IMF Working Papers

Trade Costs, Market Integration, and Macroeconomic Volatility

By Kanda Naknoi, Allan D. Brunner

March 1, 2003

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Kanda Naknoi, and Allan D. Brunner Trade Costs, Market Integration, and Macroeconomic Volatility, (USA: International Monetary Fund, 2003) accessed November 21, 2024
Disclaimer: This Working Paper should not be reported as representing the views of the IMF.The views expressed in this Working Paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the IMF or IMF policy. Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to further debate

Summary

This paper examines the effects of trade costs on macroeconomic volatility. We first construct a dynamic, two-country general equilibrium model, where the degree of market integration depends directly on trade costs (transport costs, tariffs, etc.). The model is a extension of Obstfeld and Rogoff (1995). Naturally, a reduction in trade costs leads to more market integration, as the relative price of foreign goods falls and households increase their consumption of imported goods. In addition, with more market integration, the model predicts that the variability of the real exchange rate should fall, while the variability of the trade balance should increase. Trade costs have ambiguous effects on the volatility of other macro variables, such as income and consumption. Finally, we present some empirical findings that provide mixed support for the model's predictions.

Subject: Consumption, Foreign exchange, International trade, National accounts, Real exchange rates, Tariffs, Taxes, Trade balance, Transportation

Keywords: Aggregate demand, Changes steady-state, Consumption, Effective tariff rate, Exchange rate, Global, Globalization, Iceberg-cost setup, Market integration, Real exchange rates, Relative prices, Tariffs, Trade balance, Trade cost, Transport cost, Transport costs, Transportation, WP

Publication Details

  • Pages:

    49

  • Volume:

    ---

  • DOI:

    ---

  • Issue:

    ---

  • Series:

    Working Paper No. 2003/054

  • Stock No:

    WPIEA0542003

  • ISBN:

    9781451847536

  • ISSN:

    1018-5941

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