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The "Great Moderation" and the US External Imbalance

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Author Info
Alessandra Fogli () (Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Research Department)
Fabrizio Perri () (University of Minnesota, Department of Economics)

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Abstract

The early 1980s marked the onset of two striking features of the current world macro-economy: the fall in US business cycle volatility (the "great moderation") and the large and persistent US external imbalance. In this paper we argue that an external imbalance is a natural consequence of the great moderation. If a country experiences a fall in volatility greater than that of its partners, its relative incentives to accumulate precautionary savings fall and this results in an equilibrium permanent deterioration of its external balance. To assess how much of the current US imbalance can be explained by this channel, we consider a standard two country business cycle model in which households are subject to country specific shocks they cannot perfectly insure against. The model suggests that a fall in business cycle volatility like the one observed for the US relatively to other major economies can account for about 20% of the current total US external imbalance.

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Paper provided by Laboratory for Macroeconomic Analysis in its series Working Papers with number CAS_RN_2007_5.

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Length: 23 pages
Date of creation: Nov 2006
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Handle: RePEc:cas:wpaper:cas_rn_2007_5

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
F32 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Current Account Adjustment; Short-term Capital Movements
F34 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - International Lending and Debt Problems
F41 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance - - - Open Economy Macroeconomics

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  2. Lane, Philip & Milesi-Ferretti, Gian Maria, . "External Wealth of Nations," Instructional Stata datasets for econometrics extwealth, Boston College Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  3. Ricardo J. Caballero & Emmanuel Farhi & Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, 2006. "An Equilibrium Model of Global Imbalances and Low Interest Rates," 2006 Meeting Papers 894, Society for Economic Dynamics. [Downloadable!]
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  4. James H. Stock & Mark W. Watson, 2003. "Has the Business Cycle Changed and Why?," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2002, Volume 17, pages 159-230 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!]
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  5. David Backus & Espen Henricksen & Frederic Lambert & Chris Telmer, 2005. "Current Account Fact and Fiction," 2005 Meeting Papers 115, Society for Economic Dynamics.
  6. Margaret M. McConnell & Gabriel Perez-Quiros, 2000. "Output Fluctuations in the United States: What Has Changed since the Early 1980's?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(5), pages 1464-1476, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  7. James H. Stock & Mark W. Watson, 2005. "Understanding Changes In International Business Cycle Dynamics," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 3(5), pages 968-1006, 09. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. Sylvain Leduc & Keith Sill, 2003. "Monetary policy, oil shocks, and TFP: accounting for the decline in U.S. volatility," Working Papers 03-22, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. [Downloadable!]
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  9. Enrique G. Mendoza & Vincenzo Quadrini & Jose-Victor Rios-Rull, 2007. "Financial Integration, Financial Deepness and Global Imbalances," NBER Working Papers 12909, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  10. Baxter, Marianne & Crucini, Mario J, 1995. "Business Cycles and the Asset Structure of Foreign Trade," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 36(4), pages 821-54, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  11. Sebastian Edwards, 2005. "Is the U.S. Current Account Deficit Sustainable? And If Not, How Costly is Adjustment Likely To Be?," NBER Working Papers 11541, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  13. Olivier Blanchard & John Simon, 2001. "The Long and Large Decline in U.S. Output Volatility," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 32(2001-1), pages 135-174. [Downloadable!]
  14. Andres Arias & Gary D. Hansen & Lee E. Ohanian, 2006. "Why Have Business Cycle Fluctuations Become Less Volatile?," NBER Working Papers 12079, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  15. Backus, David K & Kehoe, Patrick J & Kydland, Finn E, 1992. "International Real Business Cycles," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(4), pages 745-75, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  16. Heathcote, J. & Perri, F., 2001. "Financial Globalization and Real Regionalization," New York University, Leonard N. Stern School Finance Department Working Paper Seires 01-11, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business-.
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  17. Aiyagari, S Rao, 1994. "Uninsured Idiosyncratic Risk and Aggregate Saving," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 109(3), pages 659-84, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. James M. Nason & Gregor W. Smith, 2008. "Great moderations and U.S. interest rates: unconditional evidence," Working Paper 2008-01, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. [Downloadable!]
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  2. Enrique G. Mendoza & Vincenzo Quadrini & Jose-Victor Rios-Rull, 2007. "Financial Integration, Financial Deepness and Global Imbalances," NBER Working Papers 12909, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  3. Silvio Contessi & Pierangelo DePace & Johanna Francis, 2008. "The cyclical properties of disaggregated capital flows," Working Papers 2008-041, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Bonilla, Eugenio Diaz, 2008. "Global macroeconomic developments and poverty:," IFPRI discussion papers 766, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). [Downloadable!]
  5. Ellen R. McGrattan & Edward C. Prescott, 2008. "Technology Capital and the U.S. Current Account," NBER Working Papers 13983, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. James Feigenbaum & Geng Li, 2008. "A Nonparametric Characterization of Income Uncertainty over the Lifecycle," Working Papers 359, University of Pittsburgh, Department of Economics, revised Jul 2008. [Downloadable!]
  7. Irineu E. Carvalho Filho & Rudolfs Bems, 2009. "Current Account and Precautionary Savings for Exporters of Exhaustible Resources," IMF Working Papers 09/33, International Monetary Fund. [Downloadable!]
  8. Marcel Fratzscher & Roland Straub, 2009. "Asset Prices and Current Account Fluctuations in G7 Economies," Working Paper Series 1014, European Central Bank. [Downloadable!]
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  9. Marcel Fratzscher & Luciana Juvenal & Lucio Sarno, 2007. "Asset prices, exchange rates and the current account," Working Paper Series 790, European Central Bank. [Downloadable!]
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  10. Jonathan Pincus & Richard Pomfret, 2009. "The Financial Sector And The Future Of Capitalism," Working Papers 2009-05, University of Adelaide, School of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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