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What can account for fluctuations in the terms of trade?

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Author Info
Marianne Baxter
Michael A. Kouparitsas

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Abstract

Fluctuations in the terms of trade the price of a country’s exports relative to the price of its imports are a source of perennial concern to policymakers in developing countries and industrialized nations alike. Terms of trade growth is extremely volatile and can lead to sudden changes in a country’s economic health. This paper seeks to understand the sources of fluctuations in the terms of trade. We decompose a country’s terms of trade volatility into a component stemming from differences in the composition of import baskets and export baskets, which we define as a goods price effect, and a component due to cross-country differences in the price of a particular class of goods, which we call a country price effect. We ask whether the decomposition depends in a clear way on country characteristics-developed vs. less-developed; exporter of manufactured goods vs. exporter of fuels or other commodities? Our goal in this paper is twofold. First, we provide new evidence on the sources of terms of trade volatility that should be of use to policymakers, Seconds, the stylized facts that emerge from this analysis will provide guidance for economists seeking to build better models of interdependent economies.

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Paper provided by Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago in its series Working Paper Series with number WP-00-25.

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Date of creation: 2000
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Handle: RePEc:fip:fedhwp:wp-00-25

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Keywords: Trade ; Business cycles;

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This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports: References listed on IDEAS
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  2. Engel, Charles, 1993. "Real exchange rates and relative prices : An empirical investigation," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 35-50, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  3. David K. Backus & Mario J. Crucini, 1998. "Oil Prices and the Terms of Trade," NBER Working Papers 6697, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  4. Backus, David K & Kehoe, Patrick J & Kydland, Finn E, 1994. "Dynamics of the Trade Balance and the Terms of Trade: The J-Curve?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(1), pages 84-103, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  5. Stockman, Alan C & Tesar, Linda L, 1995. "Tastes and Technology in a Two-Country Model of the Business Cycle: Explaining International Comovements," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(1), pages 168-85, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. Engel, Charles & Rogers, John H, 1996. "How Wide Is the Border?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(5), pages 1112-25, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  7. Robert J. Hodrick & Edward Prescott, 1981. "Post-War U.S. Business Cycles: An Empirical Investigation," Discussion Papers 451, Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science. [Downloadable!]
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  8. Charles Engel, 1999. "Accounting for U.S. Real Exchange Rate Changes," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 107(3), pages 507-538, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. Michael A. Kouparitsas, 1996. "North-South business cycles," Working Paper Series, Macroeconomic Issues WP-96-9, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. [Downloadable!]
  10. Knetter, Michael M, 1993. "International Comparisons of Price-to-Market Behavior," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(3), pages 473-86, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg & Michael M. Knetter, 1997. "Goods Prices and Exchange Rates: What Have We Learned?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 35(3), pages 1243-1272, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  12. Rogers, J.H. & Jenkins, M.A., 1993. "Haircuts or Hysteresis? Sources of Movements in Real Exchange Rates," Papers 4-93-6, Pennsylvania State - Department of Economics.
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(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. Abdur R. Chowdhury, 2003. "Private Savings In Transition Economies: Are There Terms Of Trade Shocks?," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 2003-572, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross Business School. [Downloadable!]
  2. Michael A. Koupatrisas, 2001. "Evidence of the North--South business cycle," Economic Perspectives, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, issue Q I, pages 46-59. [Downloadable!]
  3. Chowdhury, Abdur R., 2003. "Do asymmetric terms of trade shocks affect private savings in a transition economy?," BOFIT Discussion Papers 3/2003, Bank of Finland, Institute for Economies in Transition. [Downloadable!]
  4. Christopher Bowdler & Adeel Malik, 2005. "Openness and inflation volatility: Cross-country evidence," Economics Papers 2005-W14, Economics Group, Nuffield College, University of Oxford. [Downloadable!]
  5. Abdur R. Chowdhury, 2003. "Do asymmetric terms of trade shocks affect private savings in a transition economy?," Macroeconomics 0303006, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
  6. Margaret McMillan & Alix Peterson Zwane & Nava Ashraf, 2005. "My Policies or Yours: Does OECD Support for Agriculture Increase Poverty in Developing Countries?," NBER Working Papers 11289, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  7. Maurizio Michael Habib & Margarita Manolova Kalamova, 2007. "Are there oil currencies? The real exchange rate of oil exporting countries," Working Paper Series 839, European Central Bank. [Downloadable!]
  8. Calderon, Cesar & Kubota, Megumi, 2009. "Does higher openness cause more real exchange rate volatility ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4896, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
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