Chapter 19.

The Goods Market in an

Open Economy

At the time of this writing, countries around the world are hoping for a strong
and lasting U.S. expansion. Their hopes are not for the United States, but
for themselves. To them, a strong and lasting U.S. expansion means higher
exports to the United States, an improvement of their trade positions, and a
higher probability of expansion for their own economy.
Are their hopes justified? Does the United States economy really drive other
economies? Conversely, would a U.S. recession really throw other countries in
recession? To answer these questions, we must expand our treatment of the
goods market in the core (Chapter 3), to take into account openness in goods
markets. This is what we do in this chapter.
Section 191 characterizes equilibrium in the goods market for an open economy.
Sections 192 and 193 show the effects of domestic shocks and foreign shocks
on the domestic economys output and trade balance.
Sections 194 and 195 look at the effects of a real depreciation on output
and on the trade balance.
Section 196 gives an alternative description of the equilibrium, which shows
the close connection between saving, investment, and the trade balance.
1

191. The IS Relation in the Open Economy

When we were assuming the economy was closed to trade, there was no
need to distinguish between the domestic demand for goods and the demand for domestic goods: They were clearly the same thing. Now, we must
distinguish between the two: Some domestic demand falls on foreign goods,
and some of the demand for domestic goods comes from foreigners.1 Lets
look at this distinction more closely.
The Demand for Domestic Goods
In an open economy, the demand for domestic goods is given by
Z C + I + G IM/ + X

(19.1)

The first three termsconsumption, C, investment, I, and government

spending, Gconstitute the domestic demand for goods. If the economy were closed, C + I + G would also be the demand for domestic goods.
This is why, until now, we have only looked at C + I + G. But now we have
to make two adjustments:

First, we must subtract importsthat part of the domestic demand

that falls on foreign goods rather than on domestic goods.
We must be careful here: Foreign goods are different from domestic
goods, so we cannot just subtract the quantity of imports, IM . If
we were to do so, we would be subtracting apples (foreign goods)
from oranges (domestic goods). We must first express the value of
imports in terms of domestic goods. This is what IM/ in equation
(19.1) stands for: Recall from Chapter 18 that , the real exchange
rate, is defined as the price of domestic goods in terms of foreign

1. The domestic demand for goods and The demand for domestic goods sound
close, but are not the same. Part of domestic demand falls on foreign goods. Part of
foreign demand falls on domestic goods.

goods. Equivalently, 1/ is the price of foreign goods in terms of

domestic goods. So IM (1/)or equivalently IM/is the value of
imports in terms of domestic goods.2

Second, we must add exportsthat part of the demand for domestic

goods that comes from abroad. This is captured by the term X in
equation (19.1).3

The Determinants of C, I, and G

Having listed the five components of demand, our next task is to specify
their determinants. Lets start with the first three: C, I, and G. Now that
we are assuming the economy is open, how should we modify our earlier
descriptions of consumption, investment, and government spending? The
answer: Not very much, if at all. How much consumers decide to spend still
depends on their income and their wealth. While the real exchange rate
surely affects the composition of consumption spending between domestic
goods and foreign goods, there is no obvious reason why it should affect
the overall level of consumption. The same is true of investment: The real
exchange rate may affect whether firms buy domestic machines or foreign
machines, but it should not affect total investment.
This is good news because it implies that we can use the descriptions
of consumption, investment, and government spending that we developed
earlier. Therefore
2. In Chapter 3, I ignored the real exchange rate and subtracted IM , not IM/. This
was a cheat; I did not want to have to talk about the real exchange rateand complicate
mattersso early in the book.
3.
Domestic demand for goods C + I + G
Minus Domestic demand for foreign goods (imports), IM/
Plus Foreign demand for domestic goods (exports), X
equals
Demand for domestic goods C + I + G IM/ + X

Domestic demand:

C + I + G = C(Y T ) + I(Y , r) + G
( +

(+, )

We assume that consumption depends positively on disposable income

(Y T ), and that investment depends positively on production (Y ) and
negatively on the real interest rate (r). We continue to take government
spending (G) as given. We leave aside the refinements introduced in Chapters 14 to 17, where we looked at the role of expectations in affecting spending. We want to take things one step at a time to understand the effects of
opening the economy; we shall reintroduce some of those refinements later.
The Determinants of Imports
Imports are the part of domestic demand that falls on foreign goods. What
do they depend on? They clearly depend on domestic income: Higher domestic income leads to a higher domestic demand for all goods, both domestic and foreign. So a higher domestic income leads to higher imports.4
They also clearly depend on the real exchange ratethe price of domestic
goods in terms of foreign goods: The more expensive domestic goods are
relative to foreign goodsequivalently, the cheaper foreign goods are relative to domestic goods the higher is the domestic demand for foreign
goods. So a higher real exchange rate leads to higher imports. Thus, we
write imports as
IM

= IM ( Y, )

(19.2)

(+, +)
4. Recall the discussion at the start of the chapter. Countries in the rest of the world
are hoping for a strong U.S. expansion. The reason: A strong U.S. expansion means an
increase in the U.S. demand for foreign goods.

An increase in domestic income, Y , (equivalently, an increase in domestic outputincome and output are still equal in an open economy) leads to an increase in imports. This positive effect of income
on imports is captured by the positive sign under Y in equation
(19.2).

An increase in the real exchange rate, , leads to an increase in

imports, IM . This positive effect of the real exchange rate on imports
is captured by the positive sign under in equation (19.2). (As goes
up, note that IM goes up, but 1/ goes down, so what happens to
IM/, the value of imports in terms of domestic goods, is ambiguous.
We will return to this point shortly.)

The Determinants of Exports

Exports are the part of foreign demand which falls on domestic goods.
What do they depend on? They depend on foreign income: Higher foreign
income means higher foreign demand for all goods, both foreign and domestic. So higher foreign income leads to higher exports. They depend also
on the real exchange rate: The higher the price of domestic goods in terms
of foreign goods, the lower the foreign demand for domestic goods. So, the
higher the real exchange rate, the lower exports.
Let Y denote foreign income (equivalently, foreign output).5 We therefore
write exports as

X = X(Y , )

(19.3)

(+ , )

5.

An increase in foreign income, Y , leads to an increase in exports.

Recall that asterisks refer to foreign variables.

An increase in the real exchange rate, leads to a decrease in exports.

Putting the Components Together

Figure 191 puts together what we have learned so far. It plots the various
components of demand against output, keeping constant all other variables
(the interest rate, taxes, government spending, foreign output, and the real
exchange rate) that affect demand.
In panel (a), the line DD plots domestic demand, C + I + G, as a function of output, Y . This relation between demand and output is familiar
from Chapter 3. Under our standard assumptions, the slope of the relation between demand and output is positive but less than 1: An increase
in outputequivalently, an increase in incomeincreases demand but less
than one for one. (In the absence of good reasons to the contrary, I draw
the relation between demand and output, and the other relations in this
chapter, as lines rather than curves. This is purely for convenience, and
none of the discussions that follow depend on this assumption.)
Figure 191. The Demand for Domestic Goods and Net Exports (Caption.
The domestic demand for goods is an increasing function of income. The
demand for domestic goods is obtained by subtracting the value of imports
from domestic demand, and then adding exports. The trade balance is a
decreasing function of output.)
To arrive at the demand for domestic goods, we must first subtract imports.
This is done in panel (b) and it gives us the line AA. The line AA represents
the domestic demand for domestic goods. The distance between DD and
AA equals the value of imports, IM/.6 Because the quantity of imports
6. For a given real exchange rate , IM/the value of imports in terms of domestic
goodsmoves exactly with IM the quantity of imports.

increases with income, the distance between the two lines increases with
income. We can establish two facts about line AA, which will be useful
later in the chapter:

AA is flatter than DD: As income increases, some of the additional

domestic demand falls on foreign goods rather than on domestic
goods. As income increases, the domestic demand for domestic goods
increases less than total domestic demand.

As long as some of the additional demand falls on domestic goods,

AA has a positive slope: An increase in income leads to some increase
in the demand for domestic goods.

Finally, we must add exports. This is done in panel (c) and gives us the line
ZZ, which is above AA. The line ZZ represents the demand for domestic
goods. The distance between ZZ and AA equals exports. Because exports
do not depend on domestic output, the distance between ZZ and AA is
constant, which is why the two lines are parallel. Because AA is flatter
than DD, ZZ is also flatter than DD.
From the information in panel (c) we can characterize the behavior of net
exportsthe difference between exports and imports (X IM/)as a
function of output. At output level Y for example, exports are given by
the distance AC and imports by the distance AB, so net exports are given
by the distance BC.7
This relation between net exports and output is represented as the line
NX (for Net eXports) in panel (d). Net exports are a decreasing function
of output: As output increases, imports increase and exports are unaffected,
leading to lower net exports. Call YT B (TB for trade balance) the level of
output at which the value of imports equals the value of exports, so that
net exports are equal to zero. Levels of output above YT B lead to higher
7. Recall that net exports is synonymous with trade balance. Positive net exports correspond to a trade surplus, while negative net exports correspond to a trade deficit.

imports, and to a trade deficit. Levels of output below YT B lead to lower

imports, and to a trade surplus.

192. Equilibrium Output and the Trade Balance

The goods market is in equilibrium when domestic output equals the demand for domestic goods

Y =Z
Collecting the relations we derived for the components of the demand for
domestic goods, Z, we get
Y = C(Y T ) + I(Y, r) + G IM (Y, )/ + X(Y , )

(19.4)

Figure 192. Equilibrium Output and Net Exports. (Caption. The goods
market is in equilibrium when domestic output is equal to the demand for
domestic goods. At the equilibrium level of output, the trade balance may
show a deficit or a surplus.)
This equilibrium condition determines output as a function of all the variables we take as given, from taxes to the real exchange rate to foreign
output. This is not a simple relation; Figure 192 represents it graphically,
in a more userfriendly way.
In panel (a), demand is measured on the vertical axis, output (equivalently
production or income) on the horizontal axis. The line ZZ plots demand
as a function of output; this line just replicates the line ZZ in Figure 191;
ZZ is upward sloping, but with slope less than 1.
8

Equilibrium output is at the point where demand equals output, at the

intersection of the line ZZ and the 45degree line: point A in the figure,
with associated output level Y .
Panel (b) of Figure 19-2 replicates panel (d) of Figure 191, drawing net
exports as a decreasing function of output. There is in general no reason
why the equilibrium level of output, Y , should be the same as the level
of output at which trade is balanced, YT B .8 As I have drawn the figure,
equilibrium output is associated with a trade deficit, equal to the distance
BC.
We now have the tools needed to answer the questions we asked at the
beginning of this chapter.

193. Increases in Demand, Domestic or Foreign

How do changes in demand affect output in an open economy? Lets start
with an old favoritean increase in government spendingthen turn to a
new exercise, the effects of an increase in foreign demand.
Increases in Domestic Demand
Suppose the economy is in recession and the government decides to increase government spendingso as to increase domestic demand and output. What will be the effects on output and on the trade balance?9
The answer is given in Figure 193. Before the increase in government
spending, demand is given by ZZ in panel (a), and the equilibrium is at
8. The equilibrium level of output is given by the condition Y = Z. The level of output
at which there is trade balance is given by the condition X = IM/. These are two
different conditions.
9. As in the core, we start with the goods market; the conclusions we derive here will
still largely be correct when we introduce financial markets and labor markets later on.

point A, where output equals Y . Lets assumethough, as we have seen,

there is no reason why this should be true in generalthat trade is initially
balanced, so, in panel (b), Y = YT B .
What happens if the government increases spending by G? At any level
of output, demand is higher by G, shifting the demand relation up by G
from ZZ to ZZ 0 . The equilibrium point moves from A to A0 , and output
increases from Y to Y 0 . The increase in output is larger than the increase
in government spending: There is a multiplier effect.
Figure 193. The Effects of an Increase in Government Spending. (Caption.
An increase in government spending leads to an increase in output and to
a trade deficit.)
So far, the story sounds the same as the story for a closed economy in
Chapter 3. However, there are two important differences:

There is now an effect on the trade balance. Because government

spending enters neither the exports relation nor the imports relation
directly, the relation between net exports and output in panel (b)
does not shift. So the increase in output from Y to Y 0 leads to a
trade deficit equal to BC: Imports go up, exports do not change.10

Not only does government spending now generate a trade deficit,

but the effect of government spending on output is smaller than
it would be in a closed economy. Recall from Chapter 3 that the
smaller the slope of the demand relation, the smaller the multiplier
(for example, if ZZ were horizontal, the multiplier would be 1). And
recall from Figure 191 that the demand relation, ZZ, is flatter than
the demand relation in the closed economy, DD. That means the

10. Starting from trade balance, an increase in government spending leads to a trade
deficit.

10

multiplier is smaller in the open economy.11

The trade deficit and the smaller multiplier have the same cause: An increase in demand now falls not only on domestic goods, but also on foreign
goods. So, when income increases, the effect on the demand for domestic goods is smaller than it would be in a closed economy, leading to a
smaller multiplier. And, because some of the increase in demand falls on
importsand exports are unchangedthe result is a trade deficit.12
These two implications are important. In an open economy, an increase in
domestic demand has a smaller effect on output than in a closed economy,
and an adverse effect on the trade balance. Indeed, the more open the
economy, the smaller the effect on output and the larger the adverse effect
on the trade balance. Take Belgium, and its ratio of imports to GDP close
to 80%. When domestic demand increases in Belgium, most of the increase
in demand is likely to take the form of an increase in the demand for foreign
goods rather than an increase in the demand for domestic goods. The effect
of an increase in government spending is thus likely to be a large increase
in Belgiums trade deficit and only a small increase in its output, making
domestic demand expansion a rather unattractive policy for Belgium. Even
for the United States, which has an import ratio of only 14%, an increase
in demand will be associated with a worsening of the trade balance. (This
conclusion is developed further in the first appendix to this chapter, called
Multipliers: Belgium versus the United States.)
Increases in Foreign Demand
Consider now an increase in foreign output, an increase in Y . This could be
due to an increase in foreign government spending, G the policy change
11. An increase in government spending increases output. The multiplier is smaller than
in a closed economy.
12. The smaller multiplier and the trade deficit have the same cause: Some domestic
demand falls on foreign goods.

11

we just analyzed, but now taking place abroad. But we do not need to
know where the increase in Y comes from to analyze its effects on the
U.S. economy.
Figure 194 shows the effects of an increase in foreign activity on domestic
output and the trade balance. The initial demand for domestic goods is
given by ZZ in panel (a). The equilibrium is at point A, with output level
Y . Lets assume trade is balanced, so that in panel (b) the net exports
associated with Y equal zero (Y = YT B ).
It will be useful below to refer to the line which gives the domestic demand
for goods C +I +G as a function of income. This line is drawn as DD. Recall
from Figure 191 that DD is steeper than ZZ. The difference between ZZ
and DD equal net exports, so that if trade is balanced at point A, then
ZZ and DD intersect at point A.13
Figure 194. The Effects of an Increase in Foreign Demand. (Caption. An
increase in foreign demand leads to an increase in output and to a trade
surplus.)
Now consider the effects of an increase in foreign output, Y (for the
moment, ignore the line DD; we only need it later). Higher foreign output
means higher foreign demand, including higher foreign demand for U.S.
goods. So the direct effect of the increase in foreign output is an increase
in U.S. exports by some amount, which we shall denote by X.

For a given level of output, this increase in exports leads to an

increase in the demand for U.S. goods by X, so the line giving
the demand for domestic goods as a function of output shifts up by
X, from ZZ to ZZ 0 .

13. DD is the domestic demand for goods. ZZ is the demand for domestic goods. The
difference between the two is equal to the trade deficit.

12

For a given level of output, net exports go up by X. So the line

giving net exports as a function of output in panel (b) also shifts up
by X, from NX to NX 0 .

The new equilibrium is at point A0 in panel (a), with output level Y 0 . The
increase in foreign output leads to an increase in domestic output. The
channel is clear: Higher foreign output leads to higher exports of domestic
goods, which increases domestic output and the domestic demand for goods
through the multiplier.
What happens to the trade balance? We know that exports go up. But
could it be that the increase in domestic output leads to such a large
increase in imports that the trade balance actually deteriorates? No: The
trade balance must improve. To see why, note that, when foreign demand
increases, the demand for domestic goods shifts up from ZZ to ZZ 0 ; but
the line DD, which gives the domestic demand for goods as a function
of output, does not shift.14 At the new equilibrium level of output Y 0 ,
domestic demand is given by the distance DC, and the demand for domestic
goods is given by DA0 . Net exports are thus given by the distance CA0
which, because DD is necessarily below ZZ 0 , is necessarily positive. Thus,
while imports increase, the increase does not offset the increase in exports,
and the trade balance improves.15

Fiscal Policy Revisited

We have derived two basic results so far:
14. Y directly affects exports and so enters the relation between the demand for domestic goods and output. An increase in Y shifts ZZ up.
Y does not affect either domestic consumption, domestic investment or domestic government spending directly, and so does not enter the relation between the domestic demand
for goods and output. An increase in Y does not shift DD.
15. An increase in foreign output increases domestic output and improves the trade
balance.

13

An increase in domestic demand leads to an increase in domestic

output, but leads also to a deterioration of the trade balance. (We
looked at an increase in government spending, but the results would
have been the same for a decrease in taxes, an increase in consumer
spending, and so on.)

An increase in foreign demand (which could come from the same

types of changes taking place abroad) leads to an increase in domestic output and an improvement in the trade balance.

These results, in turn, have a number of important implications.

First, and most obviously, they imply that shocks to demand in one country
affect all other countries. The stronger the trade links between countries,
the stronger the interactions, and the more countries will move together.
This implication seems indeed to be consistent with the facts. For example, most OECD countries experienced a strong economic expansion in
the second half of the 1990s, followed by a slowdown or an outright recession in the early 2000s. Trade links were probably not the only reason for
these common movements. It could be that most countries moved together
partly because they were experiencing the same domestic shocks. For example, many countries went through the same irrational exuberance cycle,
and the same investment boom and bust as the United States.16 But the
available evidence suggests that trade links also played an important role.
Second, these interactions very much complicate the task of policy makers,
especially in the case of fiscal policy. Lets explore this argument more
closely.
Start with the following observation: Governments do not like to run trade
deficits, and for good reasons. The main reason: A country that consistently runs a trade deficit accumulates debt vis`avis the rest of the world,
and therefore has to pay steadily higher interest payments to the rest of
16. See the box in Chapter 5 on the role of investment spending in the U.S. boom and
bust.

14

the world. Thus, it is no wonder that countries prefer increases in foreign

demand (which lead to an improvement in the trade balance) to increases
in domestic demand (which lead to a deterioration of the trade balance).
These preferences may have disastrous implications. Consider a group of
countries, all doing a large amount of trade with each other, so that an
increase in demand in any one country falls largely on the goods produced
in the other countries. Suppose all these countries are in recession and each
has roughly balanced trade to start. Each country may be very reluctant
to take measures to increase domestic demand. Were it to do so, the result
might be a small increase in output but also a large trade deficit. Each
country may just wait for the other countries to increase demand. But if
they all wait, nothing will happen and the recession may last a long time.
Is there a way out of this situation? There isat least in theory. If all
countries coordinate their macroeconomic policies so as to increase domestic demand simultaneously, each can expand without increasing its trade
deficit (vis`avis the others; their combined trade deficit with respect to
the rest of the world will still increase). The reason is clear: The coordinated increase in demand leads to increases in both exports and imports in
each country. It is still true that domestic demand expansion leads to larger
imports; but this increase in imports is offset by the increase in exports,
which comes from the foreign demand expansions.
Coordination is a word governments often invoke. The seven major countries of the worldthe socalled G7 (the United States, Japan, France,
Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Canada; the G stands for
group)meet regularly to discuss their economic situation; the communique at the end of the meeting rarely fails to mention coordination. But
the evidence is that there is in fact very limited macrocoordination among
countries. Here are some reasons why:

Coordination may imply that some countries have to do more than

15

others. They may not want to do so.

Suppose that only some countries are in recession. Countries that
are not in a recession will be reluctant to increase their own demand;
but if they do not, the countries that expand will run a trade deficit
visavis countries that do not.
Or suppose some countries are already running a large budget deficit.
These countries will not want to cut taxes nor increase spending further, and will ask other countries to take on more of the adjustment.
Those other countries may be reluctant to do so.

Countries have a strong incentive to promise to coordinate, and then

not deliver on that promise.
Once all countries have agreed, say, to an increase in spending, each
country has an incentive not to deliver, so as to benefit from the increase in demand elsewhere and thereby improve its trade position.
But if each country cheats, or does not do everything it promised,
there will be insufficient demand expansion to get out of the recession.

These reasons are far from abstract concerns. Countries in the European
Union, which are highly integrated with one another, have in the past 30
years often suffered from such coordination problems. In the late 1970s,
a bungled attempt at coordination left most countries weary of trying
again.17 In the early 1980s, an attempt by the French socialists to go at
it alone led to a large French trade deficit, and eventually to a change in
policy (this is described in the Focus box The French Socialist Expansion:
19811983). Thereafter, most countries decided that it was better to wait
for an increase in foreign demand than to increase their own demand. There
has been very little coordination of fiscal policy since then in Europe.
17. European countries embarked on fiscal expansion too late. By the time they increased spending, their economies were already recovering, and there was no longer a
need for higher government spending.

16

Focus. The French Socialist Expansion: 19811983

In May 1981, the Socialist party won the elections in France. Faced with
an economy suffering from more than 7% unemployment, the Socialists offered a program aimed at increasing demand through more generous social
policies and subsidies to job creation. Welfare benefits and pensions were
increased. Public jobs were created, as were new training programs for the
young and the unemployed. Table 1 summarizes the macroeconomic results
of the policy.
Table 1. Macroeconomic Aggregates, France: 19801983.

GDP growth (%)

EU growth (%)
Budget surplus
Current account surplus

1980
1.6
1.4
0.0
0.6

1981
1.2
0.2
1.9
0.8

1982
2.5
0.7
2.8
2.2

1983
0.7
1.6
3.2
0.9

The budget and current account surpluses are measured as ratios to GDP,
in percent. A minus sign indicates a deficit. EU growth refers to the average growth rate for the countries of the European Union. Source : OECD
Economic Outlook, December 1993.
The fiscal expansion is quite visible in the data: The budget, which was
balanced in 1980, was in deficit by 2.8% of GDP in 1982. The effects on
growth are equally visible. Average growth in 19811982 was 1.85%not
an impressive growth rate, but still much above the EUs dismal 0.45%
average growth rate over the same two years.
Nevertheless, the Socialists abandoned their policy in March 1983. The
last line of Table 1 tells us why. As France was expanding faster than
17

its trading partners, it experienced a sharp increase in its trade deficit.

While the government may have tolerated those trade deficits, financial
marketswhich were very nervous about the Socialists in the first place
forced three devaluations of the franc in 18 months (Recall from Chapter 18
that when countries try to maintain a fixed exchange rateas was the case
for France at the timedepreciations are called devaluations. We shall see
the mechanisms that lead to such devaluations in the next two chapters.)
The first was in October 1981, by 8.5% against the DM; the second in
June 1982, by 10% against the DM; and the third in March 1983, by 8%
against the DM. In March 1983, unwilling to face further attacks on the
franc and worried about the trade deficits, the French government gave up
its attempt to use demand policies to decrease unemployment and shifted
to a new policy of austeritya policy aimed at achieving low inflation,
budget and trade balance, and no further devaluations.

194. Depreciation, the Trade Balance, and Output

Suppose the U.S. government takes policy measures that lead to a depreciation of the dollara decrease in the nominal exchange rate. (We shall see
in Chapter 20 how it can do this by using monetary policy; for the moment
we assume the government can simply choose the exchange rate.)
Recall that the real exchange rate is given by

EP
P

The real exchange rate, (the price of domestic goods in terms of foreign
goods) is equal to the nominal exchange rate, E (the price of domestic
18

currency in terms of foreign currency) times the domestic price level, P ,

divided by the foreign price level, P . In the short run, we can take both P
and P as given. This implies that the nominal depreciation is reflected one
for one in a real depreciation.18 More concretely, if the dollar depreciates
vis`avis the yen by 10% (a 10% nominal depreciation), and if the price
levels in Japan and the United States do not change, U.S. goods will be
10% cheaper compared to Japanese goods (a 10% real depreciation).19
Lets now ask what the effects of this real depreciation will be on the U.S.
trade balance and on U.S. output.
Depreciation and the Trade Balance: The MarshallLerner
Condition
Return to the definition of net exports:
NX X IM/
Replace X and IM by their expressions from equations (19.2) and (19.3)
NX = X(Y , ) IM (Y, )/
As the real exchange rate enters the right side of the equation in three
places, this makes clear that the real depreciation affects the trade balance
through three separate channels:20
18. Given P and P , E increases EP/P increases.
19. A look ahead: In Chapter 21, we shall look at the effects of a nominal depreciation
when we allow the price level to adjust over time. You will see that a nominal depreciation
leads to a real depreciation in the short run, but not in the medium run.
20. More concretely, if the dollar depreciates vis a vis the yen by 10%:
[Note to ed: align with each of the bullet points below, as in 3e]
U.S. goods will be cheaper in Japan, leading to a larger quantity of U.S. exports to
Japan.
Japanese goods will be more expensive in the United States, leading to a smaller quantity

19

Exports, X, increase. The real depreciation makes U.S. goods relatively less expensive abroad. This leads to an increase in foreign
demand for U.S. goodsan increase in U.S. exports.

Imports, IM , decrease. The real depreciation makes foreign goods

relatively more expensive in the United States. This leads to a shift
in domestic demand towards domestic goods, and to a decrease in
the quantity of imports.

The relative price of foreign goods in terms of domestic goods, 1/,

increases. This increases the import bill, IM/. The same quantity
of imports now costs more to buy (in terms of domestic goods).

For the trade balance to improve following a depreciation, exports must

increase enough and imports must decrease enough to compensate for the
increase in the price of imports. The condition under which a real depreciation leads to an increase in net exports is known as the MarshallLerner
condition.21 (It is derived formally in the second appendix, called Derivation of the Marshall Lerner Condition at the end of the chapter.) It turns
outwith a complication we shall state when we introduce dynamics later
in this chapterthat this condition is satisfied in reality. So, for the rest of
this book, we shall assume that a real depreciationa decrease in leads
to an increase in net exportsan increase in NX.
The Effects of a Depreciation
We have looked so far at the direct effects of a depreciation on the trade
balancethat is, the effects given U.S. and foreign output. But the effects
do not end there. The change in net exports changes domestic output,
which affects net exports further.
of imports of Japanese goods to the United States.
Japanese goods will be more expensive, leading to a higher import bill for a given quantity
of imports of Japanese goods to the United States.
21. Named after the two economists, Alfred Marshall and Abba Lerner, who were the
first to derive it.

20

Because the effects of a real depreciation are very much like those of an
increase in foreign output, we can use Figure 194, the same figure that we
used to show the effects of an increase in foreign output earlier.
Just like an increase in foreign output, a depreciation leads to an increase in
net exports (assuming, as we do, that the MarshallLerner condition holds),
at any level of output.22 Both the demand relation (ZZ in panel (a)) and
the net exports relation (NX in panel (b)) shift up. The equilibrium moves
from A to A0 ; output increases from Y to Y 0 . By the same argument we
used earlier, the trade balance improves: The increase in imports induced
by the increase in output is smaller than the direct improvement in the
trade balance induced by the depreciation.
Lets summarize: The depreciation leads to a shift in demand, both foreign
and domestic, toward domestic goods. This shift in demand leads in turn
to both an increase in domestic output and an improvement in the trade
balance.
While a depreciation and an increase in foreign output have the same effect
on domestic output and the trade balance, there is a subtle but important difference between the two. A depreciation works by making foreign
goods relatively more expensive. But this means that given their income,
peoplewho now have to pay more to buy foreign goods because of the
depreciationare worse off. This mechanism is strongly felt in countries
that go through a large depreciation. Governments trying to achieve a large
depreciation often find themselves with strikes and riots in the streets, as
people react to the much higher prices of imported goods. This was for
example the case in Mexico, where the large depreciation of the peso in
19941995from 29 cents per peso in November 1994 to 17 cents per peso
in May 1995led to a large decline in workers living standards, and to
22. Marshall Lerner condition: Given output, a real depreciation leads to an increase in
net exports.

21

social unrest.23

Combining ExchangeRate and Fiscal Policies

Suppose a government wants to reduce the trade deficit without changing
the level of output. A depreciation alone will not do: It will reduce the
trade deficit, but it will also increase output. Nor will a fiscal contraction:
It will reduce the trade deficit, but it will decrease output. What should
the government do? Answer: Use the right combination of depreciation and
fiscal contraction. Figure 195 shows what this combination should be.
Figure 195. Reducing the Trade Deficit Without Changing Output. (Caption. To reduce the trade deficit without changing output, the government
must both achieve a depreciation and decrease government spending.)
Suppose the initial equilibrium in panel (a) is at A, associated with output
Y . At this level of output, there is a trade deficit, given by the distance
BC in panel (b). If the government wants to eliminate the trade deficit
without changing output, it must do two things:

It must achieve a depreciation sufficient to eliminate the trade deficit

at the initial level of output. So the depreciation must be such as to
shift the net exports relation from NX to NX 0 in panel (b).
The problem is that this depreciation, and the associated increase in
net exports, also shifts the demand relation in panel (a) from ZZ to
ZZ 0 . In the absence of other measures, the equilibrium would move
from A to A0 , and output would increase from Y to Y 0 .

23. There is an alternative to riotsasking for and obtaining an increase in wages. But,
if wages increase, the prices of domestic goods will follow and increase as well, leading
to a smaller real depreciation. To discuss this mechanism, we need to look at the supply
side in more detail than we have done so far. We return to the dynamics of depreciation,
wage and price movements in Chapter 21.

22

In order to avoid the increase in output, the government must reduce

government spending so as to shift ZZ 0 back to ZZ. This combination of a depreciation and a fiscal contraction leads to the same
level of output and an improved trade balance.

The combination of a depreciation and a fiscal contraction leads to an

unchanged level of output, and an improvement in the trade balance.
There is a general point behind this example. To the extent that governments care about both the level of output and the trade balance, they have
to use both fiscal policy and exchangerate policies.24 We just saw one such
combination. Table 191 gives you others, depending on the initial output
and trade situation. Take, for example, the box in the top right corner of
the table: Initial output is too low (put another way, unemployment is too
high), and the economy has a trade deficit. A depreciation will help on both
the trade and the output fronts: It reduces the trade deficit and increases
output. But there is no reason for the depreciation to achieve both the correct increase in output and the elimination of the trade deficit. Depending
on the initial situation and the relative effects of the depreciation on output and the trade balance, the government may need to complement the
depreciation with either an increase or a decrease in government spending.
This ambiguity is captured by the question mark in the box. Make sure
that you understand the logic behind each of the other three boxes.
Table 191. ExchangeRate and Fiscal Policy Combinations

Initial conditions:
Low output
High output

Trade Surplus
? G
G?

Trade Deficit
G?
? G

24. A general lesson: If you want to achieve two targets (here, output and trade balance),
you better have two instruments (here, fiscal policy and the exchange rate).

23

We have now seen how shifts in domestic demand, shifts in foreign demand,
and changes in the real exchange rate, all affect output and the trade balance. With these tools in hand, we have what we need to look at the sources
and implications of the large current U.S. trade deficits. This is what we
do in the Focus box The U.S. Trade Deficit: Origins and Implications.

Focus. The U.S. Trade Deficit: Origins and Implications.

Figure 1 shows the evolution of U.S. exports and imports as ratios to
GDP since 1990. It shows how, since the mid1990s, exports and imports
have steadily diverged. The import ratio has continued to increase, but the
export ratio has decreased, going from 11.5% in 1997 to 9.5% in 2003. As
a result, the U.S. trade deficit has steadily increased, and, in 2003, it stood
at 4.5%. The current account deficit (which, you will remember, is equal
to the trade deficit, plus transfers from the United States to the rest of the
world, minus net income payments from the rest of the world to the United
States, and tells us how much the United States has to borrow from the
rest of the world) stood at an even higher 5% of GDP.
Figure 1. U.S. Exports and Imports as Ratios to U.S. GDP, 1990-2003
The 2003 trade and current account deficits were by far the largest (both
absolutely, and in proportion to GDP) in recorded U.S. history. And, given
the size of the U.S. economy, a current account deficit of 5% of GDP represents a very large amountmore than $ 500 billionwhich the United
States has to borrow from the rest of the world. This raises two main questions. Where do these deficits come from, and what do they imply for the
future? Lets take up each question in turn.
24

Where does the trade deficit, and by implication the current

account deficit, come from? There are two main causes:
The first cause is the high U.S. growth rate since the mid 1990s, relative
to the growth rate of its trading partners.
Table 1 gives the average annual growth rate for the United States, Japan,
the European Union, and the world economy (excluding the United States)
for three periods, 1990-1995, 19962000, and 2000-2003. From 1991 to 1995,
growth in the United States was roughly in line with growth in the rest
of the world. Since 1996 however, U.S. growth has been much higher than
growth in the rest of the world. The U.S. performance from 1996 to 2000
reflects the New economy boom, which we have discussed at many points
in the book. U.S. growth has decreased since 2000 (recall that the United
States went through a recession in 2001), but growth has slowed down even
more in the rest of the world.
Higher growth does not necessarily lead to a higher trade deficit: If the
main source of the increase in demand and growth in a country is an
increase in foreign demand, the country can grow fast and maintain trade
balance, or even sustain a trade surplus. In the case of the United States
since the mid1990s however, the main source of increased demand has
been domestic demand, with high consumption and investment demand as
the main factors behind the sustained expansion. Thus, higher growth has
come with an increasing trade deficit.
Table 1. Average Annual Growth Rates in the United States, Japan, the
European Union, and the World, 1991-2003 (percent per year)

The second cause is the steady real appreciation of U.S. goodsthe increase
in the real U.S. effective exchange rate.

25

United States
Japan
European Union
World (excluding U.S.)

1991-1995
2.5
1.5
2.1
3.2

1996-2000
4.1
1.5
2.6
2.8

2001-2003
2.9
0.9
1.9
1.5

Even if, at a given real exchange rate, growth leads to an increase in the
trade deficit, a real depreciation can help maintain trade balance by making
domestic goods more competitive. But just the opposite happened to the
U.S. real exchange rate in the late 1990s: The United States experienced
a real appreciation, not a real depreciation. As shown in Figure 2, the
multilateral real exchange rate (normalized to equal 1.0 in 2000) increased
from 0.85 in 1995 to 1.05 in 2002a 20% real appreciation. While the
dollar has depreciated since 2002, the depreciation has so far been limited,
and the exchange rate remains much higher than in the mid1990s.
Figure 2. The Multilateral Real Exchange Rate, 1990-2003
What happens next? Should we expect the large trade deficit and current account deficit to naturally disappear in the future? At an unchanged
real exchange rate, the answer is probably not. If there were good reasons
to expect U.S. trading partners to experience much higher growth than
the United States over the coming decade, then we could expect to see
the same process we saw in the 1990s, but this in time in reverse: Lower
growth in the United States than in the rest of the world would lead to
a steady reduction in the trade deficit. There are few reasons however to
expect such a scenario. While the United States cannot expect to replicate
the growth rates of the late 1990s, there is also no reason either to expect
much lower growth than average over the coming decade. And nobody is
predicting sustained high growth in the European Union or in Japan.
Can the United States afford to sustain a large trade deficit and a large
26

current account deficit for many more years? The answer, again: Probably
not. While financial investors have been willing to lend to the United States
until now, it may be difficult for the United States to continue to borrow
$500 billion per year or so in the future. And, even if financial investors
were willing to continue to lend, it is not clear that it would be a wise
policy for the United States to accumulate such a large debt visavis the
rest of the world.
These arguments have two implications:

The U.S. trade and current account deficits will need to be reduced.

This is unlikely to happen without a real depreciation. How large a

depreciation? Estimates range from 20% to 40%in short, a substantial real depreciation. When will this depreciation take place?
This is a much harder question to answer. It will take place when
foreign investors become reluctant to lend to the United States at
the rate of $500 billion or so a year.

Going back to the issues discussed in Table 19-1 in the text: A depreciation
on such a scale will have major effects on the demand for goods both in
the United States and abroad:
The depreciation will increase the demand for U.S. goods. If, when the
depreciation takes place, U.S. output is already close to its natural level,
the risk is that the depreciation will lead to too high a level of demand,
and too high a level of output. In that case, the right policy will be a
fiscal contraction, a reduction in the large budget deficits that the U.S.
government currently runs. If the U.S. government succeeds in achieving
a smooth depreciation and the appropriate fiscal contraction, the outcome
may be sustained growth and a reduction of the trade deficit.
The depreciation will decrease the demand for foreign goods. By the same
argument, this may require foreign governments to use policy to sustain
demand and output in their own country. This would ordinarily call for
27

a fiscal expansion, but this may not be the solution this time. A number
of countries, for example France, Germany, and Japan, are already running large budget deficits. For the reasons we saw in Chapter 17, further
increasing these deficits further may be difficult, even dangerous. If fiscal
policy cannot be used, a strong dollar depreciation may therefore trigger a
recession in those countries.
In short, a smooth reduction of the U.S. trade deficit will require the combination of a dollar depreciation and fiscal policy changes both in the United
States and abroad. Many economists worry that this may not be easy to
achieve.

195. Looking at Dynamics: The J-Curve

We have ignored dynamics so far in this chapter. It is time to reintroduce
them. The dynamics of consumption, investment, sales, and production we
discussed in Chapter 3 are as relevant to the open economy as they are to
the closed economy. But there are additional dynamic effects as well, which
come from the dynamics of exports and imports. I focus on these effects
here.
Return to the effects of the exchange rate on the trade balance. I argued
earlier that a depreciation leads to an increase in exports and to a decrease
in imports. But these effects do not happen overnight. Think of the dynamic
effects of, say, a 10% dollar depreciation.
In the first few months following the depreciation, the effect of the depreciation is likely to be reflected much more in prices than in quantities. The
price of imports in the United States goes up, and the price of U.S. exports
abroad goes down. But the quantity of imports and exports is likely to
28

adjust only slowly: It takes a while for consumers to realize that relative
prices have changed, it takes a while for firms to shift to cheaper suppliers,
and so on. So a depreciation may well lead to an initial deterioration of
the trade balance; decreases, but neither X nor IM adjusts very much
initially, leading to a decline in net exports (X IM/).
As time passes, the effects of the change in the relative prices of both
exports and imports become stronger. Cheaper U.S. goods lead U.S. consumers and firms to decrease their demand for foreign goods: U.S. imports decrease. Cheaper U.S. goods abroad lead foreign consumers and
firms to increase their demand for U.S. goods: U.S. exports increase. If
the MarshallLerner condition eventually holdsand we have argued that
it doesthe response of exports and imports eventually becomes stronger
than the adverse price effect, and the eventual effect of the depreciation is
an improvement of the trade balance.25
Figure 196 captures this adjustment by plotting the evolution of the
trade balance against time in response to a real depreciation. The pre
depreciation trade deficit is OA. The depreciation initially increases the
trade deficit to OB: decreases, but neither IM nor X changes right
away. Over time, exports increase and imports decrease, reducing the trade
deficit. Eventually (if the MarshallLerner condition is satisfied), the trade
balance improves beyond its initial level; this is what happens from point
C on in the figure. Economists refer to this adjustment process as the J
curve, becauseadmittedly, with a bit of imaginationthe curve in the
figure resembles a J: first down, then up.
Figure 196. The JCurve. (Caption. A real depreciation leads initially to
a deterioration, and then to an improvement of the trade balance.)
25. The response of the trade balance to the real exchange rate:
Initially:
X, IM unchanged, decreases
(X IM/) decreases.
Eventually: X increases, IM decreases, decreases (X IM/) increases.

29

The importance of the dynamic effects of the real exchange rate on the
trade balance can be seen from the evidence from the United States in the
mid1980s: Figure 197 plots the U.S. trade deficit against the U.S. real
exchange rate in the 1980s. As we saw in the last chapter, the period from
1980 to 1985 was one of sharp real appreciation, and the period from 1985
to 1988 one of sharp real depreciation. Turning to the trade deficit, which
is expressed as a proportion of GDP, two facts are clear:
1.

Movements in the real exchange rate were reflected in parallel movements in net exports. The appreciation was associated with a large
increase in the trade deficit, and the later depreciation was associated with a large decrease in the trade balance.

2.

There were, however, substantial lags in the response of the trade

balance to changes in the real exchange rate. Note how from 1981
to 1983, the trade deficit remained small while the dollar was appreciating. And note how the steady depreciation of the dollar from
1985 on was not reflected in an improvement in the trade balance
before 1987: The dynamics of the Jcurve were very much at work
in both episodes.26

Figure 197. The Real Exchange Rate and the Ratio of the Trade Deficit
to GDP: United States, 19801990 (Caption. The real appreciation and
depreciation of the dollar in the 1980s were reflected in increasing and
then decreasing trade deficits. There were, however, substantial lags in the
effects of the real exchange rate on the trade balance.)
In general, the econometric evidence on the dynamic relation between exports, imports, and the real exchange rate, suggests that in all OECD countries, a real depreciation eventually leads to a trade balance improvement.
26. The delays in 19851988 were unusually long, prompting some economists at the
time to question whether there was still a relation between the real exchange rate and
the trade balance. In retrospect, the relation was still therethe delays were just longer
than usual.

30

But it also suggests that this process takes some time, typically between six
months and a year. These lags have implications not only for the effects of
a depreciation on the trade balance but also for the effects of a depreciation
on output. If a depreciation initially decreases net exports, it also initially
exerts a contractionary effect on output. Thus, if a government relies on
a depreciation both to improve the trade balance and to expand domestic
output, the effects will go the wrong way for a while.

196. Saving, Investment, and the Trade Balance

You saw in Chapter 3 how we could rewrite the condition for equilibrium in
the goods market as the condition that investment was equal to savingthe
sum of private saving and public saving. We can now derive the corresponding condition for the open economy, and show how useful this alternative
way of looking at the equilibrium can be.
Start from our equilibrium condition

Y = C + I + G IM/ + X
Subtract C + T from both sides, and use the fact that private saving is
given by S = Y C T , to get
S = I + G T IM/ + X
Using the definition of net exports NX X IM/, and reorganizing gives

NX = S + (T G) I

(19.5)

31

This condition says that in equilibrium, the trade balance (NX) must be
equal to savingprivate saving (S) and public saving (T G)minus
investment (I). It follows that a trade surplus must correspond to an excess
of saving over investment; a trade deficit must correspond to an excess of
investment over saving.
One way of getting more intuition for this relation is to go back to the
discussion of the current account and the capital account in Chapter 18.
There we saw that a trade surplus implies net lending from the country
to the rest of the world, and a trade deficit implies net borrowing by the
country from the rest of the world. So, consider a country that invests more
than it saves, so that S + (T G) I is negative. That country must be
borrowing the difference from the rest of the world; it must therefore be
running a trade deficit.
Note some of the things that equation (19.5) says:

An increase in investment must be reflected in either an increase in

private saving or public saving, or in a deterioration of the trade
balance (a smaller trade surplus, or a larger trade deficit).

An increase in the budget deficit must be reflected in an increase in

either private saving, or a decrease in investment, or a deterioration
of the trade balance.

A country with a high saving rate (private plus public) must have
either a high investment rate or a large trade surplus.

Note also however what equation (19.5) does not say. It does not say, for
example, whether a budget deficit will lead to a trade deficit, or, instead,
to an increase in private saving, or to a decrease in investment. To find out
what happens in response to a budget deficit, we must explicitly solve for
what happens to output and its components using the assumptions that
we have made about consumption, investment, exports, and imports. We
can do so using either equation (19.1)as we have done throughout this
chapteror equation (19.5), as the two are equivalent. However, let me
32

strongly recommend that you use equation (19.1). Using (19.5) can, if you
are not careful, be very misleading. To see how misleading, consider, for
example, the following argument (which is so common that you may have
read it in some form in newspapers):
It is clear the United States cannot reduce its large trade deficit (currently
above 4% of GDP) through a depreciation. Look at equation (19.5). It
shows that the trade deficit is equal to investment minus saving. Why
should a depreciation affect either saving or investment? So, how can a
depreciation affect the trade deficit?
The argument may sound convincing, but we know it is wrong. We showed
earlier that a depreciation leads to an improvement in the trade position. So
what is wrong with the argument? A depreciation actually affects saving
and investment: It does so by affecting the demand for domestic goods,
thereby increasing output. Higher output leads to an increase in saving
over investment, or equivalently to a decrease in the trade deficit.
A good way of making sure that you understand the material in this chapter
is to go back and look at the various cases we have considered, from changes
in government spending, to changes in foreign output, to combinations of
depreciation and fiscal contraction, and so on. Trace what happens in each
case to each of the four components of equation (19.5): private saving,
public saving (equivalently, the budget surplus), investment, and the trade
balance.27 Make sure, as always, that you can tell the story in words. If
you can, you are ready to go on to Chapter 20.

Summary
27. Suppose for example that the U.S. government wants to reduce the trade deficit
without changing the level of output, so it uses a combination of depreciation and fiscal
contraction. What happens to private saving, public saving, and investment?

33

In an open economy, the demand for domestic goods is equal to

the domestic demand for goods (consumption, plus investment, plus
government spending) minus the value of imports (in terms of domestic goods), plus exports.

In an open economy, an increase in domestic demand leads to a

smaller increase in output than it would in a closed economy because
some of the additional demand falls on imports. For the same reason,
an increase in domestic demand also leads to a deterioration of the
trade balance.

An increase in foreign demand leads, as a result of increased exports,

to both an increase in domestic output and an improvement of the
trade balance.

Because increases in foreign demand improve the trade balance and

increases in domestic demand worsen the trade balance, countries
may be tempted to wait for increases in foreign demand to move
them out of a recession. When a group of countries is in recession,
coordination can in principle help them get out of it.

If the MarshallLerner condition is satisfiedand the empirical evidence indicates that it isa real depreciation leads to an improvement in net exports.

A real depreciation leads first to a deterioration of the trade balance,

and then to an improvement. This adjustment process is known as
the Jcurve.

The condition for equilibrium in the goods market can be rewritten

as the condition that saving (public and private) minus investment
must be equal to the trade balance. A trade surplus corresponds to
an excess of saving over investment. A trade deficit corresponds to
an excess of investment over saving.

Key terms
34

demand for domestic goods

domestic demand for goods

marginal propensity to import

coordination, G7

MarshallLerner condition

Jcurve

Further readings
A good discussion of the relation among trade deficits, budget deficits,
private saving, and investment is given in Barry Bosworths Saving and
Investment in a Global Economy (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution,
1993).
A good discussion of the U.S. trade deficit and its implications for the
future is given in Dollar Overvaluation and the World Economy, edited
by Fred Bergsten and John Williamson (Washington, DC: Institute for
International Economics, 2003).

35

Appendix 1. Multipliers: Belgium versus the United States.

If we assume that the various relations in equation (19.4) are linear, we can
compute the effects of government spending, foreign output, and so forth,
on both output and the trade balance. In this appendix we look at the
differences between the effects of government spending in a large country
such as the United States and in a small country such as Belgium.
Assume consumption and investment for a given country are given by
C = c0 + c1 (Y T )
I = d0 + d1 Y d2 r
Consumption C increases with disposable income Y T ; investment I increases with output Y and decreases with the real interest rate r. c0 , c1 , d0 , d1 , d2
are parameters.
For simplicity, ignore movements in the real exchange rate and assume
= 1. Assume imports and exports are given by
IM

= im1 Y

X = x1 Y
Imports IM are proportional to domestic output Y , and exports X are
proportional to foreign output Y . im1 and x1 are parameters. In the same
way as we referred to c1 as the marginal propensity to consume, im1 is the
marginal propensity to import.
The equilibrium condition is that output equals the demand for domestic
goods
Y = C + I + G IM + X
(Recall that we are assuming that equals 1, so IM/ is simply equal to

36

IM .) Replace C, I, G, IM and X by their expressions from above

Y = [c0 + c1 (Y T )] + (d0 + d1 Y d2 r) + G im1 Y + x1 Y
Regroup terms
Y = (c1 + d1 im1 )Y + (c0 + d0 c1 T d2 r + G + x1 Y )
Bring the terms in output together, and solve for output
Y =[

1
] (c0 + d0 c1 T d2 r + G + x1 Y )
1 (c1 + d1 im1 )

Output equals the multiplier (the term in square brackets) times autonomous
spending (the term in parentheses, which captures the effect of all the variables we take as given in explaining output.
Consider the multiplier. Specifically, consider (c1 + d1 im1 ) in the denominator. As in the closed economy, (c1 + d1 ) gives the effects of an increase
in output on consumption and investment demand; (im1 ) captures the
fact that some of the increased demand falls not on domestic goods but on
foreign goods.

In the extreme case where all the additional demand falls on foreign
goodswhen im1 = c1 + d1 an increase in output has no effect
back on the demand for domestic goods; in that case, the multiplier
equals 1.

In general, im1 is less than (c1 + d1 ), so that the multiplier is larger

than 1. But the multiplier is smaller than it would be in a closed
economy.

Using this equation, we can easily characterize the effects of an increase in

government spending of G:
The increase in output is equal to the multiplier times the change in gov-

37

ernment spending
Y =

1
G
1 (c1 + d1 im1 )

And the increase in imports that follows from the increase in output implies
the following change in net exports
NX = im1 Y
=

im1
G
1 (c1 + d1 im1 )

Lets see what these formulas imply by choosing numerical values for the
parameters.
Let c1 + d1 equal to 0.6. What value should we choose for im1 ? We saw in
Chapter 18 that, in general, the larger the country, the more self sufficient
it is, and the less it imports. So lets choose two values of im1 a small
value, say 0.1, for a large country such as the United States, and a larger
one, say 0.5, for a small country such as Belgium. Note that the proportion
of an increase in demand that falls on imports is given by im1 /(c1 +d1 ) (An
increase in output of 1 dollar leads to an increase in spending of (c1 + d1 )
dollars, of which im1 dollars is spent on foreign goods.) So an equivalent
way of stating our choice of im1 is that, in the large country, 1/6 (0.1
divided by 0.6) of demand falls on imports, versus 5/6 (0.5 divided by 0.6)
in the small country.
Now return to the expressions for output and the trade balance.
For the large country:

The effect of the change in government spending on output is given

by:
Y =

1
G = 2.0G
1 (0.6 0.1)
38

The effect of the change in government spending on the trade balance is given by:
NX = 0.1Y =

0.1
G = 0.2G
1 (0.6 0.1)

For the small country:

The effects of the change in government spending on output are

given by:
Y =

1
G = 1.11G
1 (0.6 0.5)

The effects of the change in government spending on the trade balance are given by:
NX = 0.5Y =

0.5
G = 0.65G
1 (0.6 0.5)

These computations show the very different trade-offs faced by each country:

In the large country, the effect of an increase in G on output is large

and the effect on the trade balance is small.

In the small country, the effect of an increase in G on output is

small, and the deterioration of the trade balance is equal to half of
the increase in government spending.

This example shows how openness makes it more difficult to use fiscal
policy to affect output, especially in small countries. The more open the
economy, the smaller the effect of fiscal policy on output and the larger the
effect on the trade position. We shall see more examples of this proposition
as we go along.

Appendix 2: Derivation of the MarshallLerner Condition

39

Start from the definition of net exports

NX X IM/
Assume trade to be initially balanced, so that NX = 0 and X = IM/,
or equivalently X = IM . The MarshallLerner condition is the condition
under which a real depreciation, a decrease in , leads to an increase in net
exports.
To derive this condition, first multiply both sides of the equation above by
to get
NX = X IM
Now consider a change in the real exchange rate of . The effect of the
change in the real exchange rate on the left side of the equation is given
by ()NX + (NX). Note that, if trade is initially balanced, NX = 0,
so the first term in this expression is equal to zero, and the effect of the
change on the left side is simply given by (NX). The effect of the
change in the real exchange rate on the right side of the equation is given
by ()X + (X) (IM ). Putting the two sides together gives
(NX) = () X + (X) (IM )
Divide both sides by X to get:
(NX)
() X
(X) (IM )
=
+

X
X
X
X
Simplify, and use the fact that, if trade is initially balanced, X = IM to
replace X by IM in the last term on the right. This gives
NX
X
IM
=
+

X
IM

40

The change in the trade balance (as a ratio to exports) in response to a

real depreciation is equal to the sum of three terms:

The first term is equal to the proportional change in the real exchange rate. It is negative if there is a real depreciation.

The second term is equal to the proportional change in exports. It

is positive if there is a real depreciation.

The third term is equal to minus the proportional change in the

imports. It is positive if there is a real depreciation.

The MarshallLerner condition is the condition that the sum of these three
terms be positive. If it is satisfied, a real depreciation leads to an improvement in the trade balance.
A numerical example will help here. Suppose that a 1% depreciation leads
to a proportional increase in exports of 0.9% and to a proportional decrease
in imports of 0.8%. (Econometric evidence on the relation of exports and
imports to the real exchange rate suggest that these are indeed reasonable
numbers.) In that case, the right hand side of the equation is equal to
1% + 0.9% (0.8%) = 0.7%. Thus the trade balance improves: The
MarshallLerner condition is satisfied.

41

Figure 19-7. The Real Exchange Rate and the Trade Deficit
United States, 1980-1990
REAL_EXCHANGE_RA
TRADE_BALANCE

3.5

1.36

3.0

1.28

2.5

1.20

2.0

1.12

1.5

1.04

1.0

0.96

0.5

0.88

0.0

0.80

-0.5
80

81

82

83

84

85

86

87

88

89

90

Ratio of the trade deficit to GDP

Real exchange rate (2000:1=1.00)

1.44

Figure 19-4. The Effects of an Increase

in Foreign Demand
Domestic demand for goods

ZZ

NX

Demand, Z

(a)

DD

X>0
A

ZZ
Demand for domestic goods

D
Y

(b)

Net Exports, NX

Output, Y

X>0
NX
0

YTB
NX

NX
Output, Y

Demand, Z

Figure 19-1. The Demand for Domestic Goods

And Net Exports

DD

Domestic demand
(C+I+G)

DD

Demand, Z

(a)

Output
AA

Imports (IM/)

(b)

Output

(figure 19-1. continued)

DD

ZZ

Demand, Z

AA
C

Exports (X)

B
A

Net Exports, NX

(c)

YTB

Output

Trade surplus

Y
BC

YTB
NX
Trade
deficit

(d)

1.10

Figure 2. The U.S. Multilateral Real Exchange Rate, 1990-2003

REER2000

1.05

Index (2000=1.0)

1.00

0.95

0.90

0.85

0.80
1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996
Year

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

16

Figure 1. U.S. Exports and Imports as Ratios of GDP, 1990-2003

EXPORTS
IMPORTS

15

14

Percent

13

12

11

10

8
1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996
Year

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003