Tiny changes in the American monetary policy can have dramatic effects on the rest of the world because of dollar's double role of national and international currency. This is the Triffin dilemma. The paper shows how it works through three examples: price of commodities, dollarization, and the...

Foreign currency denominated debt as an influence of exchange rate pressure during the 2008 global crisis is explored across 58 countries. Countries with higher ratios of foreign currency denominated debt to total international debt experienced significant currency depreciation during the global...

The analysis of external economic relations of Russia reveals a paradox: while Europe is the main trade and direct investment partner of Russia, this is far from being the case concerning its currency's role in Russia's financial activities. The dollar is much preferred by economic agents for...

We study optimal macroprudential policy in settings where a fraction of firms' debt issued domestically is denominated in foreign currency. Households benefit from the superior insurance properties of foreign currency assets, but the dollarization of their portfolios comes hand in hand with the...

We explore the role of ‘dollar shortage' shocks and central bank swap lines in a two-country New Keynesian model with financial frictions. Domestic banks issue both domestic and foreign currency debt and lend in domestic currency. Foreign currency-specific funding shocks, which are amplified...

This paper shows that dollar appreciations lead to declines in GDP, investment, and credit to the private sector in emerging market economies (EMEs). These results imply that the transmission of dollar movements to EMEs occurs mainly through financial conditions rather than net exports, contrary...

We propose a "debt view" to explain the dominant international role of the dollar and provide broad empirical support for it. Within a simple capital structure model in which firms optimally choose the currency composition of their debt, we derive conditions under which all firms issue debt in a...

I obtain very different percentage estimates of the American, German and Swiss currency that are held outside of these nations than previously done. My estimates are based on currency demand equations implied by cointegrating vectors for Canada, Holland, and Austria. In 1996, the United States...

On January 1, 1999 euro became the currency for 11 member states of the European Union. Since then the dollar-euro exchange rate has completed a full turning. Three years of depreciation of the euro followed by three years of appreciation without wild fluctuations asks for an explanation which...

We present a portfolio model of financial intermediation in which currency choice is determined by hedging decisions on both sides of a bank's balance sheet. We show that minimum variance portfolio (MVP) allocations provide a natural benchmark to estimate the scope for dollarization of assets...