episodes affect growth and output trend. Our main finding is that currency collapses are associated with a permanent output loss relative to trend, which is estimated to range between 2% and 6% of GDP. However, we show that such losses tend to materialize before the drop in the value of the currency, which suggests that the costs of a currency crash largely stem from the factors leading to it. Taken on its own (i.e. ceteris paribus), we find that currency collapses tend to have a positive effect on output. More generally, we also find that the likelihood of a positive growth rate in the year of the collapse is over two times more likely than a contraction, and that positive growth rates in the years that follow such episodes are the norm. Finally, we show that the persistence of the crash matters, i.e. one-time events induce exchange rate and output dynamics that differ from consecutive episodes.

Keywords: Currency crisis; Exchange rates; Real output growth; Recovery from crises (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E32 F31 F41 F43 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (41)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261560612000162
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: Chronicle of currency collapses: re-examining the effects on output (2010)
Working Paper: Chronicle of currency collapses: re-examining the effects on output (2010)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jimfin:v:31:y:2012:i:4:p:680-708

DOI: 10.1016/j.jimonfin.2012.01.008

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of International Money and Finance is currently edited by J. R. Lothian

More articles in Journal of International Money and Finance from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().