While the traditional approach to the adjustment of international imbalances assumes industrialized countries at a similar level of development and with similar production structures, such imbalances have historically been the result of a process of catching up by late-industrializing developing...

In der Euro-Krise gingen starke Änderungen in internationalen Kapitalflüssen mit großer makroökonomischer Unsicherheit einher. Zwar ist es offensichtlich, dass beide Faktoren ökonomische Schocks auslösen bzw. verstärken können, es ist aber derzeit unklar, inwiefern sie direkt miteinander...

This paper assesses some of the explanations that have been put forward for the global pattern of current account imbalances that has emerged in recent years: in particular, the large U.S. current account deficit and the large surpluses of the Asian developing economies. Based on the approach...

On average, foreign corporations save a third of their local profits in the host country. While this is recorded as "Retained Earnings Foreign Direct Investment" (REFDI), macroeconomics has so far overlooked its particularities. This paper explores the aggregate economic properties of REFDI. It...

During the Euro Area crisis huge changes in international capital flows occurred associated with a high level of economic uncertainty. While it is evident that both factors are able to trigger or amplify economic shocks posing a threat for economic activity it is a natural question whether they...

The central objective of this paper is to empirically assess how global imbalances have evolved since the global financial crisis of 2008/09. More specifically, we examine how the security investment positions of major East Asian economies in United States (US) financial markets - equities,...

In a panel covering a large number of countries from 1970 to 2003, we show that net portfolio flows play an important role in correcting external imbalances, since they are driven by common determinants represented by countries' demographic profiles, the quality of institutions, monetary...

The standard neoclassical model predicts that countries with higher productivity growth rates experience sharp increases in investment that are followed by rapid declines. This investment response contrasts with the empirical evidence that suggests a rather hump-shaped investment behavior. In...

In light of persistently large net foreign liability (NFL) positions in several euro area countries, we analyse 138 episodes of sizeable NFL reductions for a broad sample of advanced and emerging economies. We provide stylised facts on the channels through which NFLs were reduced and estimate...

This paper investigates how much of the current account adjustment after the global financial crisis in Spain can be explained by cyclical factors. For this purpose, we extend the IMF's external balance assessment methodology to allow for country-specific slopes and intercepts. The good fit of...