Over 85% of all foreign exchange (FX) transactions involve the US dollar. I show that the US dollar dominates FX trading volume because of strategic avoidance of price impact. To demonstrate this, I leverage the fact that non-dollar currency pairs can be traded indirectly by using the US dollar...

This paper is concerned with the reasons why some currencies, such as the pound sterling and the U.S. dollar, have come to serve as "vehicles" for exchanges of other currencies. It develops a three-country model of payments equilibrium with transaction costs, and shows how one currency can...