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Cables, Sharks and Servers: Technology and the Geography of the Foreign Exchange Market

Author

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  • Mehl, Arnaud
  • Eichengreen, Barry
  • Lafarguette, Romain

Abstract

We analyze the impact of technology on production and trade in services, focusing on the foreign exchange market. We identify exogenous technological changes by the connection of countries to submarine fiber-optic cables used for electronic trading, but which were not laid for purposes related to the foreign exchange market. We estimate the impact of cable connections on the share of offshore foreign exchange transactions. Cable connections between local markets and matching servers in the major financial centers lower the fixed costs of trading currencies and increase the share of currency trades occurring onshore. At the same time, however, they attenuate the effect of standard spatial frictions such as distance, local market liquidity, and restrictive regulations that otherwise prevent transactions from moving to the major financial centers. Our estimates suggest that the second effect dominates. Technology dampens the impact of spatial frictions by up to 80 percent and increases, in net terms, the share of offshore trading by 21 percentage points. Technology also has economically important implications for the distribution of foreign exchange transactions across financial centers, boosting the share in global turnover of London, the world JEL Classification: F30

Suggested Citation

  • Mehl, Arnaud & Eichengreen, Barry & Lafarguette, Romain, 2016. "Cables, Sharks and Servers: Technology and the Geography of the Foreign Exchange Market," Working Paper Series 1889, European Central Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20161889
    Note: 501438
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Wache, Benjamin, 2021. "Information Frictions, Global Capital Markets, and the Telegraph," VfS Annual Conference 2021 (Virtual Conference): Climate Economics 242444, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    3. Yin-Wong Cheung & Robert N McCauley & Chang Shu, 2019. "Geographic spread of currency trading: The renminbi and other EM currencies," GRU Working Paper Series GRU_2019_011, City University of Hong Kong, Department of Economics and Finance, Global Research Unit.
    4. Theodore Pelagidis & Eleftheria Kostika, 2022. "Investigating the role of central banks in the interconnection between financial markets and cryptoassets," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 49(3), pages 481-507, September.
    5. Angelo D'Andrea & Nicola Limodio, 2019. "High-Speed Internet, Financial Technology and Banking in Africa," BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers 19124, BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
    6. Frank Westermann, 2023. "On the Geographical Dispersion of Euro Currency Trading: An Analysis of the First 20 Years and a Comparison to the RMB," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 65(2), pages 263-287, June.
    7. Zouheir El-Sahli, 2020. "Submarine cables, the internet backbone and the trade in services," Discussion Papers 2020-05, University of Nottingham, GEP.
    8. Joël Cariolle & Yasmine Elkhateeb & Mathilde Maurel, 2022. "(Mis-)information technology: Internet use and perception of democracy in Africa," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 22010, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    9. Andreas Schrimpf & Vladyslav Sushko, 2019. "Sizing up global foreign exchange markets," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, December.
    10. Paulo Sergio Ceretta & Alexandre Silva Da costa, 2017. "The Gap Effect on the Brazilian Exchange," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 37(4), pages 2505-2516.
    11. Sam Haltenhof, "undated". "Services Trade and Internet Connectivity," Working Papers 668, Research Seminar in International Economics, University of Michigan.
    12. Lopez Cordova,Jose Ernesto, 2020. "Digital Platforms and the Demand for International Tourism Services," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9147, The World Bank.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    exogeneity; foreign exchange market; geography; submarine fiber-optic cables; technology;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F30 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - General

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