World Real Interest Rate Research Articles

The effect of a decline in the world real interest rate on a small open economy experiencing persistent stagnation

This paper develops a small open economy model where a strong liquidity preference causes persistent stagnation and shows that a decline in the world real interest rate worsens the stagnation if the rate is already low enough.

Effects of Depreciation and Appreciation of the Vietnamese Dong on Aggregate Output

Applying an extended IS-MP-AS model (Romer, 2000, 2006), this paper finds that real appreciation of the Vietnamese dong raised aggregate output during 2000-2012 whereas real depreciation of the Vietnamese dong increased aggregate output during 2013-2017. In addition, aggregate output is positively affected by the government debt-to-GDP ratio, the real stock price, and the real oil price and negatively influenced by the world real interest rate and the expected inflation rate. Therefore, real depreciation may affect aggregate output positively or negatively depending upon the stage of economic development.

Global trends in interest rates

The trend in the world real interest rate for safe and liquid assets fluctuated close to 2% for more than a century, but has dropped significantly over the past three decades. This decline has been common among advanced economies, as trends in real interest rates across countries have converged over this period. It was driven by an increase in the convenience yield for safety and liquidity and by lower global economic growth.

Global Trends in Interest Rates

The trend in the world real interest rate for safe and liquid assets fluctuated close to 2 percent for more than a century, but has dropped significantly over the past three decades. This decline has been common among advanced economies, as trends in real interest rates across countries have converged over this period. It was driven by an increase in the convenience yield for safety and liquidity and by lower global economic growth.

Do emigrants’ remittances cause Dutch disease? A developing countries case study

Although the positive socio-economic effects of remittances for recipient countries in the short term are unmistakable, inflows of remittances may at the same time exert adverse effects on the trade competitiveness of an economy, by appreciating the real exchange rate. This phenomenon is characterised as an instance of the ‘Dutch disease’ – the negative impact of windfall revenue inflows on the competitiveness of other tradable sectors and hence on overall economic growth. While the real effect of workers’ remittances on real exchange rates in a recipient economy is still a controversial issue, several studies have analysed evidence for the existence of the ‘Dutch disease’ phenomenon in various sets of countries. The main objective of this study is to examine whether remittance flows have had any adverse effect on the international trade competitiveness of a selected group of developing countries during the period from 1995 to 2014. Using a one-step system Generalised Method of Moments specification within a simultaneous equation approach, it shows that remittance flows depreciate the real exchange rate at their levels and that the lagged value of remittances create the Dutch disease for this country group. In addition, we confirm that while trade openness and world real interest rates contribute to a depreciation in real exchange rates, gross domestic product per capita and net Official Development Aid inflows tend to appreciate real exchange rates. A policy implication is that trade liberalisation policies that lower tariff rates on capital imports and new export-oriented incentive programmes should be accompanied by measures designed to prevent appreciation in the real exchange rate: steps in this direction such as recent macroeconomic and prudential capital flow management initiatives are briefly referenced.JEL Codes: F20, F21, F22, F23

Impacts of Real Depreciation and Appreciation on Aggregate Output in Taiwan

Extending the IS-MP-AS model, this article finds that real depreciation helped to raise real gross domestic product (GDP) during 1999.Q1-2010.Q2 whereas real appreciation helped to increase real GDP during 2010.Q3-2016.Q4. In addition, a lower world real interest rate, a higher stock price, a higher real oil price or a lower expected inflation would increase real GDP. More deficit spending as a percent of GDP does not affect real GDP.JEL Classification: F41, E62

International credit markets and global business cycles

AbstractThis paper stresses a new channel through which global financial linkages contribute to the co‐movement in economic activity across countries. We show in a two‐country setting with borrowing constraints that international credit markets are subject to self‐fulfilling variations in the world real interest rate. Those expectation‐driven changes in the borrowing cost in turn act as global shocks that induce strong cross‐country co‐movements in both financial and real variables (such as asset prices, gross domestic product, consumption, investment, and employment). When firms around the world benefit from unexpectedly low debt repayments, they borrow and invest more, which leads to excessive supply of collateral and of loanable funds at a low interest rate, thus fueling a boom both at home and abroad. As a consequence, business cycles are synchronized internationally. Such a stylized model thus offers one way to rationalize both the existence of a world business‐cycle component, documented by recent empirical studies through dynamic factor analysis, and the factor's intimate link to global financial markets.

CURRENT ACCOUNT DYNAMICS AND THE REAL EXCHANGE RATE: DISENTANGLING THE EVIDENCE

We study the main shocks driving current account (CA) fluctuations for the G6 economies, using a standard two-good intertemporal model. We build a structural vector autoregression model including the world real interest rate, net output (NO), the real exchange rate, and the CA and identify four structural shocks. Our results suggest four main conclusions: (i) there is substantial support for the two-good intertemporal model with time-varying interest rate, since both external supply and preference shocks account for an important proportion of CA fluctuations; (ii) temporary domestic shocks account for a large proportion of CA fluctuations, albeit smaller than in previous studies; (iii) our results alleviate the puzzle in the literature that a shock that explains little about NO changes can explain a large proportion of CA changes; (iv) the nature of the shock matters to shape the relationship between the CA and the real exchange rate.

Demographic Trends and the Real Interest Rate

We quantify the impact of past and future global demographic change on real interest rates, house prices and household debt in an overlapping generations model. Falling birth and death rates can explain a large part of the fall in world real interest rates and the rise in house prices and household debt since the 1980s. These trends will persist as the share of the population in the high-wealth 50 age bracket continues to rise. As the United States ages relatively slowly, its net foreign liability position will grow. The availability of housing and debt as alternative stores of value attenuates these trends. The increasing monopolisation of the economy has ambiguous effects.

Real Interest Rates and Productivity in Small Open Economies

In emerging market economies (EMEs), capital inflows are associated to productivity booms. However, the experience of advanced small open economies (AEs), like the ones of the Euro Area periphery, points to the opposite, i.e., capital inflows lead to lower productivity, possibly because of entry of less productive firms. We measure capital flow shocks as exogenous variations in world real interest rates. We show that, in the data, lower real interest rates lead to lower productivity only in AEs, whereas the opposite holds for EMEs. We build a business cycle model with firms' heterogeneity, financial imperfections and endogenous productivity. The model combines a cleansing effect, stemming from capital outflows (inflows), with an original sin effect, whereby capital outflows (inflows), via a real exchange rate depreciation (appreciation), decreases (increases) the opportunity cost of producing for less productive firms and the borrowing ability of the incumbent, marginally more productive firms. The estimation of the model reveals that a low trade elasticity combined with high (low) firms' productivity dispersion in EMEs (AEs) are crucial ingredients to account for the different effects of capital flows across groups of countries. The relative balance of the cleansing and the original sin effect is able to simultaneously rationalize the evidence in both EMEs and AEs.

Current Account Dynamics and the Real Exchange Rate: Disentangling the Evidence

We study the main shocks driving current account fluctuations for the G6 economies. Our theoretical framework features a standard two-goods inter-temporal model, which is specifically designed to uncover the role of permanent and temporary output shocks and the relation between the real exchange rate and the current account. We build a SVAR model including the world real interest rate, net output, the real exchange rate, and the current account and identify four structural shocks. Our results suggest four main conclusions: i) there is substantial support for the two-good intertemporal model with time-varying interest rate, since both external supply and preference shocks account for an important proportion of current account fluctuations; ii) temporary domestic shocks account for a large proportion of current account fluctuations, but the excess response of the current account is less pronounced than in previous studies; iii) our results alleviate the previous puzzle in the literature that a shock that explains little about net output changes can explain a large proportion of current account changes; iv) the nature of the shock matters to shape the relationship between the current account and the real exchange rate, which explains why is it difficult to understand the role of the real exchange rate for current account fluctuations.

House Price Booms, Current Account Deficits, and Low Interest Rates

One of the most striking features of the period before the Great Recession is the strong positive correlation between house price appreciation and current account deficits, not only in the United States but also in other countries that have subsequently experienced the highest degree of financial turmoil. A progressive relaxation of credit standards can rationalize this empirical observation. Lower collateral requirements facilitate access to external funding and drive up house prices. The current account turns negative because households borrow from the rest of the world. At the same time, however, the world real interest rate counterfactually increases. The two key ingredients that reconcile a demand-based explanation of house price booms and current account deficits with the evidence on real interest rates are nominal interest rates lower than the predictions of a standard monetary policy rule in leveraged economies and foreign exchange rate pegs in saving countries.

House Price Booms, Current Account Deficits, and Low Interest Rates

Domestic factors, such as credit and preference shocks, can explain the negative correlation between house prices and the current account in the U.S. and several other countries before the recent crisis. These shocks, however, cannot account for the fall of world real interest rates observed in the data. Expansionary monetary policy shocks in the U.S., coupled with exchange rate pegs to the dollar in emerging economies, are crucial to understanding the evolution of the real interest rate. Yet, monetary policy factors play virtually no role for house prices and the current account.

A panel analysis of the fisher effect with an unobserved I(1) world real interest rate

The Fisher effect states that inflation expectations should be reflected in nominal interest rates in a one-for-one manner to compensate for changes in the purchasing power of money. Despite its wide acceptance in theory, much of the empirical work fails to find favorable evidence. This paper examines the Fisher effect in a panel of 21 OECD countries over the period 1983–2010. Using the Panel Analysis of Non-stationarity in Idiosyncratic and Common Components (PANIC), a non-stationary common factor is detected in the real interest rate. This may reflect permanent common shifts in e.g. time preferences, risk aversion and the steady-state growth rate of technological change. We therefore control for an unobserved non-stationary common factor in estimating the Fisher equation using both the Common Correlated Effects Pooled (CCEP) and the Continuously Updated (Cup) estimation approach. The impact of inflation on the nominal interest rate is found to be insignificantly different from 1, providing support of the Fisher effect.

Money, Growth and External Balance in a Small Open Economy

This paper puts forward an intertemporal model of a small open economy to analyze the effects of money, government debt and real shocks on growth, inflation and external balance. The model is an endogenous growth, overlapping generations model, with money in the utility function, convex adjustment costs for investment, and perfect substitutability between domestic and foreign bonds. It is shown that the growth rate depends only on the world real interest rate, the productivity of domestic capital, the adjustment cost parameter for investment and the depreciation rate. It does not depend on money, budgetary policies or the preferences of domestic consumers. Consumption of goods and services and external balance, in addition to the world real interest rate and the domestic productivity of capital, depend on money, budgetary policies and the preferences of domestic consumers. The model is used to analyze the full effects of real and monetary shocks. Monetary growth is not superneutral in this model, as it affects domestic consumption and the net foreign position of the economy.

Endogenous Growth and External Balance in a Small Open Economy

This paper puts forward an intertemporal model of a small open economy which allows for the simultaneous analysis of the determination of endogenous growth and external balance. The model assumes infinitely lived, overlapping generations that maximize lifetime utility, and competitive firms that maximize their net present value in the presence of adjustment costs for investment. Domestic securities are assumed perfect substitutes for foreign securities and the economy is assumed small in the sense of being a price taker in international goods and assets markets. It is shown that the endogenous growth rate is determined solely as a function of the determinants of domestic investment, such as the world real interest rate, the technology of domestic production and adjustment costs for investment and is independent of the preferences of domestic households and budgetary policies. The preferences of consumers and budgetary policies determine the savings rate. The current account and external balance are functions of the difference between the savings and the investment rates. The world real interest rate affects growth negatively but has a positive impact on external balance. The productivity of domestic capital affects growth positively but causes a deterioration in external balance. Population growth, government consumption and government debt affect the current account and external balance negatively, but do not affect the endogenous growth rate.

Econometric modelling of world oil supplies: terminal price and the time to depletion

AbstractThis paper develops a novel approach by which to identify the price of oil at the time of depletion; the so‐called ‘terminal price’ of oil. It is shown that while the terminal price is independent of both gross domestic product growth and the price elasticity of energy demand, it is dependent on the world real interest rate and the total lifetime stock of oil resources, as well as on the marginal extraction and scarcity cost parameters. The theoretical predictions of this model are evaluated using data on the cost of extraction, cumulative production and proven reserves. The predicted terminal prices seem sensible for a range of parameters and variables, as illustrated by the sensitivity analysis. Using the terminal price of oil, we calculate the time to depletion and determine the extraction and price profiles over the lifetime of the resource. The extraction profiles generated seem to be in line with the actual production and the predicted prices are generally in line with those currently observed.

Fiscal deficits and current account deficits

Recent fiscal stimulus packages depend for their effectiveness on the assumption of non-Ricardian savings behavior. We show that, under the same assumption, higher fiscal deficits can have problematic implications if they turn out to be permanent. First, if they occur in large countries they significantly raise the world real interest rate. Second, they cause a short run current account deterioration equal to around 50% of the fiscal deficit deterioration. Third, the longer run current account deterioration equals almost 75% for a large economy such as the United States, and almost 100% for a small open economy.

Endogenous Growth and External Balance in a Small Open Economy

This paper puts forward an intertemporal model of a small open economy which allows for the simultaneous analysis of the determination of endogenous growth and external balance. The model assumes infinitely lived, overlapping generations that maximize lifetime utility, and competitive firms that maximize their net present value in the presence of adjustment costs for investment. Domestic securities are assumed perfect substitutes for foreign securities and the economy is small in the sense of being a price taker in international goods and assets markets. The endogenous growth rate is determined solely as a function of the determinants of domestic investment, such as the world real interest rate, the technology of domestic production and adjustment costs for investment. The endogenous growth rate is independent of domestic savings and the preferences of consumers. Given the domestic growth and investment rate, the preferences of consumers determine the current account and external balance. The model can also be used to analyze the implications of budgetary policy. The world real interest rate affects growth negatively but has a positive impact on external balance. The productivity of domestic capital affects growth positively but causes a deterioration in external balance. Government consumption and government debt affect the current account and external balance negatively, but do not affect the endogenous growth rate. This model addresses and resolves the indeterminancy problems that arise in comparable representative household endogenous growth models of small open economies.

What drives China's current account?

The paper offers an empirical taxonomy of the factors driving China's current account. A simple present-value model with non-tradeable goods explains more than 70 percent of current account variability over the period 1982–2007, including the persistent surpluses since 2001. It also correctly predicts the decline of China's current account since 2008. Expected increases in the prices of non-tradeables (e.g. housing and medical care) and expected declines in net output (GDP less investment and government spending) are the main channels of external adjustment. Much of China's current account surplus seems driven by shocks that have global effects by persistently depressing the world real interest rate. This is consistent with recent theoretical models that suggest that factors related to China's domestic financial development are key in understanding global imbalances.