Research Database

In this paper we consider a particular international economic policy regime: the laissez-faire regime, the distinguishing features of which are unrestricted portfolio choice and floating exchange rates. And as we show, that regime, although favored by many economists, is not economically feasible. It does not have a determinate equilibrium. That is an implication of an over-lapping-generations model. But as we argue in the paper, that is no reason for doubting the indeterminacy of the laissez-faire regime equilibrium.

We prove the existence of a competitive equilibrium in an overlapping generations model in which each generation has a preference ordering over its own and its descendents’ consumptions. The model is one of pure exchange with many goods in each period and two period lived generations. The bequest from one generation to the next is required to be non-negative and is endogenous. In equilibrium, some sequences of agents of successive generations may be continually “linked” by positive bequests and act as infinitely lived agents. Other sequences of agents may not be so linked and therefore behave as sequences of finite lived agents. We give three examples which illustrate the following points: (i) multiple equilibria may exist some of which resemble those of standard overlapping generations models, whereas in others some sequences of agents behave as if infinitely lived, (ii) multiple steady states of the above two types may exist in which the latter are unstable and the former are stable, and (iii) if agents have preferences given by discounted sums of utilities with different discount rates, then not all sequences of generations can be continually linked and hence behave as infinitely lived agents.

This document contains detailed algebra for the proofs of propositions 1 and 2.

We analyze optimal policy in a simple small open economy model with price setting frictions. In particular, we study the optimal response of the nominal exchange rate following a terms of trade shock. We depart from the New Keynesian literature in that we explicitly model interna-tionally traded commodities as intermediate inputs in the production of local final goods and assume that the small open economy takes this price as given. This modification not only is in line with the long-standing tradition of small open economy models, but also changes the optimal movements in the exchange rate. In contrast with the recent small open economy New Keynesian literature, our model is able to reproduce the comovement between the nominal exchange rate and the price of exports, as it has been documented in the commodity currencies literature. Although we show there are preferences for which price stability is optimal even without flexible fiscal instruments, our model suggests that more attention should be given to the coordination between monetary and fiscal policy (taxes) in small open economies that are heavily dependent on exports of commodities. The model we propose is a useful framework in which to study fear of floating.