On the Benefits of Dollarization when Stabilization Policy is not Credible and Financial Markets are Imperfect

This paper examines two potential benefits that emerging economies may derive from dollarization. First, dollarization may eliminate distortions induced by the lack of credibility of monetary policy. Second, dollarization may weaken financial frictions that result in endogenous credit constraints. The analysis is based on numerical simulations of a two-sector dynamic, stochastic general equilibrium model calibrated to Mexican data. The results indicate that policy uncertainty and credit constraints are very costly distortions. The mean welfare gains of eliminating policy uncertainty range between 6.4 and 9 percent of the trend level of consumption per capita. The mean welfare gain of weakening credit frictions is about 4.6 percent.