Detecting exchange rate contagion using copula functions

Gómez-González, José Eduardo; Cubillos-Rocha, Juan Sebastian; Melo-Velandia, Luis Fernando

Detecting exchange rate contagion using copula functions

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Borradores de Economía; No. 1047

Date published

2018-08-14

Date

2018-08-14

Authors

Gómez-González, José Eduardo
Cubillos-Rocha, Juan Sebastian
Melo-Velandia, Luis Fernando

Document language

eng

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Las opiniones contenidas en el presente documento son responsabilidad exclusiva de los autores y no comprometen al Banco de la República ni a su Junta Directiva.

The opinions contained in this document are the sole responsibility of the author and do not commit Banco de la República or its Board of Directors.

Abstract

We study exchange rate dependencies between seven countries from four different regions of the world. Our sample includes two developed countries, the United Kingdom and Germany (representing the Euro Area), two large emerging Asian economies, South Korea and Indonesia, two Latin American countries, Brazil and Chile, and South Africa. The currencies of all of these countries are actively traded in global forex markets and all of them are important for large international portfolio composition and rebalancing. We construct multivariate copula functions using a regular vine copula approach, allowing for very flexible dependency structures. We fi nd evidence of exchange rate contagion for our set of countries. However, important asymmetries are worth noting. First, contagion occurs only during periods of exchange rate appreciation of the different currencies with respect to the United States Dollar. We do not fi nd evidence of contagion for any pair of exchange rates during periods of currency depreciations. Second, contagion is more frequent in pairs of countries that include either the United Kingdom or Germany. In fact, the largest tail dependence coefficient corresponds to the pair composed by these two countries' exchange rates. Third, contagion occurs more within countries of a same region, for instance, between Brazil and Chile, and between Korea and Indonesia. This result shows that, in episodes of large currency appreciation, hedging strategies for global investors taking positions in large markets require regional diversi cation.

Description

El presente trabajo estudia la existencia de contagio financiero entre tasas de cambio de siete países, de diferentes regiones del mundo. Considera tasas de cambio bilaterales respecto al dólar de Estados Unidos, para Alemania, Brasil, Corea del Sur, Chile, Indonesia, Reino Unido y Sudáfrica. Se usan datos diarios obtenidos en Bloomberg, entre abril de 2006 y febrero de 2018. Se emplea una metodología de funciones cópula, que permiten describir la dependencia entre funciones de distribución univariadas de forma muy general. Los resultados muestran evidencia de contagio entre tasas de cambio durante periodos de apreciación de las monedas frente al dólar. Dicho contagio es mayor entre economías de una misma región (por ejemplo, entre Chile y Brasil, y entre Corea del Sur e Indonesia). Esto implica que, durante tiempos de apreciación cambiaria, los inversionistas internacionales deben usar estrategias de diversificación regional para reducir el riesgo cambiario de sus portafolios. Asimismo, en general el contagio es mayor para pares de monedas que incluyen o Alemania o el Reino Unido.