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Working Paper
Dynamic trade liberalization analysis: steady state, transitional and inter-industry effects
Despite their complexity, existing policy evaluation methods ignore many features of the real world that are pertinent for welfare analysis of trade policy. The main limitation of these technics is that they are static, which means they ignore important dynamic consequences of trade liberalization. This paper develops dynamic tools that overcome many of these weaknesses. I apply these technics to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). My analysis suggests that while the steady state gains from NAFTA are significant, the transitional costs associated with moving to the liberalized ...
Working Paper
North-South business cycles
This paper shows that the economic activity of the industrial North and developing South move together - when the North is above its trend, the South tends to be above its trend. We refer to this phenomenon as the "North-South business cycle." The paper develops a quantitative general equilibrium model of North-South trade that captures many cyclical features of North-South trade and production data. In particular, the high volatility of North-South terms of trade, and strong comovement of Northern and Southern activity. On the basis of this model we argue that North-South business cycles ...
Newsletter
Is the U.S. current account sustainable?
This article clearly defines what economists mean by a sustainable current account. The author provides an estimate of the sustainable current account balance for the U.S. economy and assesses the implications of this estimate for the existing current account and level of foreign indebtedness.
Working Paper
Is there evidence of the new economy in the data?
The popular new economy theory argues that the U.S. economy can now grow at rates much greater than in the past without igniting higher levels of price inflation. At the core of the new economy paradigm is the belief that the U.S. Economy experienced an innovation in the 1990s that raised its so-called constant-inflation trend growth rate. According to its advocates, evidence of the new economy comes from the fact that the U.S. economy experienced relatively strong output growth and low levels of price inflation over the 1990s. This paper evaluates the new economy theory by formally testing ...
Journal Article
Are international business cycles different under fixed and flexible exchange rate regimes?
A major concern surrounding European Monetary Union is that output fluctuations of member countries may become more volatile under a common currency because they will have increased sensitivity to foreign business cycles. This article analyzes the link between exchange rate regimes and the behavior of international business cycles.
Journal Article
Are U.S. and Seventh District business cycles alike?
This article explains the recent high levels of residential investment and rates of homeownership.
Newsletter
A new paradigm for the U.S. economy?
Working Paper
Trade structure, industrial structure, and international business cycles
This paper examines the extent to which the composition of a country's production and trade differs among its trade partners. For example, does the US export the same bundle of goods to the UK as it does to Japan? If we find high dispersion in a country's export and import bundles with its various trading partners, can this be linked to identifiable country characteristics? These findings are important for two reasons. First, they enrich our empirical understanding of the nature of trade. Second, they will stand as a guide for further development of economic theories of the international ...