Search Results
Showing results 1 to 6 of approximately 6.
(refine search)
Report
Macroeconomic forecasts under the prism of error-correction models
When the error correction term exhibits persistence, its change may convey useful information about short-run economic dynamics, which, if not taken sufficiently into account by a forecasting model, could be associated with predictable forecast errors. Such errors are documented in the DRI forecasts for the U.S. consumption, GNP and imports. The strong results, together with the very general assumptions behind the theoretical framework, suggest that similar predictable errors may be pervasive in the forecasts of other large-scale econometric models. Key Words: Error Correction Models, ...
Report
Error correction mechanisms and short-run expectations
Reflecting the nature of economic decisions, the error correction mechanism (ECM) in the error-correction representation of a system of co-integrated variables may arise from forward-looking behavior. In such a case, the estimated ECM coefficients may misleadingly appear to be insignificant or to have the opposite-than-expected sign if the variables in the error-correction representation do not adequately capture short-run expectations. This paper explores the nature of this problem with a theoretical model for consumption and demonstrates how severe the problem can be with U.S. data. Because ...
Report
Non-linear consumption dynamics
Taking explicitly into account the forward-looking nature of consumption, this paper derives a non-linear equation for consumption growth in which the coefficient of contemporaneous expected income growth is an increasing (decreasing) function of lagged variables positively (negatively) correlated with future income growth. Estimating it with aggregate data, the paper finds statistically and economically significant non-linear consumption dynamics for three major industrial countries. These dynamics imply, among other things, that monetary policy may have a more immediate and profound effect ...
Report
Capital flows & current account deficits in the 1990s: why did Latin America & East Asian countries respond differently?
The return of private capital to highly indebted less-developed countries (LDCs) in the late 1980s was accompanied by widening current account deficits in the recipient countries, which were primarily attributed to a consumption boom in Latin America and an investment surge in East Asia. Interpreting the return as an increase in the external debt ceiling, the maximum amount that can be borrowed, this paper analyzes and compares the different response of the two regions using the conceptual framework of a borrowing-constrained agent. According to it, an increase in the debt ceiling can reduce ...
Report
Import demand under a foreign exchange constraint
This paper develops a forward-looking model for import demand under a foreign exchange constraint, in which import growth is an increasing function of contemporaneous and expected future export growth. ; Unlike existing models which stress the role of foreign exchange reserves and contemporaneous export earnings for countries that have limited access to foreign borrowing, this one stresses the importance of the expected time path of future export earnings. The implications of the model are tested and confirmed with data from three East Asian developing countries for which relevant time series ...
Report
On the determinants and resilience of bond flows to LDCs, 1990-1995: evidence from Argentina, Brazil and Mexico
Bond flows to Less Developed Countries (LDCs) proved more resilient than expected to the rising U.S. interest rates during 1994, raising hopes that the current episode of private capital flows to LDCs may not end in a widespread crisis as its predecessors in the 1920s and 1970s did. This paper attributes the surprising resilience of the flows to the fact that global bond issuance was a significant determinant of them, independently of U.S. (and world) interest rates. Briefly, global issuance, which recovered quickly from the shock of the first interest-rate rise in February 1994, helped ...