In this paper, the mean reversion behavior of CPI-based real exchange rates in US dollar is investigated for three
Southeast Asian economies: Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. Using linear and non-linear unit root tests to detect
possible endogenous break(s), real exchange rates for currencies of the three countries are examined for the
long-run purchasing power parity (PPP) during the period of January 1980 to December 2014. Results show that
structural breaks mostly occur in two periods: 1985 and 1997/1998, and that, the evidences for the PPP hypothesis
are relatively mixed for these three countries. Results obtained from all test fail to provide sufficient evidences for
the non-linear adjustment of real exchange rates towards PPP. The misalignment in exchange rates cannot be found
during the study period due to a relatively high persistency of real exchange rates (half-life > three years) found for
all the three countries. Moreover, Engle-Granger procedure and Johansen multivariate cointegration methods are
also carried out. The results indicate that a stronger evidence of PPP exists for the three countries relative to the
USA after allowing for the presence of structural break(s), implying that the three Asian countries were affected by
global financial crises during the study period. In brief, the findings reveal that misalignment in the three Southeast
Asia economies is relatively slow; both exchange rates and price levels of these countries converge in the long run.
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