In this paper, we investigate the sources of heterogeneity within the euro area. For this purpose, we build an optimization-based multi-country model (MCM) that allows different sources of heterogeneity across countries, both in terms of behavior of economic agents and in terms of asymmetry of...

Under a currency board the central bank relinquishes control over its monetary policy and domestic interest rates converge toward the foreign rates. Nevertheless a spread between both usually remains. This spread can be persistently positive due to increased risk in the economy. This paper...

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...

Global current account imbalances have been one of the focal points of interest for policymakers during the last few years. Less attention has been paid, however, to the diverging current account balances of the individual euro area countries. In this paper we consider the dynamics of current...

This paper evaluates the effects of capital account controls adopted in the past years by the FLAR’s member countries (Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Perú and Venezuela) on the efficiency of the banking sector, the economic growth and the volatility of output, consumption, and...

This paper examines the role of exchange rates in determining the short-and-long run trade balance behavior for Colombia. Conventional wisdom says that a nominal devaluation improves the trade balance. This conjecture is rooted in the Bickerdike-Robinson-Metzler(BRM) and Marshall-Lerner(ML)...

This paper discusses a number of likelihood ratio tests on long-run relations and common trends in the I(2) model and provide new results on the test of overidentifying restrictions on beta’xt and the asymptotic variance for the stochastic trends parameters, alpha 1: How to specify...

This paper formulates a second generation currency crises model, which is consistent with many facts regarding the structural economies in Southeast asia. Emphasis is laid on the propagation mechanism from a financial crisis to a currency crisis. Micro-foundation, endogenous labour supply, and...

We estimate both a forward looking and a hybrid New Keynesian Phillips Curve using Generalized Method of Moments (GMM).the findings suggest that inflation is persistent phenomenon in Pakistan and past inflation is having significant explanatory power. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the output...

The present value model of the current account has been very popular, as it provides an optimal benchmark to which actual current account series have often been compared. We show why persistence in observed current account data makes the estimated optimal series very sensitive to small-sample...