RDP 2015-11: Unprecedented Changes in the Terms of Trade: Online Appendix 1 The Model

This section outlines the non-linear model.

1.1 Households

The representative household maximises its expected lifetime utility:

where ζt is an intertemporal preference shock:

The household's utility function is given by:

where Inline Equation is a shock to labour supply:

Households maximise subject to the budget constraint:

and the capital accumulation equations:

where:

Note that JN,t refers to investment that produces capital for use in the non-tradeable sector. It is distinct from IN,t which refers to non-tradeable goods used to produce investment goods via the investment goods aggregator. The interest rate that the household receives on foreign bonds follows the process:

where b* is the steady-state net foreign asset-to-GDP ratio, Inline Equation is a risk-premium shock that follows the process:

and Inline Equation follows the process

The household's consumption bundle is a CES aggregate of traded and non-traded goods, while the traded goods is itself a CES aggregate of home- and foreign-produced traded goods:

Note that the Cobb-Douglas specification allows us to assume that γH,t = γH and so on.

The non-traded, home-produced traded and imported consumption goods are themselves bundles of imperfectly substitutable goods:

The price indices corresponding to the consumption goods aggregates are:

The investment good is similarly a CES aggregate of non-traded and traded goods:

The price indices corresponding to the investment goods aggregates are:

The non-traded, home-produced traded and imported investment goods are themselves bundles of imperfectly substitutable goods:

1.2 Production

1.2.1 Commodity Firms

Commodity firms produce using the Cobb-Douglas production function:

where ZX,t is a stationary sector-specific TFP shock:

At is a stationary technology shock that is common across sectors:

and Zt is a labour-augmenting technology shock that is common across sectors whose growth rate Inline Equation follows:

We assume that the foreign price of commodities Inline Equation follows

where Inline Equation is the foreign price level and κt follows the process:

The law of one price holds and so the domestic price of commodities is:

and the firm takes this as given when making its production decisions.

1.2.2 Non-tradeable Firms

Non-tradeable firms sell differentiated products, which they produce using the Cobb-Douglas production function:

ZN,t is a stationary sector-specific TFP shock:

and Zt is a labour-augmenting technology shock defined above.

Firms can only change prices at some cost, following a Rotemberg (1982) pricing mechanism:

The output of the non-traded sector is an aggregate of the output of each of the non-traded firms

1.2.3 Tradeable Firms

Tradeable firms produce using the Cobb-Douglas production function:

ZH,t is a stationary sector-specific TFP shock:

and Zt is a labour-augmenting technology shock defined above.

Firms can only change prices at some cost, following a Rotemberg (1982) pricing mechanism:

The output of the non-traded sector is an aggregate of the output of each of the non-traded firms

1.3 Importing Firms

Importing firms purchase foreign good varieties at the price Inline Equation and sell them in the domestic market at price PF,t(i). The parameter ϛ represents a subsidy to imported firms, funded by lump-sum taxation. We set the subsidy equal to ϛ = (θf − 1)f, thereby ensuring that markups in this sector are zero in equilibrium.

Importing firms can only change prices at some cost, following a Rotemberg [1982] pricing mechanism:

1.4 Foreign Sector

The rate of foreign goods price inflation is Inline Equation, which follows the process,

We also assume that foreign demand for the domestically produced tradable, Inline Equation, follows the process below;

where

and Inline Equation follows the process:

1.5 Relative Prices and Current Account

In what follows it will be convenient to define a number of relative prices:

Nominal net exports are given by:

And the current account equation is given by:

1.6 Monetary Policy

1.7 Market Clearing

Investment goods:

Labour market:

Non-tradeable goods:

Tradeables:

Imports:

Nominal GDP:

and Real GDP: