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An open economy is an economy in which there are economic activities between domestic community and outside, e.g. people, including businesses, can trade in goods and services with other people and businesses in the international community, and flow of funds as investment across the border. Trade can be in the form of managerial exchange, technology transfers, all kinds of goods and services. Although, there are certain exceptions that cannot be exchanged, like, railway services of a country cannot be traded with another to avail this service, a country has to produce its own. This contrasts with a closed economy in which international trade and finance cannot take place.

The act of selling goods or services to a foreign country is called exporting. The act of buying goods or services from a foreign country is called importing. Together exporting and importing are collectively called international trade.

There are a number of advantages for citizens of a country with an open economy. One primary advantage is that the citizen consumers have a much larger variety of goods and services from which to choose. Additionally, consumers have an opportunity to invest their savings outside of the country.

In an open economy, a country's spending in any given year need not to equal its output of goods and services. A country can spend more money than it produces by borrowing from abroad, or it can spend less than it produces and lend the difference to foreigners.^[1] There is no closed economy in today's world.

Economic models of an open economy[link]

The basic model[link]

In a closed economy, all output is sold domestically, and expenditure is divided into three components: consumption, investment, and government purchases.

                           Y = C + I + G

In an open economy, some output is sold domestically and some is exported to be sold abroad. We can divide expenditure on an open economy’s output Y into four components: Cd, consumption of domestic goods and services, Id, investment in domestic goods and services, Gd, government purchases of domestic goods and services, X, exports of domestic goods and services. The division of expenditure into these components is expressed in the identity

                   Y = Cd + Id + Gd + X.

The sum of the first three terms, Cd + I d + Gd, is domestic spending on domestic goods and services. The fourth term, X, is foreign spending on domestic goods and services(the value of exports). Since, total domestic spendings is a sum of spending on domestic as well as foreign goods and services, we can say that, C = Cd + Cf, I = I d + I f, G = Gd + G f. We substitute these three equations into the identity above:

                                Y = (C − Cf ) + (I − I f ) + (G − G f ) + X.

We can rearrange to obtain

                                Y = C + I + G + X − (Cf + I f + G f ).

The sum of domestic spending on foreign goods and services (Cf + I f + G f ) is expenditure on imports (IM ). We can thus write the national income accounts identity as

                               Y = C + I + G + X − IM.

Since the value of total imports is a part of domestic spending and it is not a part of domestic output, it is subtracted from the total output.This gives us the value of Net Exports (NX = X − IM ), the identity becomes

                               Y = C + I + G + NX.

In closed economy: National savings= Investment. Closed economy countries can increase its wealth only by accumulating new capital.

If output exceeds domestic spending, we export the difference: net exports are positive. If output falls short of domestic spending, we import the difference: net exports are negative.

Advantages of an Open Economy[link]

Greater Choice for Consumers : In an open economy, the domestic markets are merged with international markets and so the consumers are not limited to consume domestically produced goods and services. They can choose the best from the world market.

Increased competition and Lower Prices: A related benefit of an open economy is that the consumers have an increasing number of producers or goods and services competing for their business.Competition among producers results in lower prices and improved services. An open economy allows consumers to benefit from the lower labor and operating costs.

Expanded markets and Customer bases :The benefits of an open economy are not limited to consumers. Global interaction allows companies to gain access to customers in other nations. This motivates them to produce world class products, expand their business and customer base.American brands as McDonald's, Apple and Starbucks, plus Finnish communications giant Nokia, have established worldwide customer bases.

Global Investment Opportunities:For investors, an open economy expands the opportunities for investing capital. Investors large and small can choose to invest in known domestic companies, or they can invest in established industrial giants of other nations. Investors with an appetite for risk, meanwhile, can invest in the emerging markets of Latin America, Africa and southern Asia.In an open economy, financial and goods markets are closely related. To understand this relationship, we look at the savings and investment identity.

Gains from Trade :One of the key principles of economics is that trade benefits all parties involved. International trade involves interactions with other economies and is therefore possible only among open economies. English economist David Ricardo, argued that trade allows nations to specialize in producing the goods in which they have comparative advantages and trade with other nations to obtain goods in which other nations specialize. This in turn provides consumers with a greater array of goods from which to select.

International Capital Flows and Trade Balance[link]

Begin with the identity

                        Y = C + I + G + NX.

Subtract C and G from both sides to obtain

                        Y − C − G = I + NX.

Y − C − G is national saving S, which equals the sum of private saving, Y − T − C, and public saving, T − G, where T stands for taxes. Therefore,

                        S = I + NX.

Subtracting I from both sides of the equation, we can write the national income accounts identity as

                        S − I = NX.

This shows that economy's net exports must be equal to the difference between savings and investment. Another name for net exports is the trade balance, as it tells us the difference between imports and exports from being equal.

The left-hand side of the identity is the difference between domestic saving and domestic investment, S − I,known as net capital outflow.Net capital outflow is equal to the amount that domestic residents are lending abroad minus the amount that foreigners are lending to home country.If net capital outflow is positive, the economy’s saving exceeds its investment, and lending the excess to foreigners. If the net capital outflow is negative, the economy is experiencing a capital inflow: investment exceeds saving, and the economy is financing this extra investment by borrowing from abroad.

The national income accounts identity shows that net capital outflow always equals the trade balance. That is, Net Capital Outflow = Trade Balance

  S − I = NX.

If S − I and NX are positive, we have a trade surplus. In this case,since our exports are higher than our imports, we are net lenders in world financial markets. If S − I and NX are negative, we have a trade deficit. In this case, we are importing more goods than we are exporting.And hence we are net borrowers in the world markets. If S − I and NX are exactly zero, we are said to have balanced trade because the value of imports exactly equals the value of our exports.

Capital Mobility and World Interest Rates under Open Economy[link]

In case of a small open economy, we assume perfect capital mobility. By "small" we mean that an economy has very small share in the world markets. It has a negligible effect on interest rate. By perfect capital mobility, we mean that residents of a country have full access to goods and services and specially financial markets of the world. Because of this assumption of perfect capital mobility, the interest rate in our small open economy, r, must equal the world interest rate say, r*, the real interest rate prevailing in world financial markets: r = r*. This means that people in this small open economy will never borrow at more than r rate in home country.They will shift to international markets to borrow or invest, in case r > r*. Thus, we can say that, the interest rates in a small open economy are determined by the world markets. World interest rate (r*), on the other hand is determined by equilibrium of world saving and world investment.

See also[link]

• Exchange rate
• Terms of trade
• Gains from Trade

References[link]

2. R. Dornbusch, S.Fischer, Macroeconomics, 6ed., pp 87–145