Working Papers

January 1, 0001

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January 1, 0001

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January 1, 0001

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January 1, 0001

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January 1, 1995

Pricing to Market and the Real Exchange Rate

Description: This paper investigates the consequences of pricing to market for exchange rate pass-through and real exchange rate dynamics across different patterns of trade under market segmentation. Under two-way, intraindustry trade--where home prices display greater linkage with those of foreign competitors--domestic and export prices exhibit lower pass-through and greater destination-specific adjustment compared to intersectoral trade. With both trade patterns, pricing-to-market behavior intensifies the degree of persistence in the real exchange rate under nominal rigidities, and allows monetary shocks to have permanent effects on relative prices when goods markets remain segmented.

January 1, 1995

The Pattern of International Trade Between Japan and the Pacific Basin Countries: A Comparison Between 1975 and 1985

Description: Using the international input-output tables between Japan and five Pacific Basin countries (Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand) for the years 1975 and 1985, the paper examines the trade structure in 1975 and how it had shifted by 1985. It shows that intra-industry trade in manufactured products expanded as Japan increased imports of more capital-intensive products from these countries. Intra-industry trade of intermediate inputs increased substantially more than of final products, reflecting a trend by manufacturers to subdivide the production process of intermediate inputs and to shift their locations to different countries. This suggests a more active development of international labor in the intermediate stages of production and a deepening of regional linkages.

January 1, 1995

Inflation and Stabilization in Transition Economies: A Comparison with Market Economies

Description: A simple model is developed to understand inflationary pressures and stabilization in nonmarket economies. In light of the model, the paper reviews the inflation and stabilization experiences of several transition economies in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. These experiences are then compared to those of high inflation market economies. The paper concludes that, despite significant differences in the economic structure and institutional framework, the inflation and stabilization experiences in transition and market economies are similar in many respects. In particular, monetary accommodation and lack of fiscal discipline are critical in sustaining inflation, and exchange rate-based anchors seem more successful than money anchors in bringing down inflation. On the other hand, wage policies appear to be more critical in reigning inflation in transition economies than in market economies.

January 1, 1995

Evaluating Unemployment Policies: What Do the Underlying Theories Tell Us?

Description: The paper surveys unemployment policies for advanced market economies and evaluates them by examining the predictions of the underlying macroeconomic theories. The basic idea is that, for the most part, different unemployment policy prescriptions rest; on different macroeconomic theories, and our confidence in the prescriptions least in part--on the theories’ ability to predict some salient stylized facts about unemployment behavior. The paper considers four types, of policies laissez faire, demand-management supply-side; and structural policies.

January 1, 1995

Skills, Wages, and Employment in East and West Germany

Description: Disaggregated data from 30 two-digit manufacturing industries in the east and west parts of unified Germany are used to estimate employment for three skill categories of blue collar workers. Employment elasticities are uniformly higher in the east, and for unskilled labor. The former result contradicts union claims that wages had little relevance for east German job losses, while the latter confirms the capital-skill complementarity hypothesis.

January 1, 1995

Saving Behavior in Low and Middle-Income Developing Countries: A Comparison

Description: The impact of changes in real interest rates on saving and growth is a central issue in development economics. According to one familiar view, a financial liberalization program which increases real interest rates should encourage saving, thereby boosting investment and growth. While such liberalizations have indeed typically succeeded in raising real interest rates, their impact on private saving has been mixed. This paper uses macroeconomic data for a sample of countries with diverse income levels to estimate a model in which the intertemporal elasticity of substitution varies with the level of wealth. The estimated parameters are then used to calculate, in the context of a simple endogenous growth model, the responsiveness of saving to real interest rate changes for countries at differing stages of development.

Notes: Also published in Staff Papers, Vol. 43, No. 1, March 1996.