Inequality and Real Exchange Rates

Kocherlakota and Pistaferri (2007) describe two different models (Private Information Pareto Optimal and Incomplete Markets) of how households partially insure themselves against idiosyncratic shocks. They demonstrate that the models differ in terms of their implications for real exchange rates. In this paper, we use data from a wide range of countries, and document that there is a statististically significant relationship between real exchange rate growth and between-country differences in the growth rates of right-tail, but not left-tail, inequality growth. This finding is consistent with the Private Information Pareto Optimal model of partial insurance, but not the Incomplete Markets model. (JEL:F31, D30, D91 ) (c) 2008 by the European Economic Association.