The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a financial institution founded in 1944 with the main purpose of assisting members facing temporary balance of payments problems. From an initial membership of 44 states, today almost all the countries in the world participate in it. Members of the IMF do...

This paper discusses the difference between Fisherian and Ricardian trade in terms of a simple two-period model of a small open economy. Fisherian or intertemporal trade occurs when goods are traded today against the promise to deliver goods in the future. The resulting net resource transfer is...

This paper assesses the extent of international capital mobility in a time series context. It explores the possibility that the current account balance of different OECD-countries contains a unit root. It is shown that if the ratio of the current account balance to GDP is found to be integrated...

The resolution of the eurozone crisis requires, amongst other things, successful relative price adjustments between member states. We estimate here the scale of the adjustments needed using fundamental equilibrium exchange rates. We suggest two scenarios of adjustments, depending on the levels...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine empirical characteristics of two commonly mentioned expressions of international financial crisis, “sudden stops” and currency crises. Design/methodology/approach – Sudden stop and currency crisis events are identified and empirical...

Merchanting is goods trade that does not cross the border of the firm's country of residence. Merchanting grew strongly in the last decade in several small open economies, particularly in Finland, Ireland, Sweden, and Switzerland, and has become an important driver of these countries' current...

We revisit the so-called "secular international problem", whereby the adjustment of current account imbalances purportedly falls entirely on the shoulders of deficit countries. We introduce a stylised model to rationalise an asymmetric counter-cyclical policy reaction that is stronger for...

The long run relationship between current account balance (CAB) and capital account balance (KAB) and the repercussions of capital account convertibility (KAC) on growth process of a country is a much debated issue. In particular, in the aftermath of the Southeast Asian crisis, the limitation of...

This paper presents a quantitative evaluation of the effect on the yen of some alternative scenarios under which Japan reaches current account balance. The analytical framework is a global general equilibrium model, based closely on Obstfeld and Rogoff (2005a, b), within which relative prices...

The purpose of this contribution is to illustrate the mechanism by which higher oil prices might lead to lower interest rates in the context of a simple model that takes into account the global external savings equilibrium. The simple model has interesting implications for how one views the huge...