research
Does Exchange Rate Variability Matter for Welfare? A Quantitative Investigation of Stabilization Policies
- Publication date
- Publisher
Abstract
This paper evaluates quantitatively the potential welfare gains from monetary policy and fixed
exchange rate rules in a two-country sticky-price model. The first finding is that the gains from
stabilization tend to be small in the types of economic environments emphasized in recent
theoretical literature. The analysis goes on to identify two types of economies in which the
welfare implications of risk are larger: where agents exhibit habits, and where international asset
markets exhibit asymmetry in the form of “original sin.” In the habits case, monetary policy
aimed solely at inflation stabilization is optimal. But in the original sin case there are potentially
large welfare gains from also eliminating exchange rate volatility.exchange rate risk, second order approximation