The International Transmission of U.S. Monetary Policy : New Evidence from Trade Data

We make the first attempt in the literature to empirically examine the spillover effects of U.S. monetary policy on trade in other countries. In a large sector-level bilateral trade dataset of 137 countries for the years 1970-2000, we find strong and robust evidence supporting an international credit channel of U.S. monetary policy transmission. We show that: 1) financially more constrained sectors have a more negative exposure of their trade to a tight U.S. monetary policy; 2) this international credit channel works mainly during significant U.S. monetary tightening periods (e.g., a large increase in interest rates); 3) the negative impact of a tight U.S. policy is significantly stronger in financially less developed countries or countries with no monetary autonomy