Working Papers
January 1, 0001
$name
January 1, 0001
$name
January 1, 0001
$name
January 1, 0001
$name
1996
October 1, 1996
Fiscal Policy and Long-Run Growth
Description: This paper discusses in a systematic and comprehensive way the existing literature on the relationship between the growth of countries’ economies and various public finance instruments, such as tax policy, expenditure policy, and overall budgetary policy, from the perspectives of allocative efficiency, macroeconomic stability, and income distribution. It reviews both the conceptual linkages between each of the instruments and growth and the empirical evidence on such relationships. It broadly concludes that fiscal policy could play a fundamental role in affecting the long-run growth performance of countries.
Notes: Also published in Staff Papers, Vol. 44, No. 2, June 1997.
October 1, 1996
Macroeconomic Fluctuations and Equilibrium Discount Factors
Description: The estimation of discount factors is a central issue in empirical finance, particularly in the literature on excess volatility. In particular, it is difficult to find empirical discount factors that are volatile enough to account for fluctuations in asset prices. This paper constructs discount factors from some macroeconomic time series commonly used in empirical models of asset prices. Data for the U.S. stock market imply some evidence that discount factors relate to macroeconomic conditions, but comparison of the estimated discount factors to Hansen-Jagannathan (1991) bounds shows that the candidate discount factors cannot account for the volatility in asset returns.
October 1, 1996
Additional Evidenceon Ems Interest Rate Linkages
Description: This note examines interest rate linkages within the EMS. Cointegration tests suggest the existence of a long-run equilibrium relationship between German and other EMS interest rates. Bivariate VAR analysis finds that Granger-causality either stems from German to other European interest rates (Belgium, France, Spain, and the U.K.) or is bidirectional (Denmark and the Netherlands). When allowance is made for the influence of U.S. interest rates, the pattern of Granger causality is predominantly bidirectional.
October 1, 1996
Is the Phillips Curve Really a Curve? Some Evidence for Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States
Description: Previous tests for convexity in the Phillips curve have been biased because researchers have employed filtering techniques for the NAIRU that have been fundamentally inconsistent with the existence of convexity. This paper places linear and nonlinear models of the Phillips curve on an equal statistical footing by estimating model-consistent measures of the NAIRU. After imposing plausible restrictions on the variability in the NAIRU we find that the nonlinear model fits the data best. The implications for the macroeconomic policy debate is that policymakers that are unsuccessful in stabilizing the business cycle will induce a higher natural rate of unemployment.
Notes: Also published in Staff Papers, Vol. 44, No. 2, June 1997.
October 1, 1996
Current Account Sustainability: Selected East Asian and Latin American Experiences
Description: A number of developing countries have run large and persistent current account deficits in both the late seventies/early eighties and in the early nineties, raising the issue of whether these persistent imbalances are sustainable. This paper puts forward a notion of current account sustainability and compares the experience of three Latin American countries-Chile, Colombia Mexico-and three East Asian countries-Korea, Malaysia and Thailand. It identifies a number of potential sustainability indicators and discusses their usefulness in predicting external crises.
October 1, 1996
Inflation, Nominal Interest Rates, and the Variability of Output
Description: This paper examines the distribution of output around capacity when money demand is a nonlinear function of the nominal interest rate such that nominal interest rates cannot become negative. When fluctuations in output result primarily from disturbances to the money market, the variance of output is shown to be an increasing function of the trend inflation rate. When they result from disturbances to the goods market, the variance of output is a decreasing function of the trend inflation rate. When both disturbances are significant, there exists, in general, a critical non-zero trend inflation rate that minimizes the variance of output.