Forward-looking and myopic regional Computable General Equilibrium models: How significant is the distinction?

Abstract

We present a stylized intertemporal forward-looking model that accommodates key regional economic features, an area where the literature is not well developed. The main difference, from the standard applications, is the role of saving and its implication for the balance of payments. Though maintaining dynamic forward-looking behaviour for agents, the rate of private saving is exogenously determined and so no neoclassical financial adjustment is needed. Also, we focus on the similarities and the differences between myopic and forward-looking models, highlighting the divergences amongst the main adjustment equations and the resulting simulation outcomes.