Can structural small open-economy models account for the influence of foreign disturbances?

Date

2010

Authors

Justiniano, Alejandro
Preston, Bruce

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Elsevier

Abstract

This paper demonstrates that an estimated, structural, small open-economy model of the Canadian economy cannot account for the substantial influence of foreign-sourced disturbances identified in numerous reduced-form studies. The benchmark model assumes uncorrelated shocks across countries and implies that U.S. shocks account for less than 3% of the variability observed in several Canadian series, at all forecast horizons. Accordingly, model-implied cross-correlation functions between Canada and U.S. are essentially zero. Both findings are at odds with the data. A specification that assumes correlated cross-country shocks partially resolves this discrepancy, but still falls well short of matching reduced-form evidence. One central difficulty resides in the model's inability to account for comovement without generating counter factual implications for the real exchange rate, the terms of trade and Canadian inflation.

Description

Keywords

Keywords: Bayesian analysis; benchmarking; computer simulation; correlation; economic analysis; estimation method; inflation; numerical model; real exchange rate; structural adjustment; terms of trade; Canada; United States Bayesian analysis; Exchange rate disconnect; International comovement; Small open economy models; Structural estimation

Citation

Source

Journal of International Economics

Type

Journal article

Book Title

Entity type

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Restricted until

2037-12-31