Articles providing critical insights and analysis on monetary policy issues impacting the U.S. economy and its deep financial and economic relationship with Mexico.
As population trends shift, where will future workers come from?
Population is a fundamental determinant of a country’s productive capacity. More specifically, labor, along with capital and the efficiency with which the two can be combined (total factor productivity) determine how much a country can produce at any point in time.
January 07, 2025
Research Department Working Papers
An Anatomy of U.S. Establishments’ Trade Linkages in Global Value Chains
Global value chains (GVC) are a pervasive feature of modern production, but they are hard to measure. Using U.S. Census microdata, this paper develops novel measures of the linkages between U.S. manufacturing establishments’ imports and exports. The paper documents three new GVC patterns.
December 27, 2024
Research Department Working Papers
Structural Change in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Open Economy Perspective
This paper studies the evolution of manufacturing value added shares in 11 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries through the lens of an open economy model of structural change.
December 24, 2024
Mexico Economic Update
Mexico’s economic growth surprises to the upside
The Mexican economy expanded an annualized 4.4 percent in the third quarter, according to official preliminary data. Output in both the services and goods-producing sectors increased, and heavy rainfall during the quarter helped the agricultural sector recover.
December 24, 2024
Mexico nearshoring yet to yield big investment despite global trade tensions
The resulting reality surrounding nearshoring’s impact on Mexico’s economy is nuanced. While Mexico has made gains, many of them stem from trade diversion rather than large-scale foreign capital relocation.
December 05, 2024
Research Department Working Papers
Real Exchange Rates and the Global Financial Cycle
This paper looks at the effect of fluctuations in the global financial cycle on real exchange rates.
November 26, 2024
Research Department Working Papers
The Problem of Quality Change in Historical Price Statistics: An Illustrative Example Using Baedeker Travel Guides
This paper uses a novel dataset on the prices of the travel guidebooks published by the German publishing house Baedeker between 1832 and 1944 to construct a hedonic price index for guidebooks. Comparing these indexes to the list prices of these guidebooks, the paper shows that the failure to adjust for improvements in the quality of the guidebooks over time imparts a substantial upward bias to measured inflation.
November 26, 2024
More household savings offset increased government borrowing since 2008
Large government budget deficits over the past 15 years have led to a large increase in the stock of government debt. But these government deficits have been matched by an increase in U.S. household savings.
November 26, 2024
Blame higher U.S. equity prices for recent moves in U.S. external liabilities
The U.S. net foreign asset position—the value of foreign assets held by U.S. residents minus the value of U.S. assets held by foreign residents—has fallen sharply since the 2008 Global Financial Crisis.
November 12, 2024
Research Department Working Papers
What Imports to Import Prices?
This study offers new insights into exchange rate pass-through (ERPT) using U.S. import price indexes by country-of-origin, covering two decades of monthly data.
October 25, 2024