Essays On Small Open Economy Macroeconomics PDF Download

In Chapter 1, using panel structural VAR analysis with quarterly data from six emerging Latin American countries, we document that the effects of government spending shocks depend on the share of public debt denominated in foreign currency. We find that the ratio of public debt denominated in foreign currency is a critical determinant of the real exchange rate responses. Economies with larger exposure to the foreign currency denominated public debt (HFC) responds with a real exchange rate depreciation to an increase in government consumption expenditure, while economies with a lower ratio (LFC) respond with real exchange rate appreciation. Correspondingly, the debt-to-GDP ratio in the HFC group increases faster in response to government spending shocks. Moreover, a rise in government spending increases private consumption more significantly in the HFC group. We find that government spending shocks raise output and consumption regardless of the currency denomination of debt. Moreover, the fiscal multipliers in both two groups are above one. To offer a theoretical explanation of these observed patterns, in Chapter 2 we develop a simple small open economy version of New Keynesian Open Economy Model (NOEM) and compare two model specifications which differ in the assumption about the currency denomination of debt: a foreign-currency bond economy (FB) and a domestic-currency bond economy (DB). In the FB (DB) economy, all debt is issued in foreign (domestic) currency. Comparing these two extreme assumptions allows us to shed light on the role of currency denomination of debt in explaining the cross-country variations in the effects of government spending shocks. We show that our proposed model can replicate the empirical findings documented in Chapter 1. A novel feature of our model is that the country-specific risk premium is positively correlated with the expected exchange rate depreciation, and the correlation parameter depends on currency denomination of debt. We discuss how our modification of risk premium makes the real exchange determined by two competing forces and under what conditions a real depreciation can be generated. In Chapter 3, we propose a generalized model in which both types of debt coexist and the ratio of foreign currency debt endogenously determines the strength of exchange rate depreciation mechanism. The model is shown to replicate well the observed responses of macroeconomic variables to an increase in government spending.