WELFARE PROPERTIES OF ENDOGENOUS BUSINESS CYCLES IN A TWO-COUNTRY MODEL WITH PRODUCTION

抄録

This paper analyzes the dynamic behavior and efficiency properties of a disaggregated two-country model with production. Trade occurs in consumption goods, investment goods and in equities issued by firms of both countries. However trade between the two countries is always balanced, so that no international lending and borrowing takes place and no international trade in equities is allowed. In the long run the economy may not converge to a stationary state but exhibits endogenous competitive business cycles. The efficiency properties of these cycles are closely related to those of the stationary equilibrium. Loosely speaking, weak efficiency of a cyclical equilibrium is more likely the more efficient (in a Pareto sense) the stationary equilibrium, the more volatile the intertemporal price ratio and the larger the period of the cycle is.