Do domestic bond markets participation help reduce financial dollarization in developing countries?
Abstract
In this paper, I analyze the effect of domestic sovereign bond market (BM) participation on financial
dollarization using a large panel of 114 developing countries over the period 1984–2009. Building on entropy
balancing, my results reveal strong evidence that domestic BM participation significantly reduces financial
dollarization in domestic BM countries compared to their non-domestic BM peers. Moreover, I find that the
favorable impact of domestic BM on financial dollarization (i) is larger for inflation targeting countries
compared to non-inflation targeting countries, (ii) is apparent exclusively in a non-pegged exchange rate regime,
(iii) and is larger when there are fiscal rules that constrain the discretion of fiscal policy makers. Finally, I show
that the induced drop in inflation rate and its variability, nominal exchange rate variability, and seigniorage
revenue are potential transmission mechanisms through which the presence of domestic BM reduces financial
dollarization in domestic BM countries.