Short-Run Analysis of Income Fluctuation and Optimum Foreign Borrowing in the Bardhan-Pitchford Model

Abstract

This paper utilizes the technique developed by Kenneth Judd to quantify the short-run effects of temporal income falls on the current account. It is found that (a) for both a fixed time discount rate and an endogenous discount rate, a future, temporal fall in income improves the initial current account; (b) with a current income fall and with no future income change, the initial current account deteriorates; (c) but when a current income fall is combined with a future income fall, the effect on the initial current account is ambiguous.