International Lending and Borrowing in a Stochastic, Stationary Equilibrium

This paper develops a simple general equilibrium model of international borrowing and lending in which national products are subject to random fluctuations. International capital flows arise from the efforts of risk-averse households in different countries to self-insure against random income fluctuations by accumulating foreign claims that can be used to finance a less-variable profile of consumption relative to national income. In the absence of aggregate uncertainty, a stationary, rational expectations equilibrium is shown to exist, despite the fact that rates of time preference differ among countries. A number of results, many of which enrich those in the existing literature, are obtained.