On the trade impact of nominal exchange rate volatility

What is the effect of nominal exchange rate variability on trade? I argue that the methods conventionally used to answer this perennial question are plagued by a variety of sources of systematic bias. I propose a novel approach that simultaneously addresses all of these biases, and present new estimates from a broad sample of countries from 1970 to 1997. The estimates indicate that nominal exchange rate variability has no significant impact on trade flows. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.