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Journal of Financial Economics Vol. 150 No. 2 2023

International trade and the risk in bilateral exchange rates

Ramin Hassan1; Erik Loualiche2; Alexandre R. Pecora3; Colin R. Ward2

1 Cornerstone Research, United States · 2 University of Minnesota · 3 Virginia Tech

Abstract

Exchange rate volatility falls after a trade deal, driven by a decline in the systematic component of risk. The average trade deal increases trade by 50 percent over five years, reducing systematic risk by a third of a standard deviation across countries. We examine this connection in an Armington model where the structure of trade networks determines the risk in exchange rates. We estimate our model to current data and find i) that countries at the periphery of the world trade network benefit the most from lower trade barriers and ii) that a counterfactual experiment of a trade war between the US and China shows a global increase in currency risk, with effects concentrated among peripheral countries.

DOI
10.1016/j.jfineco.2023.103711
Volume
150
Issue
2
Pages
103711
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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