Narrow Your Choices

Refine By Topic

Refine By Series

Refine By Language

Refine By Date

—

Refine By IMF Taxonomy

Refine By JEL Taxonomy

Refine by LOC Taxonomy

Refine By THEMA Taxonomy

  • Print
  • Save

Western Hemisphere > Argentina

You are looking at 1 - 8 of 8 items for :

  • Type: Journal Issue x
  • Economic policy; nternational cooperation x
Clear All Modify Search
Cover IMF Working Papers
Four Decades of Terms-of-Trade Booms: Saving-Investment Patterns and a New Metric of Income Windfall
Gustavo Adler
and
Mr. Nicolas E Magud
We study the history of terms-of-trade booms (during 1970–2012), with a focus on Latin America, through the prisms of a simple metric that quantifies the associated income windfall. We also document saving patterns during these episodes and propose a measure of how much of the income windfall was saved. We find that Latin America‘s terms-of-trade shocks of the last decade have not differed much in magnitude from those observed during the 1970s, but that the associated windfall have been substantially larger. While aggregate saving increased more than in past episodes, the share of the windfall saved (the marginal saving rate) seems to be lower, suggesting that greater aggregate saving reflects mainly the sheer size of the windfall rather than a greater 'effort' to save it. Finally, we find evidence that, while savings during the boom help to increase post-boom income, the composition of such savings matters. Specifically, in past episodes, savings allocated to foreign asset accumulation appear to have contributed more to post-boom income than those devoted to domestic investment.
Keywords:
WP; current account; income windfall; Terms of trade; windfall; real income; aggregate saving; saving rate; terms-of-trade shock; terms-of-trade boom; boom episode; Personal income; Domestic savings; Foreign assets; Current account balance; Asia and Pacific; Europe
Cover IMF Working Papers
Financial Liberalization, Structural Change, and Real Exchange Rate Appreciations
Felipe Meza
and
Carlos Urrutia
We account for the appreciation of the real exchange rate in Mexico between 1988 and 2002 using a two sector dynamic general equilibrium model of a small open economy with two driving forces: (i) differential productivity growth across sectors and (ii) a decline in the cost of borrowing in foreign markets. These two mechanisms account for 60 percent of the decline in the relative price of tradable goods and explain a large fraction of the reallocation of labor across sectors. We do not find a significant role for migration remittances, foreign reserves accumulation, government spending, terms of trade, or import tariffs.
Keywords:
WP; interest rate
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 Working Papers
Growth and Reforms in Latin America: A Survey of Facts and Arguments
Mr. Jeromin Zettelmeyer
This paper presents a number of facts about growth in Latin America, and shows how critical correlates of growth have evolved over time. In comparison with other regions, Latin America has consistently exhibited higher macroeconomic volatility, lower openness, and higher income inequality, though openness and macroeconomic stability have improved since the early 1990s. The paper then discusses three views of why reforms have not led to higher growth in Latin America: that reforms have gone too far; that reforms have not gone far enough; and that reforms have missed the point.
Keywords:
WP; growth constraint; section II.A; country study; Latin American country
Cover IMF Working Papers
Common Factors in Latin America's Business Cycles
Mr. Allan Timmermann
,
Mr. Luis Catão
, and
Mr. Marco Aiolfi
This paper constructs new business cycle indices for Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico based on common dynamic factors extracted from a comprehensive set of sectoral output, external data, and fiscal and financial variables spanning over a century. The constructed indices are used to derive a business cycle chronology for these countries and characterize a set of new stylized facts. In particular, we show that all four countries have historically displayed a striking combination of high business cycle and persistence relative to benchmark countries, and that such volatility has been time-varying, with important differences across policy regimes. We also uncover a sizeable common factor across the four economies which has greatly limited scope for regional risk sharing.
Keywords:
WP; real GDP; standard deviation; economic activity; government spending; Business Cycles; Factor Models; Latin America; business cycle volatility; shortening business cycle length; volatility in Latin America; time series; backcasted business cycle; density function; business cycle driver; Terms of trade; Economic recession; Global; Middle East; Africa; Asia and Pacific
Cover IMF Working Papers
Financial Integration and Macroeconomic Volatility
Mr. Marco Terrones
,
Mr. Eswar S Prasad
, and
Mr. Ayhan Kose
This paper examines the impact of international financial integration on macroeconomic volatility in a large group of industrial and developing economies over the period 1960-99. We report two major results: First, while the volatility of output growth has, on average, declined in the 1990s relative to the three preceding decades, we also document that, on average, the volatility of consumption growth relative to that of income growth has increased for more financially integrated developing economies in the 1990s. Second, increasing financial openness is associated with rising relative volatility of consumption, but only up to a certain threshold. The benefits of financial integration in terms of improved risk-sharing and consumption-smoothing possibilities appear to accrue only beyond this threshold.
Keywords:
WP; consumption volatility; economy; Financial Globalization; Macroeconomic Fluctuations; Income and Consumption Volatility; International Risk Sharing; income volatility; terms of trade shock; consumption-smoothing opportunity; terms of trade volatility; growth volatility; Consumption; Financial integration; Income; Capital flows; Terms of trade; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Economic Growth in Latin America
Mr. Jose De Gregorio
This paper studies growth determinants in 12 Latin American countries during the period 1950-85. In a simple growth accounting framework, the share of labor in income is found to be lower in the sample group than in developed countries, while factor productivity growth accounts for a larger proportion of growth in the fastest growing countries in the sample. Using panel data, macroeconomic stability is found to play, in addition to investment (physical and human), a crucial role in growth. To a lesser extent, growth is negatively correlated with government consumption and political instability. The terms of trade appear to have no significant effect on growth.
Keywords:
WP; government spending; per capita income; rate of inflation; constant returns to scale; positive correlation; productivity growth; rate of growth; investment equation; Inflation; Productivity; Foreign direct investment; Terms of trade; Government consumption; Caribbean
Cover IMF Working Papers
Macroeconomic Implications of Real Exchange Rate Targeting in Developing Countries
Mr. Peter J Montiel
and
Mr. Jonathan David Ostry
This paper analyzes the macroeconomic effects of a variety of exogenous and policy-induced real disturbances when the authorities target the level of the real exchange rate. It first discusses the implications--particularly for inflation and the current account--of targeting the rate at an “overdepreciated” level. The paper then examines the dynamic response of both output and inflation to a number of shocks. Further applications of the model, particularly as regards fiscal explanations of inflation, high-inflation plateaus, and money-based stabilization programs, are also considered.
Keywords:
WP; exchange rate; rate of inflation; price level; excess demand; home goods market; real value; exchange rate rule; Real exchange rates; Inflation; Real wages; Terms of trade; Conventional peg