International Lending and Borrowing in a Stochastic Sequence Equilibrium

This paper is a theoretical investigation of international lending and borrowing in the context of a general equilibrium model in which national productivities are subject to random fluctuations and rates of time preference differ among countries. International capital flows arise from the efforts of risk-averse households situated in different countries to self-insure against random productivity fluctuations. We establish the existence of a rational expectations equilibrium in which the world interest rate is constant and strictly less than the rate of time preference of the least impatient countries. The rate of time preference, solvency restrictions on borrowing, and balanced-budget fiscal policies are rigorously analyzed.