The Real Exchange Rate and Economic Growth: A Survey

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Rapetti

Abstract This paper offers a systematic survey of recent research evaluating the impact of the level and volatility of the real exchange rate (RER) on economic growth. Existing empirical work finds a positive association between RER levels and economic growth, especially in developing countries. This relationship appears to be driven by cases of overvaluation hurting and undervaluation favoring growth. RER volatility, in turn, has a negative impact on growth. Together with the review of the literature, panel growth regressions with the 9.0 version of the Penn World Table database are carried out to evaluate previous findings. The paper also surveys the literature studying the mechanisms that explain the positive growth effect of the RER. One of them emphasizes that an undervalued RER reduces macroeconomic volatility, favoring capital accumulation and growth. Another one stresses that a competitive RER stimulates capital accumulation in modern tradable activities, facilitating structural change and economic development.

2011 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abu Tarawalie

The main focus of this paper is to examine the impact of the real effective exchange rate on economic growth in Sierra Leone. First an analytical framework is developed to identify the determinants of the real effective exchange rate. Using quarterly data and employing recent econometric techniques, the relationship between the real effective exchange rate and economic growth is then investigated. A bivariate Granger causality test was also employed as part of the methodology to examine the causal relationship between the real exchange rate and economic growth. The empirical results suggest that the real effective exchange rate correlates positively with economic growth, with a statistically significant coefficient. The results also indicate that monetary policy is relatively more effective than fiscal policy in the long run, and evidence of the real effective exchange rate causing economic growth was profound. In addition, the results showed that terms of trade, exchange rate devaluation, investment to GDP ratio and an excessive supply of domestic credit were the main determinants of the real exchange rate in Sierra Leone.


2017 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 20-41
Author(s):  
Chama Chipeta ◽  
Daniel Francois Meyer ◽  
Paul-Francois Muzindutsi

Abstract Job creation is at the centre of economic development and remains a source of sustenance for social and human relations. The creation of a job-enabling economic environment is imperative in promoting social and economic cohesiveness in the macro and microeconomic environment. Any shocks to the economy, particularly those of exchange rate shocks and changes in economic growth, may negatively affect the labour market and job creation. This study made use of quarterly observations, from the first quarter of 1995 to the fourth quarter of 2015, to investigate the effect of the real exchange rate and economic growth on South Africa’s employment status. South Africa, a developing country, was selected as a case study due to its high unemployment rate that is still increasing. The Vector Autoregressive (VAR) model and multivariate co-integration techniques were used in assessing the impact and responsiveness of employment to the real exchange rate and real economic growth in South Africa. Findings of this study revealed that employment responds positively to economic growth and negatively to the real exchange rate in the long-run. The short-run displays a positive relationship between real economic growth and employment, while the relationship between employment and the real exchange rate is also negative. However, the effect of economic growth in creating jobs is not significant enough in stimulating job creation in South Africa, as indicated by results in variance decomposition. Movements in the exchange rate exerted a significant short and long-run negative effect on employment dynamics; implying that a depreciation of the rand against the U.S. dollar is associated with decrease in overall employment. Exchange rate stability is thus important for economic growth and job creation in South Africa. The study provided further recommendations on promoting job creation in South Africa and other developing countries.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (8) ◽  
pp. 6
Author(s):  
Carlos Cesar Chávez

This paper studies the determinants of the real exchange rate using macroeconomic variables, and whether they can predict it. A panel data is used, which estimator is system GMM that allows controlling the endogeneity of the variables. In turn, we transformed the variables with forward orthogonal deviations (FOD) and first difference (FD), which allows us to eliminate unobserved effects that are invariant in time. To check the robustness of the estimates, different periods were used, from 1980-2019, 2000-2019 and 2010-2019. For the period 1980-2019, it is found that the past values of the real exchange rate, the current values of inflation, economic growth, fiscal and monetary policy have positive effects on the current values of the real exchange rate, while the money supply and the terms of trade have negative impacts on the real exchange rate. For the period 2000-2019, we had similar results and for the period 2010-2019, we found that economic growth has negative impacts on the real exchange rate. It is also presented the Arellano-Bond test and the Sargan test to estimate model over-identification. Using the Pedroni test, we estimated the cointegration of the variables with respect to the real exchange rate, finding cointegration with inflation in the long run. The originality of this paper is that we focused on Latin American countries, analyzing short-term relationships with the System GMM estimator and long-term relationships with the Pedroni Test.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehdi Seraj ◽  
Cagay Coskuner ◽  
Seyi Saint Akadiri ◽  
Negar Bahadori

Abstract This study revisited Dani Rodrik (2008) work on real exchange rate undervaluation and economic growth by using the Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FMOLS) and Dynamic Ordinary Least Square (DOLS). This research, to the best of authors' knowledge, is the first to use FMOLS and DOLS approach to empirically evaluate Rodrik work on the real exchange rate and economic growth using a Panel periodic data (six sets of five years) of 82 countries throughout 1990 to 2018. We used the Balassa Samuelson method to estimate the predicted real exchange rate and real exchange rate undervaluation. Finally, the study is in support of Rodrik conclusion that, real exchange undervaluation has a significant impact on the economic growth of the developing economies and statistically insignificant in the developed economies.


Author(s):  
Comfort Akinwolere Bukola ◽  

This study examined the impact of exchange rate volatility on economic growth in Nigeria. The study covers the period of 1986 to 2019. Using time series data, the methodology adopted is the Vector Error Correction Mechanism to explore the impact of exchange rate volatility on the selected macroeconomic variables. The result indicated that exchange rate volatility has a significant impact on economic growth, specifically it has a positive impact on inflation, unemployment and balance of trade. On the other hand it has a negative impact on economic growth and investment. The recommendations made include; that relevant authorities should try to avoid systematic currency devaluations in order to maintain exchange rate volatility at a rate that allows adjustment of the balance of payments.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-269
Author(s):  
Florencia Médici ◽  
Augustín Mario ◽  
Alejandro Fiorito

This study provides new evidence showing that the real exchange rate (RER) does not play an important role in the growth of Mexican GDP. Economic growth is not an automatically predetermined result of relative price correction, and it is important to consider distinctive aspects of national institutional arrangements (fiscal and monetary, for example) for understanding theoretical causality of demand. The empirical results show public expenditure is an overlooked variable in regressions where the exchange rate affects product growth. After incorporating public expenditure, the RER impact on growth becomes insignificant. For its part, public expenditure has a positive and significant effect on GDP in the long term. The RER does not lead to greater GDP since exports are not stimulated through price.


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