Macroeconomic policy transmission and international interdependence: A SVAR application to Brazil and US

Economic policy transmission between trade partners has been analyzed over different contexts in the literature. Depending on real or nominal frictions, the results indicate possible beggar-thy-neighbor effects for policies, given international trade, and need for coordinating policies. The baseline model is Corsetti and Pesenti (2001) of macroeconomic interdependence. The theoretical proposition suggests that a no anticipated economic policy of exchange rate depreciation creates a beggar-thyself effect. Yet, many economies have engaged in this policy to enhance exports and improve welfare. Here, fiscal policy transmissions over Brazilian economic aggregates are investigated, considering Brazil as home and US as foreign country. The problem is specified in a Structural VAR (Vector Autoregression) model, taking Granger causality tests and Impulse Response analysis as econometric applications. The results indicate that expansionary fiscal policy in US has a beggar-thy-neighbor effect for the Brazilian economy in the long-run. The policy transmission mechanism relies on the terms of trade. In addition, real money balances are affected by foreign fiscal policy, affecting the efficiency of domestic monetary policy.