Modelling Global Trade Flows - Results from a GVAR Model

Matthieu Bussiere (), Alexander Chudik () and Giulia Sestieri ()
Additional contact information
Alexander Chudik: European Central Bank, Kaiserstrasse 29, 60311 Frankfurt am Main, Germany., http://www.ecb.europa.eu/home/html/index.en.html
Giulia Sestieri: University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via Columbia, 2, 00133 Roma, Italy., http://web.uniroma2.it/home-en.php?newlang=english

No 1087, Working Paper Series from European Central Bank

Abstract: This paper uses a Global Vector Auto-Regression (GVAR) model in a panel of 21 emerging market and advanced economies to investigate the factors behind the dynamics of global trade flows, with a particular view on the issue of global trade imbalances and on the conditions of their unwinding. The GVAR approach enables us to make two key contributions: first, to model international linkages among a large number of countries, which is a key asset given the diversity of countries and regions involved in global imbalances, and second, to model exports and imports jointly. The latter proves to be very important due to the internationalisation of production and the high import content of exports. The model can be used to gauge the effect on trade flows of various scenarios, such as an output shock in the United States, a shock to the US real effective exchange rate and shocks to foreign (German and Chinese)variables. Results indicate in particular that world exports respond much more to a (normalised) shock to US output than to a real effective depreciation of the dollar. In addition, the model can be used to monitor trade developments, such as the sharp contraction in world trade that took place in the wake of the financial crisis. While the fall in imports seems well accounted for by the model,the fall in exports of several countries remains partly unexplained, suggesting perhaps that specific factors might have been at play during the crisis. JEL Classification: F10, F17, F32, C33.

Keywords: International trade; global imbalances; global VAR; exchange rates; trade elasticities. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cba, nep-int, nep-opm and nep-pke
Date: 2009-09
View list of references

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/scpwps/ecbwp1087.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20091087

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
Press and Information Division, European Central Bank, Kaiserstrasse 29, 60311 Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Paper Series from European Central Bank
Address: Postfach 16 03 19, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Contact information at EDIRC.
Series data maintained by Official Publications ().