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Western Hemisphere > Argentina

You are looking at 1 - 10 of 39 items for :

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  • Consumption; Economics x
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Cover IMF Working Papers
Investor Sentiment, Sovereign Debt Mispricing, and Economic Outcomes
Mr. Ramzy Al Amine
and
Tim Willems
We find that countries which are able to borrow at spreads that seem low given fundamentals (for example because investors take a bullish view on a country's future), are more likely to develop economic difficulties later on. We obtain this result through a two-stage procedure, where a first regression links sovereign spreads to fundamentals, after which residuals from this regression are deployed in a second stage to assess their impact on future outcomes (real GDP growth and the occurrence of fiscal crises). We confirm the relevance of past sovereign debt mispricing in several out-of-sample exercises, where they reduce the RMSE of real GDP growth forecasts by as much as 15 percent. This provides strong support for theories of sentiment affecting the business cycle. Our findings also suggest that countries shouldn't solely rely on spread levels when determining their fiscal strategy; underlying fundamentals should inform policy as well, since historical relationships between spreads and fundamentals often continue to apply in the medium-to-long run.
Keywords:
WP; sub; cross-validation procedure; sentiment; sovereign debt; sovereign spreads; debt crises; over-optimism; growth forecasting; real GDP growth; credit rating; growth forecast; spread discount; Current account deficits; Government consumption; Southern Europe; leave-one-out procedure; spreads data; investor sentiment
Cover IMF Working Papers
Is the Public Investment Multiplier Higher in Developing Countries? An Empirical Exploration
Mr. Alejandro Izquierdo
,
Mr. Ruy Lama
,
Juan Pablo Medina
,
Jorge Puig
,
Daniel Riera-Crichton
,
Mr. Carlos A. Végh Gramont
, and
Guillermo Javier Vuletin
Over the last decade, empirical studies analyzing macroeconomic conditions that may affect the size of government spending multipliers have flourished. Yet, in spite of their obvious public policy importance, little is known about public investment multipliers. In particular, the clear theoretical implication that public investment multipliers should be higher (lower) the lower (higher) is the initial stock of public capital has not, to the best of our knowledge, been tested. This paper tackles this empirical challenge and finds robust evidence in favor of the above hypothesis: countries with a low initial stock of public capital (as a proportion of GDP) have significantly higher public investment multipliers than countries with a high initial stock of public capital. This key finding seems robust to the sample (European countries, U.S. states, and Argentine provinces) and to the identification method (Blanchard-Perotti, forecast errors, and instrumental variables). Our results thus suggest that public investment in developing countries would carry high returns.
Keywords:
WP; investment multiplier; Fiscal multiplier; Public investment; Stock of public capital; Crowding-in; multiplier estimate; public investment multiplier; multiplier calculation; government spending multiplier; Public investment spending; Stocks; Government consumption; Private investment; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Pricing Sovereign Debt in Resource-Rich Economies
Thomas McGregor
How do oil price movements affect sovereign spreads in an oil-dependent economy? I develop a stochastic general equilibrium model of an economy exposed to co-moving oil price and output processes, with endogenous sovereign default risk. The model explains a large proportion of business cycle fluctuations in interest-rate spreads in oil-exporting emerging market economies, particularly the countercyclicallity of interest rate spreads and oil prices. Higher risk-aversion, more impatient governments, larger oil shares and a stronger correlation between domestic output and oil price shocks all lead to stronger co-movements between risk premiums and the oil price.
Keywords:
WP; oil price; open economy; Risk premium; natural resources; sovereign debt; and default; development; cost parameter; policy makers; oil revenue cost; standard deviation terms; equilibrium bond price; oil price volatility; oil revenue cost of default; oil price state; steady-state price; steady state bond price; output volatility; Oil prices; Emerging and frontier financial markets; Asset prices; Consumption; Oil; gas and mining taxes; Global; Sub-Saharan Africa; Asia and Pacific
Cover IMF Working Papers
Sovereign Defaults, External Debt, and Real Exchange Rate Dynamics
Mr. Tamon Asonuma
Emerging countries experience real exchange rate depreciations around defaults. In this paper, we examine this observed pattern empirically and through the lens of a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model. The theoretical model explicitly incorporates bond issuances in local and foreign currencies, and endogenous determination of real exchange rate and default risk. Our quantitative analysis replicates the link between real exchange rate depreciation and default probability around defaults and moments of the real exchange rate that match the data. Prior to default, interactions of real exchange rate depreciation, originated from a sequence of low tradable goods shocks with the sovereign’s large share of foreign currency debt, trigger defaults. In post-default periods, the resulting output costs and loss of market access due to default lead to further real exchange rate depreciation.
Keywords:
WP; exchange rate; foreign currency; Sovereign Defaults; External Debt; Real Exchange Rate; Currency Composition of Debt; Bond Spreads; default probability; default choice; exchange rate depreciation; default period; GDP ratio; meaning appreciation; tradable goods; business cycle; Real exchange rates; Consumption; Depreciation; Currencies; Foreign currency debt; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Fiscal Limits, External Debt, and Fiscal Policy in Developing Countries
Huixin Bi
,
Ms. Wenyi Shen
, and
Ms. Susan S. Yang
This paper studies fiscal policy effects in developing countries with external debt and sovereign default risks. State-dependent distributions of fiscal limits are simulated based on macroeconomic uncertainty and fiscal policy specifications. The analysis shows that expected future revenue plays an important role in the low fiscal limits of developing countries, relative to those of developed countries. External debt carries additional risks since large devaluation of the real exchange rate can suddenly raise default probabilities. Consistent with majority views, fiscal consolidations are counterproductive in the short and medium runs. When an economy approaches its fiscal limits, government spending can be less expansionary than in a low-debt state. As more revenue is required to service debt in a high-debt state, higher tax rates raise the economic cost of increasing consumption, reducing the fiscal multiplier.
Keywords:
WP; government spending; risk premium; terms of trade; fiscal limits; fiscal policy; sovereign default risk; external debt; developing countries; state-dependent fiscal multiplier; debt state; government spending effect; government spending multiplier; exchange rate; government spending share; debt distribution; fiscal policy effect; government spending shock; Government consumption; Fiscal consolidation; Eastern Europe
Cover IMF Working Papers
The Composition and Cyclical Behavior of Trade Flows in Emerging Economies
Mr. Reinout De Bock
Trade flows data show that the composition and cyclical properties of imports are similar in developed economies and emerging markets (EM) but this is not the case for exports. Unlike developed economies, (i) EM export few or only a selective set of capital goods and (ii) capital good and overall exports tend to be acyclical. The lack of procyclicality in exports drives the strong countercyclicality of EM trade balances observed in previous studies. A quantitative exercise demonstrates how the standard small open economy business cycle model can be improved for EM by incorporating these features.
Keywords:
WP
Cover IMF Working Papers
“Beneficial” Delays in Debt Restructuring Negotiations
Ran Bi
Delays in debt restructuring negotiations are widely regarded as inefficient. This paper argues that delays can allow the economy to recover from a crisis, make more resources available for debt settlement, and enable the negotiating parties to enjoy a larger "cake". Within this context, therefore, delays may be "beneficial". This paper explores this idea by constructing a dynamic model of sovereign default in which debt renegotiation is modeled as a stochastic bargaining game based on Merlo and Wilson's (1995) framework. Quantitative analysis shows that this model can generate an average delay length comparable to that experienced by Argentina in its most recent debt restructuring.
Keywords:
WP; credit standing; interest rate; short-term debt
Cover IMF Working Papers
Financial Frictions and Business Cycles in Middle-Income Countries
Mr. Jaime Guajardo
A standard DSGE small open economy model can not generate the cyclical regularities of middle-income countries. It predicts excessive consumption smoothing, and procyclical, instead of countercyclical, real net exports. Previous studies have solved this problem by increasing the shocks’ persistence or by lowering the intertemporal elasticity of substitution. This paper tackles the problem by introducing market imperfections relevant for MICs into an otherwise standard model. More specifically, I build a model with limited access to the foreign capital market, identified as an external borrowing constraint, and asymmetric financing opportunities across nontradable and tradable sectors, identified as a sector-specific labor financing wedge. The key parameters associated to these frictions are deduced to replicate selected data for Chile between 1986 and 2004. I find that both frictions are necessary to replicate the cyclical regularities of middle-income countries as they help the model reproduce different features of the data: The external borrowing constraint makes investment and consumption of tradable goods more procyclical and volatile, and makes real net exports countercyclical, while the sector-specific labor financing wedge makes the model reproduce the cyclical moments of work hours and consumption of non tradable goods.
Keywords:
WP
Cover IMF Staff Papers
IMF Staff Papers, Volume 54, No. 2
International Monetary Fund. Research Dept.
Vol. 54, No. 2 includes three notable contributions from the Seventh Jacques Polak Annual Research Conference (ARC) hosted by the IMF in November 2006. Its lead paper, by Olivier Blanchard of Harvard University, is the 2006 Mundell-Fleming Lecture (delivered at the ARC), which analyzes current-account deficits in the advanced economies. Other papers in this issue look at the relationship between international financial integration and the real economy. Other papers discuss whether (or not): i) the next capital account crisis can be predicted; ii) accepted definitions of debt crises are adequate; iii) the Doha Round of trade talks (if they are ever successfully completed) will lead to preference erosion; and finally iv) there is room for political opportunism in countries deciding between money-based or exchange-rate-based stabilization programs.
Keywords:
SP; developing country; current account deficit; next election; ERBS program; election cycle; debt-servicing difficulty; EU market; Current account deficits; Consumption; Tariffs; Debt default; Global; East Asia; South Asia; Asia and Pacific; Africa
Cover IMF Working Papers
Precautionary Demand for Foreign Assets in Sudden Stop Economies: An Assessment of the New Merchantilism
Mr. Enrique G. Mendoza
,
Ceyhun Bora Durdu
, and
Mr. Marco Terrones
Financial globalization was off to a rocky start in emerging economies hit by Sudden Stops in the 1990s. The surge in foreign reserves since then is viewed as a New Merchantilism in which reserves are a war-chest for defense against Sudden Stops. We conduct a quantitative assessment of this argument using a framework in which precautionary savings affect foreign assets via business cycle volatility, financial globalization, and endogenous Sudden Stops. Our results show that financial globalization and Sudden Stop risk are plausible explanations of the surge in reserves but cyclical volatility, which has declined in the globalization period, is not.
Keywords:
WP; business cycle; debt limit; precautionary demand; globalization period; D. baseline result; business cycle volatility; Sudden Stop economy; effects of Volatility; Sudden stops; Foreign assets; Precautionary savings; Consumption; Global