Testing present value models of the current account: a cautionary note
Abstract
Following Campbell (1987) and Campbell and Shiller (1987), many papers have evaluated the intertemporal approach to the current account by testing restrictions on a Vector Autoregression (VAR). The attractiveness of the Campbell-Shiller methodology is that it is thought to be immune to omitted information. This paper uses results from Hansen and Sargent (1991a) and Quah (1990) to show that this is not true in certain (empirically plausible) situations. In particular, it is shown that if fundamentals are driven by unobserved (to the econometrician) permanent and transitory components, then the theoretical restrictions of a standard Present Value model of the current account might not be testable with a VAR. This is because the theoretical moving average representation can turn out to be noninvertible. This implies that observed data, including the current account, do not reveal the underlying shocks to agents' information sets. ; These results are potentially relevant given the results of several recent papers which claim that current accounts are 'excessively volatile'. I provide a simple example in which a researcher employing the Campbell-Shiller methodology is tricked into thinking the current account responds excessively to shocks when in fact the data are consistent with the theory.(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
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Bibliographic Info
Article provided by Elsevier in its journal Journal of International Money and Finance.
Volume (Year): 22 (2003)
Issue (Month): 4 (August)
Pages: 557-569
Contact details of provider:
Web page: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/30443
Related research
Keywords:Other versions of this item:
- Kenneth Kasa, 2000. "Testing present value models of the current account: a cautionary note," Working Papers in Applied Economic Theory 2000-12, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
References
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Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Neil Dias Karunaratne, 2008. "The Polemics and Empirics of the Sustainability of Australia’s Current Account Deficit - Revisited," Discussion Papers Series 364, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
- John C. Bluedorn, 2005.
"Hurricanes: Intertemporal Trade and Capital Shocks,"
Economics Papers
2005-W22, Economics Group, Nuffield College, University of Oxford.
- John C. Bluedorn, 2005. "Hurricanes: Intertemporal Trade and Capital Shocks," Economics Series Working Papers 241, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
- Elif C. Arbatli, 2009. "Futures Markets, Oil Prices, and the Intertemporal Approach to the Current Account," 2009 Meeting Papers 406, Society for Economic Dynamics.
- Jacques Miniane & Benoît Mercereau, 2004. "Challenging the Empirical Evidence from Present Value Models of the Current Account," IMF Working Papers 04/106, International Monetary Fund.
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