Cantillon effect among countries with different currencies

Although the perniciousness of Cantillon effect within a country is generally well known, it would be naïve to believe that it is only applicable domestically. Under the current regime, there are a vast number of fiat currencies. It is often believed that when a country devalues its own currency while the others do not or not to the same extent, it would stimulate exports at the expense of imports. While this is true, it is only one half of the picture, it overlooks the international version of Cantillon effect. Let us now walk through these step-by-step procedures. Let us, say, when Bank of Japan decides to devalue the Japanese Yen in order to stimulate its exports or incentivize the foreigners to visit their country. What would happen then is speculations would establish the lower exchange rate of Yen with other fiat currencies before the prices of goods and services in Japan have risen. This indeed makes Japanese exports more attractive in foreigners’ eyes, but the story does not end here. For the gains that the Japanese exporters make are partly pocketed by the foreign consumers (cheaper goods and services than what were previously available to them). The Japanese exporters then take this extra money to buy goods and services or expand their businesses in Japan before the prices have risen. In this way, the price inflation spreads out in this step-by-step manner. Who are the losers in this scenario, (1) the foreign producers and (2) the Japanese consumers. For the former are forced to sell at the lower prices because of all the cheap exports from the Japanese exporters, the latter because of the Cantillon effect playing out. This international Cantillon effect is even more pernicious than the widely acknowledged domestic one. For at least with the latter, the gains are completely pocketed by the people within that border, but with the former, the exporters are quite literally making gifts to the foreigners, and the loss are mostly borne by the local consumers.

To sum up, it all comes down to creating more monetary units does not lead to increase in human welfare. It merely redistributes it.