Currency Undervaluation and Comparative Advantage /

This paper highlights a tradeoff implied by a policy of export-led growth through currency undervaluation. While undervaluation can foster domestic manufacturing in countries like China by sustaining trade surplus, it also can harm a country's comparative advantage by altering the composition o...

Ausführliche Beschreibung

Gespeichert in:
1. Verfasser:
Bergin, Paul
Körperschaft:
National Bureau of Economic Research
Format:
Elektronisch E-Book
Sprache:
Englisch
Veröffentlicht:
Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2022.
Zusammenfassung:
This paper highlights a tradeoff implied by a policy of export-led growth through currency undervaluation. While undervaluation can foster domestic manufacturing in countries like China by sustaining trade surplus, it also can harm a country's comparative advantage by altering the composition of exports. Undervaluation may discourage specializing in high-value added manufacturing and instead favor specialization in non-differentiated goods with higher price elasticity. A dynamic general equilibrium model of two traded good sectors and capital account restrictions shows that undervaluation can either raise or lower welfare depending on two competing effects on comparative advantage: agglomeration versus an elasticity effect.
Umfang:
1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);
Anmerkungen:
January 2022.
Schlagworte: