We examine the importance of world real interest rate shocks in explaining business-cycle fluctuations in open economies using a stochastic dynamic model of a small open economy. We argue that a good proxy of the world real interest rate is not available. Moreover, the world interest rate...

It is widely accepted that international trade is an important force transmitting business cycles from one country to another. Metaphors such as "when the U.S. sneezes, Europe catches a cold" are often invoked to illustrate the importance of these linkages. Recent empirical research has...

In this paper the authors study the economic evolution between 1960 and 1995 of two states in India — Maharashtra and West Bengal. In 1960, West Bengal’s per capita income exceeded that of Maharashtra. By 1995, it had fallen to just 69 percent of Maharashtra’s per capita income. The...

The Asia crisis was originally expected to affect the U.S. economy adversely, mainly through reduced exports to, and increased imports from, the crisis countries. However, U.S. GDP growth in 1998, at 4.3 percent, was surprisingly strong. This article examines the effect of the crisis on the U.S....

Dramatic changes are occurring in the nature of international trade. Production processes increasingly involve a sequential, vertical trading chain stretching across many countries, with each country specializing in particular stages of a good's production sequence. We document a key aspect of...