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American Economic Review Vol. 96 No. 3 2006

Can Information Heterogeneity Explain the Exchange Rate Determination Puzzle?

Philippe Bacchetta1; Eric van Wincoop2

1 Study Center Gerzensee, 3115 Gerzensee, Switzerland, University of Lausanne, and Swiss Finance Institute. · 2 Department of Economics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904 and NBER.

Abstract

Empirical evidence shows that most exchange rate volatility at short to medium horizons is related to order flow and not to macroeconomic variables. We introduce symmetric information dispersion about future macroeconomic fundamentals in a dynamic rational expectations model in order to explain these stylized facts. Consistent with the evidence, the model implies that (a) observed fundamentals account for little of exchange rate volatility in the short to medium run, (b) over long horizons, the exchange rate is closely related to observed fundamentals, (c) exchange rate changes are a weak predictor of future fundamentals, and (d) the exchange rate is closely related to order flow.

DOI
10.1257/aer.96.3.552
Volume
96
Issue
3
Pages
552-576
Language
en
Sources
crossref openalex bibtex:phds-export.bib bibtex:phds-export.bib

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