The aim of this paper is to explore the evolution of real exchange rate dynamics over time. We use a time-varying structural vector autoregression to investigate the role of demand, supply and nominal shocks and consider their impact on, and contribution to fluctuations in, the real exchange...

Two main objectives of Structural Vector AutoRegression (SVAR) modeling are recovering structural shocks from reduced form shocks and Impulse-Response Analysis and Forecast error variance decomposition. As is well known, the first of these is possible only if the number of structural shocks is...

Estimating the impact of HIV/AIDS epidemic on economic growth is challenging because of endogeneity concerns. In this paper, we use novel data on male circumcision and distance from the first HIV outbreak as instrumental variables for the HIV/AIDS epidemic in 241 regions across 25 countries in...

The question of what really drives economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has been debated for many decades now. However, there is still a lack of clarity on variables crucial for driving growth as prior contributions have been executed at the backdrop of preferential selection of...

This paper analyzes the domestic and external drivers of local staple food prices in Sub-Saharan Africa. Using data on domestic market prices of the five most consumed staple foods from 15 countries, this paper finds that external factors drive food price inflation, but domestic factors can...

This paper studies the sources of high and chronic inflation in Vietnam in recent years using the structural VAR method identified by sign restrictions. The novelty of the paper is that the sign restrictions are drawn from a New Keynesian small open economy DSGE model built and calibrated to the...