Essays in Open Economy Macroeconomics

This dissertation studies the dynamic effects of various economic shocks in a two-sector small open economy. It is divided into three essays. Essays 1 and 2 have a theoretical focus; they involve the developing of intertemporal optimizing models of a small open economy. In these essays, we use the representative-agent framework to derive dynamic macroeconomic effects. Specifically, in the first essay we examine the effects of monetary policy targeted at an inflation rate in a small open economy. We adopt a two-sector dependent economy where money is introduced through various cash-in-advance (CIA) constraints. Results are very significant and sensitive to various CIA constraints as well as relative capital intensities. Higher inflation will generate more investment in the economy leading to a higher level of capital stock and a lower level of net foreign assets in the long-run when the nontraded sector is more capital intensive and households need cash for purchasing tradable goods. However, the long-run effects are completely opposite if households need real balances for purchasing nontradable goods instead. In the second essay we examine the effects and the associated dynamics of an increase in international oil prices and domestic inflation. We show that an increase in oil prices or higher domestic inflation lowers the level of investment, production, and consumption in the long-run. The economy experiences a current account surplus along with a fall in capital stock by holding more foreign traded bonds. Transitional dynamics significantly depend on sectoral capital intensity as well. In essay 3 we investigate the explanatory power of yield spread in predicting economic activities in developing economies. We employ both the Markov regime switching model (MS) and the probit model to estimate the probability of recessions during the Asian financial crisis. We find that three-regime MS model is better predictor of recessions than two-regime MS model. The MS results are also compared with that of the standard probit model for comparison. The MS model does not significantly improve the forecasting ability of the yield spread in forecasting business cycles.