英文名称：Dollarization 中文名称：美元化
指一个经济体以美元取代本土货币的过程。美元化可以是非官方的，即不是政府强制要求的，而是人们自发的普遍使用美元；也可以是半官方的，在这样的国家，美元是合法的，但是相对本国货币来说只扮演次要角色；还可以是官方的，即该国家只使用美元，而停止发行本国货币。

A situation where the citizens of a country officially or unofficially use a foreign country's currency as legal tender for conducting transactions. The main reason for dollarization is because of greater stability in the value of the foreign currency over domestic currency. The downside of dollarization is that the country gives up its right to influence its own monetary policy by adjusting the money supply. 

For example, the citizens of a country with an economy undergoing rampant inflation may choose to use a historically stable currency (like the U.S. dollar) to conduct day-to-day transactions, because inflation will cause their domestic currency to have reduced buying power in a relatively short amount of time. Dollarization does not always involve the U.S. dollar as the adopted foreign currency. The euro has also been adopted by non-EU members as its domestic currency.