Problem Set 5

14.
54 International Economics
Instructors: Guido Lorenzoni
Problem Set 5
(Due Nov 28)
Question 1: Current Account and financial account data
You will find the US balance of payments data on the Bureau of Economic Analysis
website (www.bea.gov). Go to International Balance of payments Interactive tables
International transactions
1. To get the data for this part just click on the link "International Transactions". For the last
quarter of 2002 look up the current account data and the financial account data. Find and
report the values for imports and exports of goods and services and explain what the
income components measure. Find and report the values for financial inflows and financial
outflows and explain how the balance on the current account relates to the balance on the
financial account.
2. To get the data for this part click on the grey dot next to the link "International
transactions" and find the values of annual exports and imports of goods and services
(excluding income payments) for the years 1970-2002. Now go to a different section of the
BEA website to get GDP data. Go to Domestic Gross Domestic Product
Current-dollar and "real" GDP. You can find GDP in current dollars for years 1970-2002.
Now divide Imports and Exports and the difference between Exports and Imports by the
corresponding GDP. Now plot these three percentages in a graph that has time on the
horizontal axis and the three measures on the vertical axes. Excel is a very easy tool to
build this graph.
Comment on how the major movements in the trade balance have been determined by
movements in exports or imports.
Question 2: Exchange Rates
Take the Nov 16 issue of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times or
your favorite newspaper and go to the Business section. You will find a section on daily
exchange rates. List the exchange rates for euro, yen and pound with respect to the US dollar
and the exchange rate for the pound with respect to the euro. According to the current
exchange rates and assuming there are no transportation costs:
1. How many dollars would a pair of 100-euro shoes cost in the US?
2. How many yen does a 300-dollar bicycle cost in Japan?
3. How many pounds do you obtain if you swap 200 euros at the bank (disregard
commissions)?
4. How many euros would I have to pay to buy a 150-dollar dress?

Question 3: Arbitrageurs
1. The price of gold is currently $500 per ounce. The forward price to delivery in one year
is $700. An arbitrageur can borrowmoney at 10% p.y. What should the arbitrageur do? Assume
that the cost of storing gold is zero.
2. A trader enters into a short forward contract (he has to sell) on 100 million yen. The
Cite as: Guido Lorenzoni, course materials for 14.54 International Trade, Fall 2006.
MIT OpenCourseWare (http://ocw.mit.edu/), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Downloaded on [DD Month YYYY].
forward exchange rate is $0.008. How much does the trader gain or lose if the exchange rate at
the end of the contract is (i)$0.0074; (ii)$0.0091 per yen ?
Question 4: Uncovered Interest Parity
1. In class, we derived the UIP in nominal terms.Now, consider the real interest rate, given
by:
1 i
1 et
where et is the expected inflation rate. Derive the uncovered interest parity condition in
real terms, i.e. a relation between domestic and foreign real interest rate and the real exchange
rate.
Consider the following:
Nominal Interest Rate (%) Expected Inflation Rate (%) Initial Price Level
1 rt
USA
5.0
3.0
1.0
Germany
8.0
4.0
1.0
And the nominal exchange rate (US$ per Euro) is 0.7.
2. If the real UIP holds, what is the expected nominal exchange rate?
3. What is the current real exchange rate?
4. What is the expected rate of nominal appreciation of the dollar? And what is the
expected rate of real appreciation of the dollar?
5. Suppose now that the expected inflation rate in germany is x %. What is the expected
rate of real appreciation of the dollar? Can you set x % so that the real appreciation is zero in
that case?
6. What can you conclude about the implications for future real exchange rates of a given
nominal interest rate differential?
Cite as: Guido Lorenzoni, course materials for 14.54 International Trade, Fall 2006.
MIT OpenCourseWare (http://ocw.mit.edu/), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Downloaded on [DD Month YYYY].

Problem Set 5

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Problem Set 5

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Problem Set 5

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

14.

Instructors: Guido Lorenzoni

4. How many euros would I have to pay to buy a 150-dollar dress?

You might also like