G7 Current Account Imbalances: Sustainability and Adjustment (National Bureau of Economic Research Conference Report)

448 Pages·2007·1.95 MB·English

by  Richard H. Clarida

G7 Current Account Imbalances
A National Bureau
of Economic Research
Conference Report
G7 Current
Account Imbalances
Sustainability and Adjustment
Richard H. Clarida
Edited by
The University of Chicago Press
Chicago and London
Richard H. Claridais the C. Lowell Harriss Professor of
economics at Columbia University, Global Strategic Advisor at
PIMCO, and a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic
Research.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2007 by the National Bureau of Economic Research
All rights reserved. Published 2007
Printed in the United States of America
16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN-10: 0-226-10726-4 (cloth)
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-10726-4 (cloth)
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Congress.
oThe paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements
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Contents
Acknowledgment ix
Introduction 1
Richard H. Clarida
I. Origins of G7 CurrentAccountImbalances
1. From World Banker to World Venture Capitalist:
U.S. External Adjustment and the
Exorbitant Privilege 11
Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas and Hélène Rey
Comment:José De Gregorio
2. A Global Perspective on External Positions 67
Philip R. Lane and Gian Maria Milesi-Ferretti
Comment:Richard Portes
3. Direct Investment, Rising Real Wages, and the
Absorption of Excess Labor in the Periphery 103
Michael P. Dooley, David Folkerts-Landau, and
Peter Garber
Comment:Shang-Jin Wei
II. EmpiricalStudies of G7 Current Account and Exchange
Rate Adjustment
4. Current Account Deficits in Industrial Countries:
The Bigger They Are, the Harder They Fall? 133
Caroline Freund and Frank Warnock
Comment:Assaf Razin
vii
viii Contents
5. Are There Thresholds of Current Account
Adjustment in the G7? 169
Richard H. Clarida, Manuela Goretti, and
Mark P. Taylor
Comment:Robert E. Cumby
6. Current Account Reversals: Always a Problem? 205
Muge Adalet and Barry Eichengreen
Comment:Frederic S. Mishkin
7. Understanding the U.S. Trade Deficit:
A Disaggregated Perspective 247
Catherine L. Mann and Katharina Plück
Comment:Peter B. Kenen
8. Will the Euro Eventually Surpass the Dollar as
Leading International Reserve Currency? 283
Menzie Chinn and Jeffrey A. Frankel
Comment:Edwin M. Truman
III. Theoretical Perspectives on Current Account Sustainability
and Adjustment
9. The Unsustainable U.S. Current Account
Position Revisited 339
Maurice Obstfeld and Kenneth Rogoff
Comment:Kristin J. Forbes
10. Smooth Landing or Crash? Model-Based
Scenarios of Global Current Account
Rebalancing 377
Hamid Faruqee, Douglas Laxton,
Dirk Muir, and Paolo A. Pesenti
Comment:Lars E.O. Svensson
11. The Dot-Com Bubble, the Bush Deficits,
and the U.S. Current Account 457
Aart Kraay and Jaume Ventura
Comment:Joseph E. Gagnon
Contributors 497
Author Index 501
Subject Index 505
Acknowledgment
I would like to thank Martin Feldstein for asking me to direct this NBER
Project on G7 Current Account Imbalances, and Helena Fitz-Patrick and
Brett Maranjian for making the conference and the book become a reality.
I would of course like to thank the authors and discussants for their origi-
nal and timely contributions to this important subject. Finally, I would like
to thank the editorial team at the University of Chicago Press for their help
in refining the manuscript.
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