IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/6608.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The art of currency manipulation : how to profiteer by deliberately distorting exchange rates

Author

Listed:
  • Basu, Kaushik

Abstract

A frequent charge in foreign exchange markets in developing countries is that of manipulators being at work. Since to buy is to raise prices and to sell is to lower prices, the question that naturally arises is whether the widespread charge of market manipulation is valid. The paper shows that (whether or not"widespreadness"has any merit) it is possible for a player to manipulate and profiteer. By using some simple principles of game theory, the paper outlines a strategy that a manipulator may use. The aim of this paper is not to provide a manual for the manipulator but to enable the regulator to understand the art and develop policies to curb manipulation.

Suggested Citation

  • Basu, Kaushik, 2013. "The art of currency manipulation : how to profiteer by deliberately distorting exchange rates," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6608, The World Bank.
  • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6608
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2013/09/18/000158349_20130918094113/Rendered/PDF/WPS6608.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ware, Roger & Winter, Ralph, 1988. "Forward markets, currency options and the hedging of foreign exchange risk," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(3-4), pages 291-302, November.
    2. Basu, Kaushik & Varoudakis, Aristomene, 2013. "How to move the exchange rate if you must: the diverse practice of foreign exchange intervention by central banks and a proposal for doing it better," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6460, The World Bank.
    3. Roland Benabou & Guy Laroque, 1992. "Using Privileged Information to Manipulate Markets: Insiders, Gurus, and Credibility," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(3), pages 921-958.
    4. Bresnahan, Timothy F, 1981. "Duopoly Models with Consistent Conjectures," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(5), pages 934-945, December.
    5. Mark Armstrong, 2006. "Competition in two‐sided markets," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 37(3), pages 668-691, September.
    6. Nirvikar Singh & Xavier Vives, 1984. "Price and Quantity Competition in a Differentiated Duopoly," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 15(4), pages 546-554, Winter.
    7. Dixit, Avinash & Stern, Nicholas, 1982. "Oligopoly and welfare : A unified presentation with applications to trade and development," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 123-143.
    8. Basu, Kaushik, 2012. "How to devalue exchange rates, without building up reserves: Strategic theory for central banking," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 117(3), pages 758-761.
    9. Mark Armstrong Author-Email: mark.armstrong@ucl.ac.uk Author-Workplace-Name: University College of London, 2006. "Competition in Two-Sided Markets," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 37(3), pages 668-691, Autumn.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Basu Kaushik, 2014. "The Art of Currency Manipulation: How Some Profiteer by Deliberately Distorting Exchange Rates," Journal of Globalization and Development, De Gruyter, vol. 4(2), pages 199-211, February.
    2. Tolotti, Marco & Yepez, Jorge, 2020. "Hotelling-Bertrand duopoly competition under firm-specific network effects," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 105-128.
    3. Li, Ming & Tymofiy Mylovanov, 2009. "Credibility for Sale: the Effect of Disclosure on Information Acquisition and Transmission," Working Papers 09008, Concordia University, Department of Economics, revised Oct 2009.
    4. Dewenter, Ralf & Haucap, Justus & Wenzel, Tobias, 2011. "Semi-collusion in media markets," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 92-98, June.
    5. Kevin J. Boudreau & Andrei Hagiu, 2009. "Platform Rules: Multi-Sided Platforms as Regulators," Chapters, in: Annabelle Gawer (ed.), Platforms, Markets and Innovation, chapter 7, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Claude Crampes & Carole Haritchabalet & Bruno Jullien, 2009. "Advertising, Competition And Entry In Media Industries," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(1), pages 7-31, March.
    7. Julia Rothbauer & Gernot Sieg, 2013. "Public Service Broadcasting of Sport, Shows, and News to Mitigate Rational Ignorance," Journal of Media Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(1), pages 21-40, March.
    8. Alexander Matros, 2006. "Optimal Mechanisms for an Auction Mediator," Working Paper 202, Department of Economics, University of Pittsburgh, revised Jan 2006.
    9. Marc Ivaldi & Catherine Muller-Vibes, 2018. "The differentiated effect of advertising on readership: evidence from a two-sided market approach," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 29(3), pages 363-376, September.
    10. Stühmeier, Torben & Wenzel, Tobias, 2011. "Getting beer during commercials: Adverse effects of ad-avoidance," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 98-106, March.
    11. Aslan, Fatma & Haouel, Chourouk & Nemeslaki, Andras & Somogyi, Robert, 2021. "Direct network externalities and dynamics of two-sided platforms," 23rd ITS Biennial Conference, Online Conference / Gothenburg 2021. Digital societies and industrial transformations: Policies, markets, and technologies in a post-Covid world 238006, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    12. De Fraja, Gianni & Sákovics, József, 2012. "Exclusive nightclubs and lonely hearts columns: Non-monotone participation in optional intermediation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 84(2), pages 618-632.
    13. Doh-Shin Jeon & Nikrooz Nasr, 2016. "News Aggregators and Competition among Newspapers on the Internet," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 8(4), pages 91-114, November.
    14. Chen, Ying-Ju & Zenou, Yves & Zhou, Junjie, 2022. "The impact of network topology and market structure on pricing," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).
    15. David Bardey & Luigi Siciliani, 2021. "Nursing‐homes' competition and distributional implications when the market is two‐sided," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 472-500, May.
    16. Christos Genakos & Tommaso Valletti, 2011. "Testing The “Waterbed” Effect In Mobile Telephony," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 9(6), pages 1114-1142, December.
    17. Prado, Tiago S., 2021. "Assessing the Market Power of Digital Platforms," 23rd ITS Biennial Conference, Online Conference / Gothenburg 2021. Digital societies and industrial transformations: Policies, markets, and technologies in a post-Covid world 238048, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    18. Jonathan Levin, 2011. "The Economics of Internet Markets," Discussion Papers 10-018, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
    19. Nathan Delacrétaz & Bruno Lanz & Jeremy van Dijk, 2020. "The chicken or the egg: Technology adoption and network infrastructure in the market for electric vehicles," IRENE Working Papers 20-08, IRENE Institute of Economic Research.
    20. Choi, Jay Pil & Jeon, Doh-Shin & KIM, Byung-Cheol, 2012. "Internet Interconnection and Network Neutrality," TSE Working Papers 12-355, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Markets and Market Access; Emerging Markets; Debt Markets; Currencies and Exchange Rates; Economic Theory&Research;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6608. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Roula I. Yazigi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dvewbus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.