Abstract
Credit contracts in developing countries are often denominated in foreign currencies, even after many of these economies succeeded in controlling inflation. This paper proposes a new interpretation of this apparent puzzle based on the demand for insurance against real shocks: the fact that devaluations occur more frequently in adverse states of the world provides a motive for holding dollar assets. This approach implies a complementarity between the optimal monetary policy and the currency denomination of contracts. When a large proportion of liabilities is denominated in a foreign currency, the optimal exchange rate volatility is low, which reinforces the demand for dollar assets.
This is a pre-print version of an article published in The Journal of Monetary Economics. The final version can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmoneco.2009.09.002