Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/154148 
Year of Publication: 
2014
Series/Report no.: 
ECB Working Paper No. 1715
Publisher: 
European Central Bank (ECB), Frankfurt a. M.
Abstract: 
We investigate whether the role of national currencies as international reserves was fundamentally altered by the shift from fixed to flexible exchange rates (what we call the “upheaval hypothesis”), a view that gained adherents following the collapse of the Bretton Woods System. We extend standard data on the currency composition of foreign reserves backward and forward in time to test whether there was a shift in the determinants of reserve currency shares around the breakdown of Bretton Woods. We find evidence in favor of this hypothesis. The effects of inertia and the credibility of policies on international reserve currency choice have become stronger post-Bretton Woods, while those associated with network effects have weakened. We also show that negative policy interventions designed to discourage international use of a currency have been easier to implement than positive interventions to encourage international use. These findings speak to current discussions of the prospects of currencies, like the euro and the renminbi, seen to be seeking to acquire international reserve status and others like the U.S. dollar seeking to preserve it.
Subjects: 
currency composition
fixed vs. floating exchange rates
international reserves
structural change
JEL: 
F30
N20
ISBN: 
978-92-899-1123-8
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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