Comparing Open-Economy Models with and without Capital Mobility under Fixed
Exchange Rates and Non-Sterilization
In Chapter 15, we studied a simpler model of the open economy with fixed exchange rates and
non-sterilization; we also assumed no capital mobility. The key result was that neither fiscal nor
monetary policy had any effect on output. Now that we have extended the model to include the
international flow of capital and considered the various degrees of capital mobility, we find that
monetary policy still does not affect output, but fiscal policy with non-sterilization can, after all,
affect output. This happens, in the case of fiscal expansion, because current account deficits can
now be offset, to a smaller or larger degree, by financial account surpluses.
In the absence of capital flows, the deficits created by a fiscal expansion cannot be financed at
all and lead to equally large reserve outflows. With capital mobility, the fiscal expansion
generates a current account deficit, but the higher interest rate causes capital inflows that
essentially finance the current account deficit and allow the economy to maintain a higher level
of output.
In 1979, Ireland became a member of a joint peg system with other European countries, meaning
that they fixed their exchange rate. In the first half of the 1980s, Ireland experienced current
account deficits at the same time as large capital inflows – FDI from the U.S. and European
Union subsidies