We estimate two new equations for Canadian non-commodity exports (NCX) that incorporate three important changes relative to the current equation used at the Bank of Canada. First, we develop two new foreign activity measures (FAMs), which add new components to the FAM currently used at the Bank...

The nominal effective exchange rate (EER) of a currency is an index of the tradeweighted average of its bilateral exchange rates vis-à-vis the currencies of selected trading partners, while the real EER is derived by adjusting the nominal index for relative prices or costs. The nominal EER...

In this paper a non-linear model is applied, where suddenly strong spurts of exports occur when changes of the exchange rate go beyond a zone of inaction, which we call “play” area – analogous to mechanical play. We implement an algorithm describing path-dependent play-hysteresis into a...

In this paper we analyze the effects of the real exchange rate volatility on exports in the Baltic region. The study focuses on three countries in the Baltic region, namely, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, and uses quarterly exports of these countries to their major trading partners over the...

This paper uses a Ricardian framework to clarify the role of microeconomic and macroeconomic factors governing the time series and cross-section behavior of sectoral trade balances. Unit labor costs and trade balances are calculated for several sectors for the seven major industrial countries....

The effect of devaluations on economies is one of the most controversial macroeconomic policies in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), both theoretically and empirically. This study uses panel data from 1995-2013 for 17 SSA countries and 17 non-Euro OECD economies. The main conclusion is that exchange...

We examine the stability and strength of the relationship between exchange rates and trade over time using three alternative approaches, mitigating the endogeneity of the relation. We find that both exchange rate pass-through and the price elasticity of trade volumes are largely stable over...

China's trade surplus is often heavily criticized in political and economic debates, accompanied by claims for a revaluation of the Chinese currency, the Renminbi (RMB). While the main arguments exchanged in the current discourse appear to become more and more emotionally loaded rather than...

With non-homothetic preferences, a monopolistic competition equilibrium is inefficient. In a setting with heterogeneous firms that charge variable markups, this paper finds a sufficient statistic for changes in allocative efficiency that can be directly measured with data. The model also...