This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the relationship between financial openness and total factor productivity (TFP) growth using an extensive dataset that includes various measures of productivity and financial openness for a large sample of countries. We find that de jure capital...

This paper analyzes the evolution of the degree of global cyclical interdependence over the period 1960-2005. We categorize the 106 countries in our sample into three groups-industrial countries, emerging markets, and other developing economies. Using a dynamic factor model, we then decompose...

Contents -- I. INTRODUCTION -- II. METHODOLOGY AND DATA -- III. DYNAMIC FACTORS AND EPISODES OF BUSINESS CYCLES -- IV. SOURCES OF BUSINESS CYCLE FLUCTUATIONS: 1960-2005 -- V. GLOBALIZATION AND THE EVOLUTION OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS CYCLES -- VI. SENSITIVITY EXPERIMENTS -- VII. CONCLUSION --...

Intro -- Contents -- EXECUTIVE SUMMARY -- I. INTRODUCTION -- II. A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THEORY -- III. MEASURING FINANCIAL OPENNESS -- IV. PATTERNS OF FINANCIAL GLOBALIZATION -- V. MACROECONOMIC EVIDENCE ON EFFECTS OF FINANCIAL GLOBALIZATION -- VI. HOW DOES THE COMPOSITION OF CAPITAL FLOWS MATTER?...

Intro -- Contents -- I. INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW -- II. LOW INFLATION OBJECTIVE AS NOMINAL ANCHOR -- III. PRINCIPLES OF MONETARY POLICY GEARED TOWARD TARGETING INFLATION -- IV. INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT FOR INDEPENDENT MONETARY POLICY -- V. MONETARY AND BANKING INSTITUTIONS IN CHINA -- VI....

From 1995 to 2005, the average urban household saving rate in China rose by 7 percentage points, to ¼ of disposable income. We use household-level data to explain the postponing of consumption despite rapid income growth. Tracing cohorts over time indicates virtually no consumption smoothing...

This paper documents the main stylized features of macroeconomic fluctuations for 12 developing countries. Cross-correlations between domestic industrial output and a large group of macroeconomic variables (including fiscal variables, wages, inflation, money, credit, trade, and exchange rates)...

This paper examines the links between fiscal policy, capital inflows, and the real exchange rate in Turkey since the late 1980s. After an overview of recent macroeconomic developments in Turkey, a vector autoregression model is estimated linking government spending, interest rate differentials,...

This paper estimates a simple consumption-smoothing model of the French current account, and examines its capacity to predict recent developments in France’s external performance. The model views the current account as a buffer through which private agents can smooth consumption over time in...

There is a common perception that the prices of unrelated commodities move together. This paper re-examines this notion, using a measure of comovement of economic time series called concordance. Concordance measures the proportion of time that the prices of two commodities are concurrently in...