Fiscal Policy and the Current Account Are Microstates Different?

This paper examines the empirical link between fiscal policy and the current account focusing on microstates defined as countries with a population of less than 2 million between 1970 and 2009. The paper employs panel regression and panel vector autoregression (VAR) on 155 countries of which 42 are...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Endegnanew, Yehenew
Other Authors: Turner-Jones, Therese, Yartey, Charles Amo
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Washington, D.C. International Monetary Fund 2012
Series:IMF Working Papers
Subjects:
Online Access:
Collection: International Monetary Fund - Collection details see MPG.ReNa
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245 0 0 |a Fiscal Policy and the Current Account  |b Are Microstates Different?  |c Yehenew Endegnanew, Therese Turner-Jones, Charles Amo Yartey 
260 |a Washington, D.C.  |b International Monetary Fund  |c 2012 
300 |a 27 pages 
651 4 |a São Tomé and Príncipe, Democratic Republic of 
653 |a Wealth 
653 |a Current account 
653 |a Short-term Capital Movements 
653 |a Currency; Foreign exchange 
653 |a Saving 
653 |a Government consumption 
653 |a Current Account Adjustment 
653 |a Fiscal Policy 
653 |a Balance of payments 
653 |a Real effective exchange rates 
653 |a Exports and Imports 
653 |a Fiscal policy 
653 |a International economics 
653 |a National accounts 
653 |a Foreign Exchange 
653 |a Consumption; Economics 
653 |a Current account balance 
653 |a Macroeconomics 
653 |a Macroeconomics: Consumption 
653 |a Public Finance 
653 |a Fiscal and Monetary Policy in Development 
653 |a Foreign exchange 
653 |a Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents: General 
700 1 |a Turner-Jones, Therese 
700 1 |a Yartey, Charles Amo 
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520 |a This paper examines the empirical link between fiscal policy and the current account focusing on microstates defined as countries with a population of less than 2 million between 1970 and 2009. The paper employs panel regression and panel vector autoregression (VAR) on 155 countries of which 42 are microstates. Panel regression results show that a percentage point improvement in the fiscal balance improves the current account balance by 0.4 percentage points of GDP. The real effective exchange rate has no significant impact on the current account in microstates but the coefficient is significant in the global sample. Panel VAR results show that an increase in government consumption results in real exchange appreciation but the effect on the current account after an initial deterioration dies out quicker in microstates than in the global sample. The result implies that fiscal policy has little effect on the current account in microstates beyond its direct impact on imports. Overall, the results suggest that the weak relative price effects make the effect of fiscal adjustment on the current account much more difficult in microstates