Fiscal Policies And Real Exchange Rates In The World Economy

This paper examines the effects of fiscal policies on the evolution of real rates of interest and real exchange rates in the interdependent world economy. We construct an analytical framework suitable for a detailed examination of the various channels through which these variables are influenced by government spending and by tax policies. The analytical framework employs a general equilibrium approach highlighting the roles played by wealth effects and by temporal and intertemporal substitution effects. The general principle illustrated by the analysis of the dynamic effects of budget deficits is that the consequences of temporary tax policies stretch beyond the period during which the temporary policies are in effect. The counterpart to these dynamic implications is the rise in the economy's external debt induced by the budget deficit the service of which stretches into the indefinite future. By series of examples, allowing for both distortionary and non-distortionary taxes and for various patterns of government spending, it is shown that the quantitative and qualitative effects of fiscal policies on real exchange rates, real interest rates, debt accumulation and the like depend critically on the commodity composition of government spending and its intertemporal allocations on the one hand, and on the details of government debt issue and tax structure, including the timing of taxes and borrowing and the types of taxes used to finance the budget, on the other hand.

The role of the international commodity market in transmitting disturbances is considered in a model that incorporates commodities as an input in production. The analysis employs a three-country framework: a liquidity-constrained commodity supplier and two industrial countries that import the commodity, export differentiated manufactured goods and hold the outstanding debt of the commodity exporter. In this setting the impact of changes in fiscal policy, commodity supplies, and the real interest rate are assessed. Particular attention is paid to the responses of the real exchange rate, commodity prices, and the international distribution of debt to the various shocks.

Government spending on infrastructure has recently increased sharply in many emerging-market economies. This paper examines the mechanism through which public infrastructure spending affects the dynamics of the real exchange rate. Using a two-sector dependent open economy model with intersectoral adjustment costs, we show that government spending generates a non-monotonic U-shaped adjustment path for the real exchange rate with sharp intertemporal trade-offs. The effect of government spending on the real exchange rate depends critically on (i) the composition of public spending, (ii) the underlying financing policy, (iii) the intensity of private capital in production, and (iv) the relative productivity of public infrastructure. In deriving these results, the model also identifies conditions under which the predictions of the neoclassical open economy model can be reconciled with empirical regularities, namely the intertemporal relationship between government spending, private consumption, and the real exchange rate.

This is an applications-oriented text that demystifies the linkages between monetary and fiscal policies and key macroeconomic variables such as income, unemployment, inflation and interest rates. Specially written "newspaper" articles simulate current macroeconomic news on asset-price bubbles, exchange rates, hyperinflation and more. Exercises and diagrams, and a global perspective – incorporating both developed and emerging economies - make this a broadly useful, real-world oriented text on a complex and shifting subject.

In an outstanding account of exchange rates inthe international monetary system, W. Max Corden considers the essential issues in international macroeconomics.The author takes as his model the macroeconomic situation of a country with an open economy, and explains the effects of domestic fiscal and monetary macroeconomic policy on exchange rates. He clearly analyses the choices faced by governments attempting to manage both the domestic inflation rateand the external exchange rate and current account balance. Professor Corden then discusses the European Exchange Rate mechanism, and provides a sceptical analysis of the possibilities for monetary union in Europe, and for international policy coordination in general. He gives equal weight todiscussion of the present US-centred international monetary system outside the ERM, and combines theoretical models with an account of the actual determination of floating exchange rates. Although the book itself is orientated towards monetary rather than trade issues, the author discusses twotopical issues: the role of protectionist policies, and the idea of competitiveness. Finally, he looks at the future of the international monetary system and the series of current reform proposals.Students will find this book useful because the author covers essential issues lucidly and authoritatively. The exposition is entirely non-mathematical. Postgraduate students and academics will be interested since Corden is a distinguished writer on international trade and policy, and hisarguments are powerfully presented.New to this edition:This is a revised and expanded edition of a previous book by Corden, Inflation, Exchange Rates and the World Economy, the third edition of which was published in 1985. In this new book, Professor Corden has fully rewritten the text, but retains the discursive, informal, reader-friendly style ofthe earlier editions. In this new edition, Professor Corden has included two new chapters which extend the treatment of macroeconomic policy, separating it into its fiscal and monetary branches. He also includes a new chapter on the role of the current account balance in determining macroeconomicpolicy. The author has brought his account of the present international monetary context up to date - characterised as the non-system - and has included a new analysis of European monetary issues, incorporating a review of the progress of the EMS towards full monetary union. The book also containsa provocative discussion of two highly topical issues: trade protection, and competitiveness, including both new theoretical analysis and such events as the recent GATT agreement.

Since the five largest industrial democracies concluded the Plaza Agreement in 1985, the theory and practice of international economic policy coordination has become the subject of spirited academic and public-policy debate. While some view policy coordination as crucial for the construction of an improved international monetary system, others fear that it risks delaying or weakening the implementation of macroeconomic and structural policies. In these papers and comments, prominent international economists consider past and present interpretations of the meaning of international policy coordination; conditions necessary for coordination to be beneficial both to the direct participants and the global economy; influential factors for the quantitative impact of coordination; obstacles to coordination; the most—and least—effective methods of coordination; and future directions of the coordination process, including processes associated with greater fixity of exchange rates. These studies will be readily accessible to policymakers, while offering sophisticated analyses to interested scholars of the global economy.

This analysis of macroeconomic policy, originally published in 1989, argues that key government objectives, such as reduced inflation, decreased unemployment and an adequate level of national saving can be achieved only by employing both monetary and fiscal policies, in conjunction with supply-side policies expressly designed to improve the workings of the labour market. Part 1 is a comparative analysis showing the effects of monetary and fiscal policy on the economy. Real-wage rigidity in the labour market is shown to have important consequences for the working of both types of policy, because it conditions the economy’s response to tax changes. Part 2 presents an econometric model which combines consistent stock-flow accounts with a full range of expectational effects. Part 3 presents an innovative technique for solving rational expectations models with the need for arbitary terminal conditions.

Exchange Rates and Global Financial Policies brings together research and work done by world-class economist Paul De Grauwe over the past two decades. Drawing inspiration from behavioural finance literature, De Grauwe covers topics such as exchange rate economics, monetary integration (with particular attention on the Eurozone), and international macroeconomics.His work is categorised across three parts. The first part develops new theoretical and empirical approaches to exchange rate modelling. The second part features a collection of papers on the theory and empirical analysis of monetary unions. The final part contains criticism of mainstream macroeconomic models as well as proposed alternative modelling approaches.

This paper examines the links between fiscal policy, capital inflows, and the real exchange rate in Turkey since the late 1980s. After an overview of recent macroeconomic developments in Turkey, a vector autoregression model is estimated linking government spending, interest rate differentials, capital inflows, and the temporary component of the real exchange rate. Positive shocks to government spending and capital inflows lead to an appreciation of the temporary component of the real exchange rate, whereas positive shocks to the uncovered interest rate differential lead to a capital inflow and an appreciation of the temporary component of the real exchange rate. The findings highlight the role of fiscal adjustment in restoring macroeconomic stability.