Monetary dynamics under dollarization: explaining Ecuador’s puzzle
This paper investigates a puzzle in the behavior of the money supply in Ecuador after it formally adopted the US dollar as its currency in January 2000. Modern open economy macroeconom-ics (MOEM) predicts that in a small open economy under an official dollarization regime, the money supply is endogenous to movements in the balance of payments. However, Ecuador’s monetary and balance of payment statistics suggest otherwise. This incongruity has led some authors to claim that MOEM does not hold in Ecuador.