Using the longest dataset publicly available (The Economist's index of industrial commodity prices), we analyze the behavior of real commodity prices over the period 1862-1999 and have two main findings. First, while there has been a downward trend in real commodity prices of about 1 percent per...

This paper examines the persistence of shocks to world commodity prices, using monthly IMF data on primary commodities between 1957-98. We find that shocks to commodity prices are typically long-lasting and the variability of the persistence of price shocks is quite wide. The paper also...

Using the longest dataset publicly available (The Economist's index of industrial commodity prices), we analyze the behavior of real commodity prices over the period 1862-1999 and have two main findings. First, while there has been a downward trend in real commodity prices of about 1 percent per...

This paper examines the persistence of shocks to world commodity prices, using monthly IMF data on primary commodities between 1957-98. We find that shocks to commodity prices are typically long-lasting and the variability of the persistence of price shocks is quite wide. The paper also...

Most of the chapters in Mundell's International Economics differ, owing to adaptation, from the original sources. The revisions yield valuable insights into the contributions made by the initial publications. In this paper we look only at the changes that take the form of elisions of material....

Exchange rate pass-through in a set of euro area prices along the pricing chain is examined in this paper. First, a vector autoregression (VAR) approach is used to analyze the joint time-series behavior of the euro exchange rate and a system of area-wide prices in response to an exchange rate...

The consequences of tight monetary policy are analyzed in an optimizing currency-substitution model of a small, open economy that operates under an open capital account and a flexible exchange rate. There is a reasonably good fit between the dynamics generated by the model and the stylized facts...

The relationship between temporary terms of trade shocks and household saving in developing countries is examined. It is first shown that, from a theoretical standpoint, this relationship is ambiguous: private saving may rise or fall in response to a transitory terms of trade shock, depending on...

The issue of whether the money supply can serve as a nominal anchor for the domestic price level under real exchange rate targeting is examined. When capital controls are perfect, so that there is complete separation between official and unofficial foreign exchange markets, the domestic...

The relationship between the degree of wage indexation chosen by private agents and the degree of public debt indexation chosen by the government is examined. It is shown that the government is likely to increase public debt indexation in response to an increase in wage indexation. By contrast,...