IMF Working Papers

Equilibrium Foreign Currency Mortgages

By Marcin Kolasa

March 19, 2021

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Marcin Kolasa. Equilibrium Foreign Currency Mortgages, (USA: International Monetary Fund, 2021) accessed November 21, 2024

Disclaimer: IMF Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to encourage debate. The views expressed in IMF Working Papers are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the IMF, its Executive Board, or IMF management.

Summary

This paper proposes a novel explanation for why foreign currency denominated loans to households have become so popular in some emerging economies. Our argument is based on what we call the debt limit channel, which arises when multi-period contracts are offered to financially constrained borrowers against collateral that is established on newly acquired assets. Whenever the difference between domestic and foreign interest rates is positive, this effect biases borrowers’ choices towards foreign currency, even if the exchange rate is known to depreciate as implied by the interest parity condition. We demonstrate in a structural macroeconomic framework that the debt limit channel is quantitatively important and can result in dollarization of debt also in the presence of realistic exchange rate risk. Comparing this outcome to allocations under constrained-optimal time-consistent policy reveals that a substantial part of the identified bias towards foreign currency is due to a pecuniary externality, i.e. borrowers’ failure to internalize how their currency choice affects collateral prices.

Subject: Asset and liability management, Currencies, Debt limits, Economic sectors, Financial crises, Financial institutions, Housing, Loans, Money, Mortgages, National accounts

Keywords: Biases borrowers' choice, Borrowers' failure, Currencies, Debt limit channel, Debt limits, Equilibrium foreign currency mortgage, Foreign currency loan, Foreign currency loans, Global, Housing, Loans, Mortgages, Pecuniary externality, Portfolio choice

Publication Details

  • Pages:

    42

  • Volume:

    ---

  • DOI:

    ---

  • Issue:

    ---

  • Series:

    Working Paper No. 2021/084

  • Stock No:

    WPIEA2021084

  • ISBN:

    9781513574394

  • ISSN:

    1018-5941

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