Description

This paper explores the additional difficulties that smaller exporters could have faced during the recent financial crisis, specifically regarding their access to the exchange rate derivatives market. Using data of international trade and derivatives transactions between commercial banks and exporters, we find that this crisis has not been associated with a reduction in the percentage of exporters using exchange rate derivatives. This is true across exporters of different sizes. The evidence seems to be consistent with the fact that greater exchange rate volatility increases the utilization of these hedging instruments. Also, there is no evidence that smaller exporters haven been relatively more affected in terms of coverage, costs and terms of the contracts.