In: Economics
If a small open economy reduces defense spending, what happens to saving, investment, the trade balance, the world interest rate, and the exchange rate? Assume that initially saving exceeds investment. I want to see two sets of graphs illustrating the effects, Make sure you explain what is going on!
As given in the question we first assume that initially savings exeeds investment.
The initial situation of the small open economy is illustrated in figure 1, the x axis represents the net exports(NX) and the y axis represents the real exchange rate(E). The savings(S1 - I) and the net exports intersect at point A with exchange rate E1 and the net exports NX1 .
Now if the government reduces the defence spending, then the government savings increases which in turn increases the national savings. Since it is a open economy the investment rate depends on the world intrest rate and it is unchanged. As a result, the increase in the savings causes the (S1 - I) line to shift towards right at (S2 - I) as shown in the second figure. Hence, the real exchange rate falls from E1 to E2 and the trade balance rises from NX1 to NX2.
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