Suchergebnisse

The foreign currency denomination of contracts in international transactions can lead to international currency exposure at the country level with important economic and policy implications. When debts are denominated in foreign currency and revenues in domestic currency, exchange rate fluctuations can result in balance sheet effects for countries with either net asset or liability positions. Moreover, currency mismatch between assets and liabilities can be a cause for crises in developing and emerging economies. This book looks at the issues surrounding foreign currency exposure in today's increasingly integrated world economy. - The contributors draw on cross-country as well as country-specific data. They consider international currency risk after the Swiss franc ended its one-sided peg with the euro, for example, and the foreign exchange positions of firms in Turkey and Russia. Other contributors take macroeconomic perspectives, examining the potential effects of exchange rate realignment, the pressure to appreciate on countries with current account surpluses, and the currency exposure in international trade. Finally, contributors consider the issue from finance and political economy perspectives, addressing the phenomenon of the forward premium puzzle and discussing geopolitical aspects ascending currencies.

Recent decades have seen a fragmentation of production processes across borders, as firms find it increasingly profitable to organize production on a global scale. This fragmentation occurs across national borders as well as across firm boundaries; companies must decide not only the location of production but also how much control to exert over the different production stages. Economists have responded to this shift by developing new models of global sourcing, generating important insights into the driving forces and economic effects of this new form of globalization. Many questions, however, remain unanswered. This book tries to fill this gap. - The contributors ask new questions or offer new modeling approaches to fragmentation of production, focusing in particular on time and uncertainty. They examine global sourcing in firms' multinationalization strategies, including offshoring, product scope, managerial incentives, supplier search, and contractual issues; and explore the interactions of global sourcing, exports, and economic development, investigating such topics as the complementarity of offshoring and exporting, product diversification, and the relationship between vertical linkages and development. Each chapter presents recent research that further develops existing models or documents new empirical patterns related to global sourcing.