Temporary Stabilization and the Real Option of Waiting when Consumption can be Delayed: an Extreme Value Approach

This paper develops, in a small open economy framework, a stochastic model of exchange-rate-based inflation stabilization that is expected to be temporary. Agents have expectations of devaluation driven by a mixed diffusion-jump process where the expected size of a possible devaluation is supposed to have an extreme value distribution of the Fréchet type; as the stylized facts from the Mexican's 1994 and Argentinean's 2001 cases have show n. Consumption and wealth equilibrium dynamics are examined when a stabilization plan is implemented. The case of a stochastic stabilization horizon guided by an exponential distribution is studied. Moreover, this paper also deals with pricing the real option of waiting for postponing consumption when a stabilization plan is about to be abandoned; a claim on a non-traded asset. We also assess the effects of exogenous shocks on consumption and economic welfare. Finally, we use the proposed model to carry out simulation experiments that reproduces the booms of private consumption in the Mexican case of 1989-1994 and the Argentinean case of 2001-2003, which resulted in extreme devaluations.