This paper assesses the small sample properties of Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) based Wald statistics. The analysis is conducted assuming that the data generating process corresponds to (i) a simple vector white noise process and (ii) an equilibrium business cycle model. Our key findings...

This paper studies the empirical performance of a widely used model of nominal rigidities: the Calvo model of sticky goods prices. We describe an extended version of this model with variable elasticity of demand of the differentiated goods and imperfect capital mobility. We find little evidence...

This paper explores the implications of different strategies for financing the fiscal cost of twin crises for inflation and depreciation rates. We use a first-generation type model of speculative attacks which has four key features: (i) the crisis is triggered by prospective deficits, (ii) there...

This paper investigates the consequences of an exogenous increase in U.S. government purchase. We find the in response to such a shock, employment, output, and nonresidential investment rise, while real wages, residential investment and consumption expenditures fall. The paper argues that a...

Currencies that are at a forward premium tend to depreciate. This `forward-premium puzzle' is an egregious deviation from uncovered interest parity. We document the properties of the carry trade, a currency speculation strategy that exploits this anomaly. This strategy consists of borrowing...

Currencies that are at a forward premium tend to depreciate. This ‘forward-premium puzzle’ represents an egregious deviation from uncovered interest parity. We document the properties of returns to currency speculation strategies that exploit this anomaly. The first strategy, known as the...

Some booms in housing prices are followed by busts. Others are not. In either case it is difficult to find observable fundamentals that are correlated with price movements. We develop a model that is consistent with these observations. Agents have heterogeneous expectations about long-run...