.................................................................................................................2 I. CHRONOLOGY OF ARGENTINE EVENTS .....................................................3 II. DEFINITION OF DOLLARIZATION ................................................................5 OFFICIAL, SEMI-OFFICIAL AND UNOFFICIAL DOLLARIZATION. ...................................6 ARGE...

In this paper we study dollarization as a commitment device that the Central Bank could use to avoid getting involved in an undesirable banking-sector bailout. We show how a political process could induce an equilibrium outcome that differs from the one that a benevolent Central Bank would want to implement. Dollarization then could be used to restore the economy to the benevolent outcome. In s...

The existing empirical literature on credit dollarization has not reached agreement on its causes. Most studies that analyze financial dollarization start from the presumption that credit dollarization is supply-determined. If this were the case, then policies that attempt to reduce dollarization should aim to affect behavior in the banking sector. We use a newly constructed dataset for twenty-...

E C O N O M I C R E V I E W Third Quarter 2006 Since Ecuadorian president Jamil Mahuad announced the adoption of the U.S. dollar as legal tender in January 2000, the discussion about the pros and cons of full dollarization has intensified. In 2001 El Salvador engaged in full dollarization to enhance its economic reform process. The two economies adopted the U.S. dollar as their currency for dia...

The paper analyzes dollarization in the sense of asset substitution, where a foreign currency competes with local assets, especially domestic capital, as a store of value, the impact of dollarization on capital accumulation and output, and why economies remain dollarized long after a successful inflation stabilization. We relate this dollarization hysteresis to a financial intermediation failur...

This work examines the way dollarization affects the transmission channel of nominal exchange rate fluctuations into domestic inflation for 13 countries in Latin America between 1980-00. Contrary to “conventional wisdom” I find that dollarization across countries is not positively associated with a higher degree of exchange rate pass-through. Moreover, within a country, increases in dollarizati...

The dollarization of the domestic banking system represents a source of vulnerability for emerging market countries, and a debate has emerged over whether the exchange rate regime has an impact on the degree of dollarization. This paper argues that the regime is far less important than the literature has previously claimed. Unofficial dollarization results from a lack of faith in the domestic c...

Previous attempts to analyze the effect of liability dollarization on “fear of floating” have focused exclusively on the role played by foreign liabilities. Liability dollarization of the domestic banking system, however, poses a similar risk as dollar-denominated deposits and credit impose a source of currency risk on domestic banks and firms respectively. Findings from a large cross-country s...

We analyze the effect of European Union (EU) membership on financial dollarization for the Central and Eastern European countries. Using a unique monthly dataset that spans about two decades, we find that both the accession process toward EU membership and EU entry have a direct impact on deposit and loan dollarization. EU membership reduces deposit dollarization while it increases loan dollari...

I estimate a multivariate probit model to identify key variables that are predictive of banking crises. To add to the literature on this subject, I focus on the role played by unofficial dollarization of domestic banking systems. Unofficial dollarization is a source of vulnerability for emerging markets as large depreciations render both domestic firms and banks unable to pay dollar-denominated...