Exchange Rate Volatility and Trade among the Asia Pacific Countries

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of exchange rate volatility on exports among 14 Asia Pacific countries, where various measures to raise the intra-region trade are being implemented. Specifically, this paper estimates a gravity model, in which the dependent variable is the product of the exports of two trading countries. In addition, it also estimates a unilateral exports model, in which the dependent variable is not the product of the exports of two trading countries but the exports from one country to another. By doing this, the depreciation rate of the exporting country's currency value can be included as one of the explanatory variables affecting the volume of exports. As the explanatory variables of the export volume, the gravity model adopts the product of the GDPs of two trading counties, their bilateral exchange rate volatility, their distance, a time trend and dummies for the share of the border line, the use of the same language, and the APEC membership. In the case of the unilateral exports model, the product of the GDPs is replaced by the GDP of the importing country, and the depreciation rate of the exporting country's currency value is dded. In addition, considering that the export volume will also depend on various onditions of the exporting country, dummies for exporting countries are also included as an explanatory variable. The empirical tests, using annual data for the period from 1980 to 2002, detect a significant negative impact of exchange rate volatility on the volume of exports. In addition, various tests using the data for sub-sample periods indicate that the negative impact had been weakened since 1989, when APEC had launched, and surged again from 1997, when the Asian financial crisis broke out. This finding implies that the impact of exchange rate volatility is time-dependent and that it is significantlynegative at least in the present time. This phenomenon is noticed regardless which estimation model is adopted. In addition, the test results show that the GDP of the importing country, the depreciation of the exporting country's currency value, the use of the same language and the membership of APEC have positive impacts on exports, while the distance between trading countries have negative impacts. Finally, it turns out that the negative impact of exchange rate volatility is much weaker among OECD countries than among non-OECD counties.