IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/elg/ejeepi/v8y2011i1p201-217.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

International capital movements, speculation, and the 'conservation of saving' principle. A 'Harcourtian' interpretation of global imbalances and the global crisis

Author

Listed:
  • Lilia Costabile

    (University of Naples Federico II, Italy)

Abstract

This paper is inspired by the contributions made by Geoff Harcourt concerning the macroeconomics of open economies, international capital movements and speculation (e.g. Harcourt 1994, Dalziel/Harcourt 1997). This conceptual frame- work is developed in a simple model, useful for validating some of Harcourt’s policy proposals for open economies, as well as for interpreting global imbalances and the global crisis. More specifically, this paper describes the workings of two economies, Home and the Rest of the World (RoW), which are related through both trade and capital flows. On this basis, this article: (i) develops the relationship between income levels in a deficit country (Home) and in a partner country (RoW); (ii) studies the role of key parameters in the two countries’ main macroeconomic functions; (iii) applies the main results to global imbalances and in particular to the US, which plays the role of Home in the present context; (v) suggests a possible link between global imbalances, speculation, and the international role of the dollar; (vi) proposes an enlarged version of Harcourt’s 'modest proposal for taming speculators'.

Suggested Citation

  • Lilia Costabile, 2011. "International capital movements, speculation, and the 'conservation of saving' principle. A 'Harcourtian' interpretation of global imbalances and the global crisis," European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies: Intervention, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 8(1), pages 201-217.
    • Handle: RePEc:elg:ejeepi:v:8:y:2011:i:1:p201-217
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.elgaronline.com/view/journals/ejeep/8-1/ejeep.2011.01.14.xml
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. G. C. Harcourt, 2008. "The Structure of Post-Keynesian Economics," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Mathew Forstater & L. Randall Wray (ed.), Keynes for the Twenty-First Century, chapter 0, pages 185-197, Palgrave Macmillan.
    2. Shang-Jin Wei & Xiaobo Zhang, 2011. "The Competitive Saving Motive: Evidence from Rising Sex Ratios and Savings Rates in China," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 119(3), pages 511-564.
    3. Philip R. Lane & Gian Maria Milesi-Ferretti, 2007. "A Global Perspective on External Positions," NBER Chapters, in: G7 Current Account Imbalances: Sustainability and Adjustment, pages 67-102, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Lilia Costabile, 2010. "The International Circuit of Key Currencies and the Global Crisis: Is there Scope for Reform?," Working Papers wp220, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
    5. Michael Dooley & David Folkerts‐Landau & Peter Garber, 2009. "Bretton Woods Ii Still Defines The International Monetary System," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(3), pages 297-311, August.
    6. Ansgar Belke & Daniel Gros, 2010. "Global Liquidity, World Savings Glut and Global Policy Coordination," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 973, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    7. G. C. Harcourt, 1995. "Capitalism, Socialism and Post-Keynesianism," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 206.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. G.C. Harcourt, 2011. "Post-Keynesian theory, direct action and political involvement," European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies: Intervention, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 8(1), pages 117-128.
    2. Geoffrey Harcourt & Peter Kriesler, 2012. "Introduction [to Handbook of Post-Keynesian Economics: Oxford University Press: USA]," Discussion Papers 2012-33, School of Economics, The University of New South Wales.
    3. Stefan Angrick, 2018. "Structural conditions for currency internationalization: international finance and the survival constraint," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(5), pages 699-725, September.
    4. Craig Freedman & Geoff C. Harcourt & Peter Kriesler & John Nevilet, 2013. "Milton Friedman: Constructing an Anti-Keynes," Discussion Papers 2013-35, School of Economics, The University of New South Wales.
    5. Tyers, Rod, 2015. "International effects of China's rise and transition: Neoclassical and Keynesian perspectives," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 1-19.
    6. Vipin Arora & Rod Tyers & Ying Zhang, 2014. "Reconstructing the Savings Glut: The Global Implications of Asian Excess Saving," Economics Discussion / Working Papers 14-24, The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics.
    7. Antonio Carlos Macedo e Silva & Cláudio Hamílton dos Santos, 2008. "Peering over the edge of the short period? The Keynesian Roots of Stock-Flow Consistent Macroeconomic Models," Anais do XXXVI Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 36th Brazilian Economics Meeting] 200807151456380, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics].
    8. Luigi Bonatti & Andrea Fracasso, 2010. "Global Rebalancing and the Future of the Sino-US Codependency," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 18(s1), pages 70-87.
    9. Geoff C. Harcourt & Peter Kriesler, 2014. "On Ricardo and Cambridge," Discussion Papers 2014-04, School of Economics, The University of New South Wales.
    10. G. C. Harcourt, 2015. "Fusing indissolubly the cycle and the trend: Richard Goodwin’s profound insight," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 39(6), pages 1569-1578.
    11. Joseph Halevi & Neil Hart & Peter Kriesler, 2012. "The traverse, equilibrium analysis and post-Keynesian economics," Discussion Papers 2012-32, School of Economics, The University of New South Wales.
    12. Hongyao Wei & Zhengyi Yang, 2022. "The Impact of Inheritance on the Distribution of Wealth: Evidence from China," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 68(1), pages 234-262, March.
    13. Ryan Schacht & Karen L Kramer, 2016. "Patterns of Family Formation in Response to Sex Ratio Variation," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(8), pages 1-14, August.
    14. Jingjing Xu, 2024. "Intergenerational transfers in China: What are the patterns of the transfers and when do the transfers occur?," International Studies of Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(1), pages 117-150, March.
    15. Yi Wen, 2011. "Making sense of China’s astronomical foreign reserves," Working Papers 2011-018, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
    16. Ge, Shilong & Yang, Xiaozhong & Zhang, Cheng & Xiong, Ying, 2023. "Heterogeneity of public services, gender identity, and the spatial allocation of real estate," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    17. Enrique G. Mendoza, 2007. "Financial Integration, Financial Deepness and Global Imbalance," 2007 Meeting Papers 746, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    18. Du, Qingyuan & Wei, Shang-Jin, 2013. "A theory of the competitive saving motive," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(2), pages 275-289.
    19. Xu, Yuanwei, 2021. "Paying for the Selected Son: Sex Imbalance and Marriage Payments in China," VfS Annual Conference 2021 (Virtual Conference): Climate Economics 242436, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    20. Kronenberg, Tobias, 2010. "Finding common ground between ecological economics and post-Keynesian economics," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(7), pages 1488-1494, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    global imbalances; capital movements; speculation; international monetary system;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E42 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Monetary Sytsems; Standards; Regimes; Government and the Monetary System
    • F41 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance - - - Open Economy Macroeconomics
    • F33 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - International Monetary Arrangements and Institutions

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:elg:ejeepi:v:8:y:2011:i:1:p201-217. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Phillip Thompson (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elgaronline.com/ejeep .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.