Current Account - determination & schedule Flashcards
What components make up the current account?
Current account = TB + IB + NUT
What does the current account show?
= net ∆ in international debt/credit per year
What is the trade balance, and give an equation for it.
Trade balance is a countries net trade in goods + services TB = X-IM
What is the income balance, and give an equation for it.
Income Balance measures the flow of income to/from the rest of the world IB = net investment income (income from capital)+ net international payments to employees (Income from labour)
What is the net unilateral transfers, and give an equation for it.
Net unilateral transfers is the difference between gifts received and given to/from the rest of the world NUT = private remittance + government transfers
What does CAUS+CAROW=0 imply?
That the sum of CA must = 0
Therefore, countries may diverge, creating global imblances where some countries are debtors and others are creditors.
What is the equation linking CA, savings and investment?
Dervive
=net foreign assets in period 1, r=interest rate
As , and adding to each side:
As the national income = GDP + net investment income, , and
As
Define Net International Investment Position, NIIP, in words + an equation
NIIP = Difference between a country’s foreign assets and its foreign liability
NIIP = A – L = domestic owned foreign assets – foreign owned domestic assets
What does a -ve NIIP mean?
The country is a net debtor
What is a change in NIIP equal to?
What are valuation changes?
Valuation changes = changes in the market value of the country’s foreign asset and liability positions due to currency appreciations, deprecations, changes in stock price, etc.
How do you calculate the hypothetical NIIP and what does it show?
Take a base year CA, and sum the CAs from that year on to create a hypothetical NIIP
Shows how valuation changes have benefited/hindered a countries debt position
What is the negtive-NIIP-positive-NII paradox?
Some countries have -ve NIIP, but +ve net investment income
Give the 2 explinations of the negative-NIIP-positive-NII paradox
Dark matter + Return differentials
Explain what dark matter is, and how do you calculate it?
Dark matter - accounting failures lead NIIP to be –ve, but it is actuall +ve
TNIIP = the ‘true’ NIIP NIIP = observed NIIP NII = net intvestment income
- Dark matter = TNNIP-NIIP
Explain what return differentials are, and how do you calculate it?
Return differentials - the relative interest rates on the liabilities and assets differ explaining the NIIP paradox
Assets are often high-rent, and gross liabilities are often composed of safer low-return assets. This return differential can lead to the NIIP-NII paradox.
Return differential =
average real rate of terturn on US T-bills
Can an economy run a perpetual TB deficit? Show your result with algebra
(for a 2 peroid endowment economy, assuming unilateral transfer=0 and no net transfer to employees =0)
Yes if
NIIP at the end of period 1:
NIIP at the end of period 2:
Transitivity condition = No-ponzy-game + optimality condition:
NIIP (including interest) = present discounted value of the future trade deficits.
This implies:
If net debtor,, then must run a TB surplus at some point.
If net creditor,, then can afford running TB deficits in both periods.
What is the ponzy game condition? (in words and alegrbrically or both 2 peroid and infinite horizon economies)
2 peroid
As the economy ends at the end of period 2, the country can’t hold assets or debts as no one will be able to find a creditor ( ) and has no benefit to lend .
Transitivity condition = No-ponzy-game + optimality condition:
Infinite horizon:
No-Ponzi-game constraint becomes:
àshows that you can’t increase debt at a rate that you can keep up with the repayments - Present day value of asset at final period has to be +ve
Optimality/transversality condition:
Can an economy run a perpetual CA deficit? Show your result with algebra
(for a 2 peroid endowment economy, assuming unilateral transfer=0 and no net transfer to employees =0)
yes if
This implies:
If net debtor, , then must run a CA surplus at some point.
If net creditor, , then can afford running CA deficits in both periods.
Can an economy run a perpetual TB deficit? Show your result with algebra
(for an infite horizon economy, assuming unilateral transfer=0 and no net transfer to employees =0)
Shift this expression 1 period forward:
Combine formula to eliminate
Repeat this T times to get:
current wealth/debt = current value of sum of TB
This implies:
If net debtor, , then must run a TB surplus at some point.
If net creditor, , then can afford running TB deficits in all periods.
Can an economy run a perpetual CA deficit? Show your result with algebra
(for an infite horizon economy, assuming unilateral transfer=0 and no net transfer to employees =0)
yes if** **or** **but GDP growth rate ≥
Assumming the country is initially a net debtor & recall motion of debt:
The country generates TB surplus to pay a fraction, , of its interest obligations: where
recall current account:
- current account will always be –ve
What abut the transversality condition?
& divide each side by
As t becomes larger this converges to 0 as
this satisfies the transversality condition
Then TB becomes:
a country can operate perpetual -ve current account even when. However, their debt increases year on year at a rate of as do the interest paymentsthe TB required to keep up with interest payments needs to grow at an unboundedly rate of àin order for a country to be generate this path of TB surpluses, its GDP must grow at a rate ≥
What is the intertemporal budget constraint, in maths and graphically.
- 2 period small open economy
- The economy received endowments of and in periods 1 and 2
- Initial wealth is inherited from the past. Here are bonds that paid the interest rate.
- In period 1, households choose consumption and bond holdings , which pay interest rate
Present day value of consumption = present day value of endowment + initial wealth
What is the slope of the intertemporal budget constraint?
Slope = -
= price ratio of consumption periods / cost of borrowing or benefit of lending