Explaining business cycles in small open economies: ‘How much do world prices matter?’

This paper analyzes the role of world price shocks - fluctuations in the prices of capital, intermediate, and primary goods, and in the world real interest rate - in the generation and propagation of business cycles in small open developing countries. I construct a stochastic dynamic multi-sector small open economy model. The model is a variant of the specific-factors model and reflects the major structural characteristics of developing economies. I utilize variance decomposition methods to quantitatively evaluate the impact of world price shocks. The results indicate that world price shocks account for a significant fraction of business cycle variability in developing countries.