We study optimal fiscal policy in a small open economy characterized by two main frictions – incomplete financial markets and an inability of the government to commit to policy. Our main contribution is to show that in this environment, the best sustainable policy can amplify and prolong shocks to output. In particular, the government’s credibility not to expropriate foreign capital endogenousl...

One of the most important trends in the world economy in recent decades has been the improvement of the communications networks (e.g., the Internet and satellite communications networks). Technology penetrates all aspects of human life and in recent years has connected people all over the globe through the World Wide Web. With lower communications costs have come a growing connectivity of indiv...

This paper presents a small open economy version of the J. Benhabib and R. E. A. Farmer (1996, J. Monet. Econ. 37, 421 443) two sector optimal growth model with production externalities. It is shown that indeterminacy is considerably easier to obtain under a regime of perfect world capital markets than in the closed economy variant. Furthermore, the result is not dependent on a high labor suppl...

This paper proposes a measure to assess the monetary policy for a highly inflationary small open economy: Turkey. The empirical evidence suggests that positive innovations in the spread between the Central Bank’s interbank interest rate and the depreciation rate of the local currency mimic the properties of the tight monetary policy. These innovations, when they are positive, decrease income an...

In this paper we develop a model of a multi-sector multi-factor small open economy with involuntary unemployment due to fair wages. The model is used inter alia to analyse the labour market effects of changes in unemployment benefits and the domestic labour supply. Our analysis covers both the case where factor prices do not react to endowment changes – as in the Heckscher-Ohlin model – and the...

This paper uses a multivariate vector error-correction generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity model to investigate the effect of British grain prices on their Irish equivalents. We find that in the long run the law of one price holds and in the short run the model captures the salient features of Irish grain prices. The model is used to compute rolling forecasts of the condit...

The literature comparing fully funded (FF) and pay-as-you-go (PAYG) financed public pension systems in small, open economies stresses the importance of the Aaron condition as an empirical measure to decide which system can be expected to lead to a higher long-run welfare. A country with a PAYG system has a higher level of utility than a country with a FF system if the growth rate of total wage...

When international prices and foreign environmental policies are unaffected by domestic actions, carbon leakage is generated through the substitution of carbon-intensive domestic products with imports. This paper studies this “small open economy” leakage effect, using a numerical general equilibrium model of the Italian economy. The comparison of alternative simulation scenarios highlights that...

We study a small open economy characterized by two main frictions – incomplete financial markets and an inability of the government to commit to policy. We characterize the best sustainable fiscal policy and show that it can prolong shocks to output. In particular, the government’s credibility not to expropriate capital endogenously varies with the state of the economy and may be “scarcest” dur...

In this paper, the government consumption spending effects in a small open economy(SOE), are explored. In a standard active monetary/passive fiscal policy(AM/PF) regime, openness reduces the effectiveness of the government spending on output through the terms of trade decrease. Consumption decreases less than in the closed economy, but this effect is so weak that the output does not rise more t...