This book presents an extensive survey of the theory and empirics of international parity conditions which are critical to our understanding of the linkages between world markets and the movement of interest and exchange rates across countries. The book falls into three parts dealing with the theory, methods of econometric testing and existing empirical evidence. Although it is intended to provide a consensus view on the subject, the authors also make some controversial propositions, particularly on the purchasing power parity conditions.

International transactions among nations and multinational corporations are important and growing due to the openness of economies all over the world. In this follow-up title to Exchange Rates and International Financial Economics, Kallianiotis examines the role of the exchange rate and trade policy in improving the trade account. He discusses the international parity conditions extensively, together with the most popular theory in international finance, the interest rate parity (IRP) theory. International Financial Transactions and Exchange Rates describes these theories and gives practical solutions for multinational businesses, individuals, and nations. The increasing internationalization of businesses, openness of economies, integration of nations, change in the exchange rate system, and lastly, the deregulation of the financial market and institutions around the world have made the study of international finance necessary for all business students and professionals.

This note reviews the four central parity conditions that underlie most theories regarding the relationship between exchange rates, inflation, and interest rates. The concepts are illustrated through a unified example exploring the relation between the US dollar and the Norwegian krone. The note presents both an intuitive understanding of the relations as well as precise mathematical formulas frequently employed in analysis.ExcerptUVA-F-1572Rev. Oct. 18, 2019Parity Conditions in International MarketsGlobal firms are not the only ones affected by global markets. Even firms with only domestic operations and financing can be dramatically affected by changes in the international landscape associated with, among other things, exchange rate changes, global price changes, and capital market fluctuations.This note presents an overview of the theoretical frameworks that underlie most thinking and discussion about the relations between exchange rates, interest rates, and inflation. All the relations described in this note are based on one premise--that markets will move in response to profit-seeking activities in such a manner as to reach a point where profits are eliminated. When markets are at this zero-profit point and there are no incentives to act, the markets are in equilibrium and deemed to be in "parity." Hence, these basic relations are called parity conditions.Throughout this note, we will consider a single pair of currencies, the US dollar (USD) and the Norwegian krone (NOK). The discussion in this note assumes a familiarity with basic currency terminology and markets; however, a review of these topics is provided in the Appendix. All exchange rates express the relation between two currencies, and both interest and inflation rates are associated with specific currencies. We will introduce notation as concepts are covered. At this point, however, we note that every exchange rate states the value of one currency (we will refer to this as the quoted currency) in terms of another (we will refer to this as the basis currency). We will subscript interest and inflation rates with the letters q and b to indicate whether the rate is for the quoted or basis currencies, respectively.

For about three decades until the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), Covered Interest Parity (CIP) appeared to hold quite closely—even as a broad macroeconomic relationship applying to daily or weekly data. Not only have CIP deviations significantly increased since the GFC, but potential macrofinancial drivers of the variation in CIP deviations have also become significant. The variation in CIP deviations seems to be associated with multiple factors, not only regulatory changes. Most of these do not display a uniform importance across currency pairs and time, and some are associated with possible temporary considerations (such as asynchronous monetary policy cycles).