IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/ijfiec/v29y2024i1p1079-1096.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Explaining and correcting trade imbalances between the Northern and Southern Eurozone: An empirical investigation

Author

Listed:
  • Ioannis Litsios
  • Keith Pilbeam

Abstract

In this paper we take a novel approach to examining the trade imbalances between the Southern Eurozone countries and the Northern Eurozone countries by aggregating them into a Southern Group and Northern Group. We then explore three possible causes of the trade imbalances, which are the fiscal channel, the investment channel and the competitiveness channel. We find that all three channels are important in explaining the emergence and correction of trade imbalances. In particular, we find that an increase in fiscal deficits in the North are twice as effective in reducing trade imbalances than fiscal consolidation in the South. By contrast, increased investment in the North has a similar impact to reduced investment in the South in correcting the trade imbalances. Finally, we find that a depreciation of the South's real exchange rate is associated with a long run deterioration in the Southern Group's trade balance suggesting that the South needs to seek non‐price competitiveness channels to address its trade imbalances.

Suggested Citation

  • Ioannis Litsios & Keith Pilbeam, 2024. "Explaining and correcting trade imbalances between the Northern and Southern Eurozone: An empirical investigation," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(1), pages 1079-1096, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:ijfiec:v:29:y:2024:i:1:p:1079-1096
    DOI: 10.1002/ijfe.2722
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/ijfe.2722
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/ijfe.2722?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Belke, Ansgar & Dreger, Christian, 2011. "Current account imbalances in the euro area: Catching up or competitiveness?," Discussion Papers 297, European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder), Department of Business Administration and Economics.
    2. A. Carrasco, Carlos & Hernandez-del-Valle, Adrian, 2017. "Revisiting the Factors behind European External Imbalances," Journal of Economic Integration, Center for Economic Integration, Sejong University, vol. 32(2), pages 324-357.
    3. Litsios, Ioannis & Pilbeam, Keith, 2017. "An empirical analysis of the nexus between investment, fiscal balances and current account balances in Greece, Portugal and Spain," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 143-152.
    4. Peter C. B. Phillips & Bruce E. Hansen, 1990. "Statistical Inference in Instrumental Variables Regression with I(1) Processes," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 57(1), pages 99-125.
    5. Michael G. Arghyrou & Georgios Chortareas, 2008. "Current Account Imbalances and Real Exchange Rates in the Euro Area," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(4), pages 747-764, September.
    6. Hope, David, 2016. "Estimating the effect of the EMU on current account balances: A synthetic control approach," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 20-40.
    7. Zivot, Eric & Andrews, Donald W K, 2002. "Further Evidence on the Great Crash, the Oil-Price Shock, and the Unit-Root Hypothesis," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 20(1), pages 25-44, January.
    8. Cavaliere, Giuseppe, 2005. "Limited Time Series With A Unit Root," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 21(5), pages 907-945, October.
    9. Boonman, Tjeerd & Litsios, Ioannis & Pilbeam, Keith & Pouliot, William, 2022. "Modelling the trade balance between the northern and southern eurozone using an intertemporal approach," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    10. Jushan Bai & Pierre Perron, 1998. "Estimating and Testing Linear Models with Multiple Structural Changes," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 66(1), pages 47-78, January.
    11. Feldstein, Martin & Horioka, Charles, 1980. "Domestic Saving and International Capital Flows," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 90(358), pages 314-329, June.
    12. M. Hashem Pesaran & Yongcheol Shin & Richard J. Smith, 2001. "Bounds testing approaches to the analysis of level relationships," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(3), pages 289-326.
    13. Mariarosaria Comunale & Jeroen Hessel, 2014. "Current account imbalances in the Euro area: Competitiveness or financial cycle?," DNB Working Papers 443, Netherlands Central Bank, Research Department.
    14. Hope, David, 2016. "Estimating the effect of the EMU on current account balances: a synthetic control approach," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 67137, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    15. Cavaliere, Giuseppe & Xu, Fang, 2014. "Testing for unit roots in bounded time series," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 178(P2), pages 259-272.
    16. Jushan Bai & Pierre Perron, 2003. "Computation and analysis of multiple structural change models," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(1), pages 1-22.
    17. Juselius, Katarina, 2006. "The Cointegrated VAR Model: Methodology and Applications," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199285679.
    18. Levin, Andrew & Lin, Chien-Fu & James Chu, Chia-Shang, 2002. "Unit root tests in panel data: asymptotic and finite-sample properties," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 108(1), pages 1-24, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dissou, Yazid & Nafie, Yousra, 2021. "On the link between current account and fiscal imbalances in the presence of structural breaks: Empirical evidence from Egypt," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 15-27.
    2. Boonman, Tjeerd & Litsios, Ioannis & Pilbeam, Keith & Pouliot, William, 2022. "Modelling the trade balance between the northern and southern eurozone using an intertemporal approach," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    3. Giorgio Canarella & Rangan Gupta & Stephen M. Miller & Stephen K. Pollard, 2019. "Unemployment rate hysteresis and the great recession: exploring the metropolitan evidence," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 56(1), pages 61-79, January.
    4. Saten Kumar & Don J. Webber & Scott Fargher, 2012. "Testing the validity of the Feldstein--Horioka puzzle for Australia," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(5), pages 599-605, February.
    5. John D. Levendis, 2018. "Time Series Econometrics," Springer Texts in Business and Economics, Springer, number 978-3-319-98282-3, December.
    6. Sami, Janesh, 2021. "Has the long-run relationship between gold and silver prices really disappeared? Evidence from an emerging market," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    7. Ketenci, Natalya, 2014. "The Feldstein –Horioka Puzzle and structural breaks: Evidence from the largest countries of Asia," MPRA Paper 54660, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Natalya Ketenci, 2016. "The Feldstein–Horioka Puzzle and Structural Breaks: Evidence from the Largest Countries of Asia," Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, National Council of Applied Economic Research, vol. 10(3), pages 337-354, August.
    9. Ketenci, Natalya, 2013. "The Feldstein–Horioka puzzle in groupings of OECD members: A panel approach," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 76-87.
    10. Mariam Camarero & Juan Sapena & Cecilio Tamarit, 2020. "Modelling Time-Varying Parameters in Panel Data State-Space Frameworks: An Application to the Feldstein–Horioka Puzzle," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 56(1), pages 87-114, June.
    11. László KÓNYA, 2023. "Per Capita Income Convergence and Divergence of Selected OECD Countries to and from the US: A Reappraisal for the period 1900-2018," Applied Econometrics and International Development, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 23(1), pages 33-56.
    12. repec:zbw:bofitp:urn:nbn:fi:bof-201505061169 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Kanjilal, Kakali & Ghosh, Sajal, 2013. "Environmental Kuznet’s curve for India: Evidence from tests for cointegration with unknown structuralbreaks," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 509-515.
    14. Nusair, Salah A., 2019. "Oil price and inflation dynamics in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 181(C), pages 997-1011.
    15. Dakpogan, Arnaud & Smit, Eon, 2018. "The effect of electricity losses on GDP in Benin," MPRA Paper 89545, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Jeng-Bau Lin & Chin-Chia Liang & Wei Tsai, 2019. "Nonlinear Relationships between Oil Prices and Implied Volatilities: Providing More Valuable Information," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(14), pages 1-15, July.
    17. Michalis Nikiforos & Laura Carvalho & Christian Schoder, 2015. "“Twin deficits” in Greece: in search of causality," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(2), pages 302-330, October.
    18. Ketenci, Natalya, 2012. "The Feldstein–Horioka Puzzle and structural breaks: Evidence from EU members," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 262-270.
    19. Esteve, Vicente & Navarro-Ibáñez, Manuel & Prats, María A., 2013. "The Spanish term structure of interest rates revisited: Cointegration with multiple structural breaks, 1974–2010," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 24-34.
    20. Vinod Mishra & Ingrid Nielsen & Russell Smyth, 2010. "On the relationship between female labour force participation and fertility in G7 countries: evidence from panel cointegration and Granger causality," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 38(2), pages 361-372, April.
    21. Khorshed Chowdhury, 2011. "Dynamics, Structural Breaks and the Determinants of the Real Exchange Rate of Australia," Economics Working Papers wp11-11, School of Economics, University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:ijfiec:v:29:y:2024:i:1:p:1079-1096. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.interscience.wiley.com/jpages/1076-9307/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.