The Application of Precautionary and Mercantilism Approaches to identify the Determinants of International Reserves Changes in OPEC Countries

The importance of international reserves in the financing balance of payments deficit and adjusting the foreign exchange market disequilibrium, has led to serious consideration to this topic for different countries in recent decades. On the other hand, some specific economic conditions of OPEC countries such as economic dependence to oil revenues and the lack of suitable flexibility in exchange rate regime, lead to influence of oil price volatilities on international reserves in the countries. Hence, due to the important role of international reserves in economies and also the economic situation of OPEC countries, using the precautionary and mercantilism approaches, the determinants of international reserves changes have been evaluated using Pooled Mean Group method in OPEC countries during 1973-2016. According to the results, the precautionary and mercantilism approaches have been confirmed and variables such as adjustment cost, opportunity cost, the driving factor of the increase in international reserves, GDP per capita, the degree of trade openness, exchange rate regime, positive and negative shocks of oil price (estimated using Markov-Switching model), have been known as determinants of international reserves and their coefficients are significant and consistent with theoretical expectations.