Abstract
This contribution addresses the causes of the financial dollarization of countries according to the post-Keynesian view. It shows that the demand for strong currency depends on the country's Minskian category (hedge, speculative and ponzi) and is affected by the changes in international liquidity (cycles of the international financial market). This happens because changes in international liquidity affect, at different levels of intensity, the liquidity preference in hedge, speculative and ponzi economies. The speculative and ponzi economies show a high level of financial dollarization when there is a fall in international liquidity. This result was not found for the hedge economies. Moreover, the persistence of financial dollarization even after a fall in inflation is explained by the high level of government debt in countries that present a high level of external vulnerability. These conclusions are empirically conformed by means of estimating a dynamic panel data model for 79 countries during the 1993-2006 period.
Keywords:
Financial dollarization; Risk of default; Financial instability; International liquidity; Liquidity preference
