The determinants of International Reserves in the Emerging countries: a non linear approach
Résumé
In this article, we adopt a nonlinear approach to examine the dynamics of the international reserves holdings by the emerging economies. To do so, we estimate the demand for international reserves with a Panel Smooth Transition Regression (PSTR) model that loosens two restricting hypotheses, homogeneity and time-stability. We find evidence for the presence of a nonlinear behaviour in the demand for international reserves, a result that is new to the literature. The coefficients are found to change smoothly, as a function of two threshold variables - out of five candidates tested in total. Our specification accounts for the acceleration of foreign exchange reserves accumulation that the linear specifications fail to explain.