Wednesday 12 September 2007

Deleting Zeros from Iranian Currency

There is recently some debates on Redenomination of Iranian currency. Usually this policy carry out to adjust the system because of hyperinflation and sending some signals to citizens,economic agents and international community about the new era in domestic economy. That is, forgeting the inflationary time in the past and regaining the lsot credibilty of state...There are many examples (about 60 countries) that have done this reform. Because of importance of this topic, I suggest that you read the following paper:

Dropping Zeros, Gaining Credibility?
Currency Redenomination in Developing Nations
Layna Mosley
Dept. of Political Science
University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, NC

mosley@unc.edu
www.unc.edu/~lmosley/

Abstract: This paper investigates the conditions under which developing and transition nations engage in currency redenomination. Given that many governments of developing countries experience high levels of inflation and deterioration in their currency’s value against other currencies, why do some elect to redenominate, while others do not? And why do some governments wait many years after a bout of hyperinflation, or after their currency is priced at 1000 or 5000 units to the dollar, to redenominate, while others do so relatively quickly? I suggest that the explanations rest in a combination of economic and political factors, including inflation, governments’ concerns about credibility, and the effect of currencies on national identity. I employ survival analysis to test these expectations, using a set of data for developing and transition nations, covering the 1960-2003 period. I find, not surprisingly, that inflation is an important predictor of redenomination. Redenomination also is related to political variables, including governments’ time horizons, the governing party’s ideology, the fractionalization of the government and legislature, and the degree of social heterogeneity.

Click here for reading this paper.