Goods Market Frictions Research Articles

Declining Search Frictions, Unemployment and Self-Employment

Abstract In most OECD countries, unemployment rates show no trend, which is puzzling if advancements in information and communication technologies decrease labour-market frictions. We show, both analytically and quantitatively, that accounting for the secular decline in self-employment rates solves the puzzle. While declining labour-market frictions can theoretically explain these trends, we provide contradictory causal evidence that the roll-out of broadband internet has increased self-employment and decreased unemployment rates. We reconcile these observations with a new model featuring frictions in both labour and goods markets. We explain falling self-employment and non-trending unemployment quantitatively by labour-market frictions declining relatively more than goods-market frictions.

Goods-market frictions and international trade

We add goods-market frictions to a general equilibrium dynamic model with heterogeneous exporting producers and identical importing retailers. Our tractable framework leads to endogenously unmatched product varieties that reduce welfare, attenuate welfare responses, increase the responsiveness of trade to iceberg costs, and operate mainly through the extensive margin. Quantitative results based on U.S. and Chinese data suggest that reducing international search costs to their domestic levels raises U.S. and Chinese welfare by 5.6% and 4%, respectively. A model with search frictions attenuates ex-ante welfare responses by 85% and changes the trade elasticity from −3.2 to −5.5 relative to a model without search frictions. The trade elasticity with respect to search costs is −0.7 and search frictions make the intensive and extensive margins of trade with respect to variable costs about equally important. Our framework provides a baseline for analyzing the aggregate implications of search frictions in models of trade.

Goods-Market Frictions and International Trade

The difficulty of locating and building connections with overseas buyers is a prevalent firm-level barrier to exporting. Producers and retailers must spend time and resources to find one another before they can transact.

Delayed Output Response to Productivity Shocks in a Monetary Search Model

Empirical evidence suggests that positive productivity shocks diffuse slowly in the economy. In particular, aggregate output reaches its peak nearly eight quarters after a shock. I construct a micro-founded monetary search model to explain the aforementioned empirical fact by focusing on a household’s endogenous decision in forming long-term trading relationships in addition to engaging in random matching in a frictional goods market. I show that a positive productivity shock induces households to immediately break marginal trading relationships, but that goods market frictions prolong the transition of the economy to the new steady state. Calibrating with U.S. data, the model matches the empirical evidence well and predicts that there is a slight decrease in aggregate output shortly after a positive productivity shock in some parameter region after which, it converges towards the new steady state with a higher level of aggregate output.

Goods-Market Frictions and International Trade

We present a tractable framework that embeds goods-market frictions in a general equilibrium dynamic model with heterogeneous exporters and identical importers. These frictions arise because it is time consuming and expensive for exporters and importers to meet. We show that search frictions lead to an endogenous fraction of unmatched exporters, alter the gains from trade, endogenize entry costs, and imply that the competitive equilibrium does not generally result in the socially optimal number of searching firms. Finally, ignoring search frictions results in biased estimates of the effect of tariffs on trade flows.

Limited Stock Market Participation and Goods Market Frictions: A Potential Resolution for Puzzles in International Finance

The popular assumption based on complete markets that the log of real exchange rate growth equals the difference between the logs of home and foreign IMRSs imposes a tight restriction on explaining the joint behavior of asset prices, exchange rates, and international risk sharing. We study asset prices, exchange rates, and consumption dynamics in a general equilibrium two-country macro-finance model that features both asset-market and goods-market frictions. For the asset-market friction, we consider limited stock market participation a la Guvenen (2009). In addition, we follow Corsetti, Dedola, and Leduc (2008) to model frictions to international trade such as non-traded goods and distribution cost. We provide analysis of the model linearized to the second order, by implementing the method proposed by Devereux and Sutherland (2010) to overcome the indeterminacy issues with portfolio choice. The model generates a high price of risk, smooth exchange rates, and makes substantial progress towards explaining the empirically observed low consumption growth correlation between countries. We find that distribution cost plays a central role for reducing international consumption co-movement while also amplifying risk premia.

The law of one price revisited: How do goods market frictions generate large and volatile price deviations?

This paper analyzes the role of goods market frictions in accounting for the large and volatile deviations from the Law of One Price (LOP) in a framework of flexible prices. We draw a distinction between the goods market frictions that are required to consume tradable goods (e.g., distribution costs) and those that are necessary for international transactions (e.g., trade costs). We find that trade costs generate LOP deviations by introducing a no-arbitrage band, while distribution costs cause the price to deviate from the LOP by affecting the probability that trade will occur, given the band. We then conduct a Monte Carlo simulation to show that real exchange rate volatility is positively associated with trade costs, but negatively related to distribution costs. This effect depends on the interplay of trade costs and distribution costs, as they work in opposite directions when creating arbitrage opportunities.

Foreign Exchange Risk Premia and Goods Market Frictions

Foreign Exchange Risk Premia and Goods Market Frictions-Foreign Exchange Risk Premium, Forward Premium Anomaly, Random Walk Behaviors, Staggered Price Setting, Interest-sensitive Money Demand, Monetary Shocks

Macroeconomic dynamics in a model of goods, labor, and credit market frictions

Goods market frictions drastically change the dynamics of the labor market, both in terms of persistence and volatility. In a model with three imperfect markets – goods, labor, and credit – we find that credit and goods market imperfections are substitutable in raising volatility. Goods market frictions are unique in generating persistence. Two key mechanisms in the goods market generate large hump-shaped responses to productivity shocks: countercyclical goods market tightness and prices alter future profit flows and raise persistence; procyclical search effort of consumers and firms raises amplification. Goods market frictions are thus key in understanding labor market dynamics.

Productivity and consumption home bias with goods market frictions

This paper analyzes the effect of productivity gains on the consumption home bias when goods market frictions are present in the form of time costs. We find that productivity gains may either improve or worsen the home bias, depending on the relative magnitude of the terms of trade, the domestic friction, and the international friction. Our results broaden the interpretation of home bias by providing unique theoretical insight into the role of the interaction between productivity innovations and goods market frictions.

Exchange Rates and International Risk Sharing

Recent research in international finance has equated changes in real exchange rates with differences between the marginal utility growths of representative agents in different economies. The asset market view of exchange rates, encapsulated in this equation, has been used to gain insights into exchange rate determination, foreign exchange risk premia, and international risk sharing. We argue that, in fact, this equation is of limited usefulness. By itself, the asset market view does not identify the economic mechanism that determines the exchange rate. It only holds under complete markets, and even then, it does not generally allow us to identify the marginal utility growths of distinct agents. Moreover, if we allow for incomplete asset markets, measures of agents' marginal utility growths, and international risk sharing, cannot be based on asset market and exchange rate data alone. Instead, we argue that in order to explain how exchange rates are determined, it is necessary to make specific assumptions about preferences, goods market frictions, the assets agents can trade, and the nature of endowments or production.

Macroeconomic Dynamics in a Model of Goods, Labor and Credit Market Frictions

This paper shows that goods-market frictions drastically change the dynamics of the labor market, bridging the gap with the data both in terms of persistence and volatility. In a DSGE model with three imperfect markets – goods, labor and credit – we find that credit- and goods-market imperfections are substitutable in raising volatility. Goods-market frictions are however unique in generating persistence. The two key mechanisms generating autocorrelation in growth rates and the hump-shaped pattern in the response to productivity shocks are related to the goods market: i) countercyclical dynamics of goods market tightness and prices, which alter future profit flows and raise persistence and ii) procyclical search effort in the goods market, by either consumers, firms or both, raises both amplification and persistence. Expanding our knowledge of goods market frictions is thus needed for a full account of labor market dynamics.

Macroeconomic Dynamics in a Model of Goods, Labor and Credit Market Frictions

This paper shows that goods-market frictions drastically change the dynamics of the labor market, bridging the gap with the data both in terms of persistence and volatility. In a DSGE model with three imperfect markets - goods, labor and credit - we find that credit- and goods-market imperfections are substitutable in raising volatility. Goods-market frictions are however unique in generating persistence. The two key mechanisms generating autocorrelation in growth rates and the hump-shaped pattern in the response to productivity shocks are related to the goods market: i) countercyclical dynamics of goods market tightness and prices, which alter future profit flows and raise persistence and ii) procyclical search effort in the goods market, by either consumers, firms or both, raises both amplification and persistence. Expanding our knowledge of goods market frictions is thus needed for a full account of labor market dynamics.

Exchange Rates and FDI: Goods versus Capital Market Frictions

ABSTRACTChanges in exchange rates affect countries through their impact on cross‐border activities such as trade and foreign direct investment (FDI). With increasing activities of multinational firms, the FDI channel is likely to gain in importance. Economic theory provides two main explanations why changes in exchange rates can affect FDI. According to the first explanation, FDI reacts to exchange rate changes if there are information frictions on capital markets and if investment depends on firms’ net worth (capital market friction hypothesis). According to the second explanation, FDI reacts to exchange rate changes if output and factor markets are segmented, and if firm‐specific assets are important (goods market friction hypothesis). We provide a unified theoretical framework of these two explanations. We analyse the implications of the model empirically using a dataset based on detailed German firm‐level data. We find greater support for the goods market than for the capital market friction hypothesis.

Exchange Rates and FDI: Goods versus Capital Market Frictions

Economic theory provides two main explanations why changes in exchange rates can affect foreign direct investment (FDI). According to a first explanation, FDI reacts to exchange rate changes if there are information frictions on capital markets and if the investment by firms depends on their net worth (capital market friction hypothesis). According to a second explanation, FDI reacts to exchange rate changes if output and factor markets are segmented, and if firm-specific assets are important (goods market friction hypothesis). We provide a unified theoretical framework of the two explanations and test the model using German sectoral data derived from detailed firm-level data. We find greater support for the goods market friction hypothesis.