This paper investigates the spending and current-account effects of terms-of-trade shifts in a model where households maximize utility over an infinite planning period. In the framework developed here, an economy specialized in production must experience a fall in aggregate spending and a current surplus as a result of an unanticipated, permanent worsening in its terms of trade. The paper's model thus provides a setting in which the current-account deficit predicted by Laursen and Metzier, Harberger, and others fails to materialize.

This paper studies the effects of monetary policy in a small, open economy with a floating exchange rate, sticky wages, and rational expectations in both the asset and labor markets. The model developed emphasizes the link between exchange-rate depreciation and nominal wage inflation, embodying it in an expectations-augmented Phillips curve. The economy studied produces both traded and non-traded goods, and thus provides a framework in which to explore the connection between the dynamic behavior of the exchange rate and the supply structure and degree of openness of the economy. In addition, the paper examines the "vicious circle" hypothesis, showing how an explosive cycle of exchange-rate depreciation and wage-price inflation may arise in response to an expected monetary expansion.