Exchange-rate volatility and commodity trade between the U.S. and Germany: asymmetry analysis

Recent introduction of asymmetric cointegration and error-correction modeling has revealed that failure to find a significant link between two variables could be due to ignoring the nonlinear adjustment of the exogenous variable. We assess the short-run and long-run effects of dollar-euro volatility on the trade flows of 67 2-digit industries that trade between the U.S. and Germany. When a linear model was estimated, we found short-run effects of volatility on 18 U.S. exporting and 19 U.S. importing industries. Short-run effects lasted into the long run in 10 and 22 industries, respectively. The numbers were much higher when a nonlinear model was estimated for each industry. Short-run asymmetric effects were discovered in 59 industries which lasted into long-run asymmetric effects in 19 U.S. exporting and 32 U.S. importing industries. Both small as well as large industries were affected.