International Reserves—Too Much of a Zipf’s Thing

January 1, 2008

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Format: Chicago

Mariusz A. Sumlinski International Reserves—Too Much of a Zipf’s Thing, (USA: International Monetary Fund, 2008) accessed November 21, 2024

Disclaimer: This Working Paper should not be reported as representing the views of the IMF.The views expressed in this Working Paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the IMF or IMF policy. Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to further debate

Summary

Concentrated distribution of international reserves is puzzling. I show that the growth rates of international reserves bear only a very weak relationship to their initial stocks (scaled by GDP or in absolute terms), and that, by implication, the cross-sectional distribution of reserves conforms to Zipf's law. The law states that the size of reserves is inversely related to their ranking. Evidence in favor of the law is strong and time robust. I compare the crosssection distribution of international reserves embedded in the WEO projections to that implied by Zipf's law and find that international reserves are much less concentrated in the WEO projections than implied by Zipf's law.

Subject: International reserves, Population and demographics, Reserve assets, Reserves accumulation, Stocks

Keywords: Growth rate, Law influence, Reserve, WP

Publication Details

Pages:

19
Volume:

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DOI:

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Issue:

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Series:

Working Paper No. 2008/011
Stock No:

WPIEA2008011
ISBN:

9781451868739
ISSN:

1018-5941

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