Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T05:19:21.686Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

HABIT PERSISTENCE AND INTERNATIONAL COMOVEMENTS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 August 2011

Alexandre Dmitriev*
Affiliation:
University of New South Wales
Ivo Krznar
Affiliation:
Croatian National Bank and Zagreb School of Economics and Management
*
Address correspondence to: Alexandre Dmitriev, School of Economics, Australian School of Business, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia; e-mail: a.dmitriev@unsw.edu.au.

Abstract

Theoretically, two-country real business cycle models with time-separable preferences and complete markets predict that cross-country investment correlations will be negative. The opposite is true in the data. This phenomenon has been described by Backus et al. [in Cooley (ed.), Frontiers of Business Cycle Research, pp. 331–356 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995)] as a quantity anomaly. This paper proposes to address this discrepancy by allowing the nonseparability of preferences over time. Here, we incorporate internal habit formation into consumption. Our model predicts the empirically plausible value of cross-country investment correlation without sacrificing other business cycle statistics. The results are robust to the degree of spillovers and persistence in the specification of the productivity shocks.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abel, Andrew B. (1990) Asset prices under habit formation and catching up with the Joneses. American Economic Review 80, 3842.Google Scholar
Alonso-Carrera, Jaime, Caballe, Jordi, and Raurich, Xavier (2005) Growth, habit formation, and catching-up with the Joneses. European Economic Review 49, 16651691.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Backus, David K., Kehoe, Patrick J., and Kydland, Finn E. (1992) International real business cycles. Journal of Political Economy 100, 745775.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Backus, David K., Kehoe, Patrick J., and Kydland, Finn E. (1995) International business cycles: theory and evidence. In Cooley, Thomas F. (ed.), Frontiers of Business Cycle Research, pp. 331356. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baxter, Marianne (1995) International trade and business cycles. In Grossman, Gene and Rogoff, Kenneth (eds.), Handbook of International Economics, Vol. 3, pp. 18011864. Amsterdam: Elsevier North Holland.Google Scholar
Baxter, Marianne and Crucini, Mario J. (1995) Business cycles and the asset structure of foreign trade. International Economic Review 36, 821854.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baxter, Marianne and Farr, Dorsey D. (2005) Variable capital utilization and international business cycles. Journal of International Economics 65, 335347.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boileau, Martin and Normandin, Michel (2008) Closing international real business cycle models with restricted financial markets. Journal of International Money and Finance 27, 733756.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boldrin, Michele, Christiano, Lawrence J., and Jonas, D. M. Fisher (2001) Habit persistence, asset returns, and the business cycle. American Economic Review 91, 149166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, John Y. and Cochrane, John (1999) By force of habit: A consumption-based explanation of aggregate stock market behavior. Journal of Political Economy 107, 205251.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Canova, Fabio and Ubide, Angel J. (1998) International business cycles, financial markets and household production. Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control 22, 545572.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carroll, Christopher D., Overland, Jody, and Weil, David N. (2000) Saving and growth with habit formation. American Economic Review 90, 341355.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Christiano, Lawrence J., Eichenbaum, Martin, and Evans, Charles L. (2005) Nominal rigidities and the dynamic effects of a shock to monetary policy. Journal of Political Economy 113, 145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Constantinides, George M. (1990) Habit formation: A resolution of the equity premium puzzle. Journal of Political Economy 98, 519–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooley, Thomas F. (1997) Calibrated models. Oxford Review of Economic Policy 13, 5569.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Den Haan, Wouter J. and Marcet, Albert (1990) Solving the stochastic growth model by parameterizing expectations. Journal of Business and Economic Statistics 8, 3134.Google Scholar
Diaz, Antonia, Pijoan-Mas, Josep, and Rios-Rull, Jose-Victor (2003) Precautionary savings and wealth distribution under habit formation preferences. Journal of Monetary Economics 50, 12571291.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferson, Wayne E. and Constantinides, George M. (1991) Habit persistence and durability in aggregate consumption: empirical tests. Journal of Financial Economics 29, 199240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fuhrer, Jeffrey C. and Klein, Michael W. (2006) Risky habits: On risk sharing, habit formation, and the interpretation of international consumption correlations. Review of International Economics 14, 722740.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grishchenko, Olesya V. (2010) Internal vs. external habit formation: The relative importance for asset pricing. Journal of Economics and Business 62, 176194.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hairault, Jean-Olivier (2002) Labor-market search and international business cycles. Review of Economic Dynamics 5, 535558.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayashi, Fumio (1982) Tobin's marginal q and average q: A neoclassical interpretation. Econometrica 50, 213224.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heathcote, Jonathan and Perri, Fabrizio (2002) Financial autarky and international business cycles. Journal of Monetary Economics 49, 601627.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heaton, John (1995) An empirical investigation of asset pricing with temporally dependent preference specifications. Econometrica 63, 681717.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jermann, Urban J. (1998) Asset pricing in production economies. Journal of Monetary Economics 41, 257275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kehoe, Patrick J. and Perri, Fabrizio (2002) International business cycles with endogenous incomplete markets. Econometrica 70, 907928.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kollmann, Robert (1996) Incomplete asset markets and the cross-country consumption correlation puzzle. Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control 20, 945961.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lettau, Martin and Uhlig, Harald (2000) Can habit formation be reconciled with business cycle facts? Review of Economic Dynamics 3, 7999.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ljungqvist, Lars and Uhlig, Harald (2000) Tax policy and aggregate demand management under catching up with the Joneses. American Economic Review 90, 356366.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maffezzoli, Marco (2000) Human capital and international real business cycles. Review of Economic Dynamics 3, 137165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raffo, Andrea (2008) Net exports, consumption volatility and international business cycle models. Journal of International Economics 75, 1429.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stokey, Nancy L., Lucas, Robert E. Jr., with Prescott, Edward C. (1989) Recursive Methods in Economic Dynamics. Cambridge. MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yakhin, Yossi (2007) Staggered wages, financial frictions, and the international comovement problem. Review of Economic Dynamics 10, 148171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar