Intertemporal substitution in a monetary framework: evidence from Chile and Mexico

Patricio Arrau

No 549, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: This paper estimates a monetary Euler system of a utility-maximizing representative consumer from two inflationary Latin American countries: Chile in the late seventies and Mexico in the early eighties. The results show that money is necessary to get reasonable parameters of the utility function. For both countries, tests of the overidentifying restrictions are satisfactory at usual levels of significance and estimates for the intertemporal elasticity of substitution are greater than one. The results indicate that velocity sensitivity to the nominal interest rate is lower for Chile than for Mexico, but this difference could be explained by a model of currency substitution. More important, a model of currency substitution may be the appropriate way to explain the monetary puzzle observed in Mexico after the stabilization attempt of late 1987. Despite the fact that inflation was sharply (and permanently) reduced, velocity did not go down. The model of currency substitution suggests that a good way to hedge against discrete devaluation would be to increase liquidity in foreign - not domestic - currency.

Keywords: Economic Theory&Research; Environmental Economics&Policies; Fiscal&Monetary Policy; TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT; Inequality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1990-12-31
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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