An increase
in λ is then akin to a wealth (income) transfer from Foreign to Home. To develop an intuition
for the effect of the wealth transfer on the terms of trade it is useful to recall the classic
Transfer Problem.
8 A wealth transfer to Home raises Home’s demand for both goods. But
in the presence of home bias in consumption, demand for the Home good goes up by more.
Hence the relative price of the Home good increases, i.e., Home’s terms of trade improve, just
as in the Transfer Problem. Since Home’s terms of trade improve, the value of its output
(dividend) goes up, and hence Home’s stock price increases. As Foreign’s terms of trade
deteriorate, the value of that country’s output goes down and the price of its stock falls.
One of the reasons we highlight the effect of a change in the planner’s weight λ here is its
relevance for models with financial market frictions such as, for example, portfolio constraints