Inaugural Conference on the International Roles of the U.S. Dollar

The U.S. dollar has played a preeminent role in the global economy over the past century. It is used as a reserve currency and the currency of denomination for a large fraction of global trade and financial transactions. The status of the U.S. dollar engenders important considerations for the effectiveness of policy instruments and the functioning of financial markets. These considerations underscore the importance of understanding potential factors that may alter the dominance of the U.S. dollar in the future, such as changes in the macroeconomic and policy environments or the development of new technologies and payments systems. This conference aims to garner the insights of researchers, policymakers, and market experts on the evolving roles of the U.S. dollar, the consequences of these roles for the mandate of the Federal Reserve, and future prospects for these roles.

The Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York are jointly organizing the inaugural conference on the International Roles of the U.S. Dollar. The conference will have a keynote address by Professor Barry Eichengreen (University of California at Berkeley), panel discussions on the themes of the conference, and paper presentations with discussants. The organizers welcome theoretical and empirical paper submissions that address the drivers, consequences, and implications of the international roles of the dollar, with an emphasis on the following areas:

• How the stance and implementation of monetary policy, prudential regulations, or capital flow management tools engage with the dollar’s roles in international trade, finance, and its reserve currency status.
• The role of bank and nonbank financial institutions in dollar funding markets, their responses in stress episodes, and the effectiveness of central bank dollar liquidity facilities.
• The importance of the dollar as a medium of exchange in international investment and trade transactions and its implications for the transmission of shocks to real economic activity and asset prices.
• The use of the dollar in international financial markets, with a focus on recent transformational trends, such as in the areas of climate change and financial technology.
• The effect of new payment technologies and digital assets on the role of the dollar as a reserve currency.