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Neutrality of money and foreign debt in dollarization: The Ecuadorian case from a cointegration approach

Abstract:

Money neutrality has complex consequences for small, open, and dollarized economies. For instance, it can cause external debt, when used as a stabilizer of the stock of circulating money in the face of negative exogenous shocks, not to contribute to economic growth in times of stagnation. The purpose of this paper is to describe this problem for the Ecuadorian case using a cointe-gration methodology and a vector error correction (VEC) model estimated over the 2000-2019 period (quarterly). The resulting impulse-response functions of the VEC model present evidence in favor of the money neutrality hypothesis, and the simulation of an exogenous negative shock in oil prices qualitatively describes the potential interaction between circulating currency, external debt, and production in dollarization. The paper concludes by presenting multiple empirical monetary-real patterns that may be useful for future research on dollarization.