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Working Paper
Interpreting the dynamics in U.S. international trade
Working Paper
Signal extraction and the propagation of business cycles
This paper studies a class of models developed by Townsend (1993) and Sargent (1991). These models feature dynamic signal extraction problems in which firms with heterogeneous information draw inferences from endogenously generated time series about the value of common persistent shock. Because the information firms receive is partially determined by the expectations of other firms, each firm must 'forecast the forecasts of others'. Moreover, since it is common knowledge that everyone is in the same situation, there occurs an infinite regress in expectations, in which each firm attempts to ...
Journal Article
Finite horizons and the twin deficits
This paper uses Blanchard's (1985) model to study the relationship between budget deficits and trade deficits. The model is applied to annual post-war data from the U.S., Japan, and Germany. I find that in all three countries there is a significant link between trade deficits and budget deficits, holding constant expected changes in GNP and government expenditure. However, the implied planning horizons are quite different across countries. In particular, the implied planning horizon in the U.S. is only about 3 to 4 years, whereas in Japan it is 71 years and in Germany it is 31 years.
Working Paper
Borrowing constraints and asset market dynamics: evidence from the Pacific Basin
This paper estimates a linearized, stochastic version of Kiyotaki and Moore's (1997) credit cycle model, using land price data from Hong Kong, Japan, and Korea. It is shown that the welfare costs of borrowing constraints are positively related to the persistence of (de-trended) land price fluctuations. When the residual demand curve for land is inelastic and the steady state share of land held by the constrained sector is less than 30 percent, welfare costs are less than 1 percent of GDP in all countries. However, the costs of borrowing constraints rise quickly as the constrained sector ...
Journal Article
Could Russia have learned from China?
Journal Article
Generational accounting in open economies
Using data on U.S. and Japanese government debt, we calibrate a version of Weil's (1989) model and study the international and intergenerational consequences of recent fiscal policy. Assuming debt/GDP ratios stabilize at current levels, the model implies: (1) the world real interest rate rises by fewer than two basis points; (2) the United States runs small but persistent external deficits; and (3) current generations in the United States experience a slight increase in wealth, while future generations both at home and abroad suffer analogous decreases. Most of the wealth effects are ...
Working Paper
The role of relative performance in bank closure decisions
This paper studies a competitive banking industry subject to common and idiosyncratic shocks. The induced correlation across bank portfolio returns can be used by a regulator to improve inferences about bank portfolio choices. We compare two types of closure rules: (1) an 'absolute closure rule', which closes banks when their own individual asset/liability ratios fall below a given threshold, and (2) a 'relative closure rule', which closes banks when their asset/liability ratios fall below the industry average by a given amount. ; Two main results emerge from the model. First, a relative ...
Journal Article
New measures of Japanese monetary policy
Journal Article
Understanding trends in foreign exchange rates
Journal Article
Measuring the gains from international portfolio diversification