Opting for structural or reduced form estimation is often hard to justify if one wants to both learn about the structure of the economy and obtain accurate predictions. In this paper, we show that using both structural and reduced form estimates simultaneously can lead to more accurate policy...

This article tests the relationship between openness and income inequality in openness Kuznets curve framework. The Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) estimator is employed to establish the long run relationship between openness and income inequality. We add to the literature by noting that...

We study optimal monetary policy for a small open economy in a model where both inflation and output show persistence. We incorporate habit formation into intertemporal consumption decision and modify the Calvo price setting to include indexation to past inflation. The message conveyed from this...

How do macroeconomic variables affect housing prices? In this paper we apply a non-linear modeling approach, the Nonlinear Auto Regressive Moving Average with eXogenous inputs (NARMAX), to investigate determinants of housing prices in China over the period 1999:01 to 2010:06. The NARMAX...

The paper uses the QUEST III model to analyse the question of whether nontradable (service) sector reform would reduce external imbalances in monetary union, notably from the side of surplus countries. It considers an open economy with a positive net foreign asset (net creditor) position and...

We show that the preferences suggested by Greenwood, Hercowitz and Huffman (GHH), which are quite common in real business cycle (RBC) models of small open economies, are not suited for reproducing both the business cycle and the equity premium facts of a small open economy. We show that by...

Many claim that China will soon overtake the US. I argue that this claim is based on a misuse of statistics. The International Comparison Program (ICP) price data is necessary to compare living standards, since a dollar¡¯s worth of yuan buys more in China than a dollar buys in the US. But the...

Recent literature has attempted to apply Extreme Value Theory (EVT) in the identification of currency crises. However, these approaches seem to have confused the thresholds in extreme modeling with the cutoffs of currency crises. Our paper proposes a Return Level Identification Approach, also...

This paper assesses the empirical desirability of the East Asian economies to form a monetary union. The Structural Vector Autoregression (VAR) method is employed to assess the nature of macroeconomic disturbances among the East Asian countries, as a preliminary guide in identifying potential...

The paper analyses the impact of structural reforms on external positions in monetary union in a 3-region version of QUEST III. Wage cost moderation and fiscal consolidation improve the current account balance in the medium term, but positive income effects tend to offset the initial increase in...