Current account dynamics with rule of thumb consumers

in this paper the idea of rule of thumb consumption, in which some households do not behave according to the permanent income hypothesis, is applied to a small open economy framework. a model of current account with rule of thumb individuals and habit formation is presented and estimated for five different countries. two parameters of the model are of particular interest: the share of domestic income that accrues to rule of thumb individuals and the coefficient of habit formation. using current account data, the results obtained here support the view that rule of thumb behavior plays a major role in the economy. moreover, the estimated habit formation coefficients are mostly small and nonsignificant.