bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Uncertainty, Instrument Choice, and the Uniqueness of Nash Equilibrium: Microeconomic and Macroeconomic Examples
Authors: Henderson Dale W. , Zhu Ning S.
Published: August 2019

This paper contains two examples of static, symmetric, positive-sum games with two strategic players and a play by nature: (1) a microeconomic game between duopolists with joint costs facing uncertain demands for differentiated goods and (2) a macroeconomic game between two countries' with inflation-bias preferences confronting uncertain demands for moneys. In both examples, each player can choose either of two variables as an instrument, and reaction functions are linear in the chosen instruments. With no uncertainty, there are four (Nash) equilibria, one for each possible instrument pair, because each player is indifferent between instruments given the instrument choice and instrument value of the other player. With uncertainty in the form of an additive disturbance, there are fewer equilibria because each player is not indifferent between instruments. These results are in accordance with the logic of Poole (1970) and Weitzman (1974) as explained by Klemperer and Meyer (1986) using examples of differentiated duopoly games with independent costs. In their main example with linear reaction functions, there is always a unique equilibrium. In contrast, in each of our examples with uncertainty, there is a unique equilibrium for some parameter values, but there are two equilibria for others. It is somewhat surprising that in both the Klmperer and Meyer example and our examples with unique equilibria, for some parameter values with the smallest amount of uncertainty the symmetric instrument pair chosen in the unique equilibrium is the one that yields the lower payoff with no uncertainty.
Hyperinflation and Stabilisation: Cagan Revisited
Authors: Miller Marcus , Zhang Lei
Published: August 2019

In this paper Cagan's analysis of hyperinflations is adapted to look at situations where the deficits to be financed by money creation are large and variable, but fiscal stabilisation is expected--features found in some of the republics of the Former Soviet Union soon after independence. The impact of various stabilisation policies on real balances and inflation expectations is studied, assuming expectations are rational and deficits follow a geometric Brownian motion until the stabilisation takes place. For a modified form of Cagan's demand function we are able to obtain explicit solutions using Ito's Lemma; these are calibrated to give numerical estimates of the effects of expected fiscal stabilisation.
Aggregate Productivity and the Productivity of Aggregates
Authors: Basu Susanto , Fernald John G.
Published: August 2019

Explanations of procyclical productivity play a key role in a variety of business-cycle models. Most of these models, however, explain this procyclicaIity within a representative-firm paradigm. This procedure is misleading. We decompose aggregate productivity changes into several terms, each of which has an economic interpretation. However, many of these tenus measure composition effects such as reallocations of inputs across productive units. We apply this decomposition to U.S. data by aggregating from roughly the two-digit level to the private economy. We find that the compositional terms are significantly procyclicaI. Controlling for these terms virtually eliminates the evidence for increasing returns to scale, and implies that input growth is uncorrelated with technology change.
Currency Crashes in Emerging Markets: An Empirical Treatment
Authors: Frankel Jeffrey A. , Rose Andrew K.
Published: August 2019

We use a panel of annual data for over one hundred developing countries from 1971 through 1992 to characterize currency crashes. We define a currency crash as a large change of the nominal exchange rate that is also a substantial increase in the rate of change of the nominal depreciation. We examine the composition of the debt as well as its level, and a variety of other macroeconomic, external and foreign factors. Our factors are significantly related to crash incidence, especially output growth, the rate of change of domestic credit, and foreign interest rates. A low ratio of FDI to debt is consistently associated with a high likelihood of a crash.
Regime Switching in the Dynamic Relationship between the Federal Funds Rate and Innovations in Nonborrowed Reserves
Authors: Huh Chan Gak
Published: August 2019

This paper examines the dynamic relationship between changes in the funds rate and nonborrowed reserves within a reduced form framework that allows the relationship to have two distinct patterns over time. A regime switching model a la Hamilton (1989) is estimated. On average, CPI inflation has been significantly higher in the regime characterized by large and volatile changes in funds rate. Innovations in money growth are associated with a strong anticipated inflation effect in this high inflation regime, and a moderate liquidity effect in the low inflation regime. Furthermore, an identical money innovation generates a much bigger increase in the interest rate during a transition period from the low to high inflation regime than during a steady high inflation period. This accords well with economic intuition since the transition period is when the anticipated inflation effect initially gets incorporated into the interest rate. The converse also holds. That is, the liquidity effect becomes stronger when the economy leaves a high inflation regime period and enters a low inflation regime period.
Long Memory in Inflation Expectations: Evidence from International Financial Markets
Authors: Gagnon Joseph E.
Published: August 2019

This study provides evidence that 10-year-ahead inflation expectations adapt very slowly to changes in realized inflation. This evidence derives primarily from yields on 10-year government bonds in a sample of OECD countries, including inflation-indexed bonds where they are available. The study examines both the cross-country and time-series behavior of interest rates and inflation rates. For the United States, additional evidence is provided from a survey of 10-year inflation expectations held by market participants. This study does not present a theoretical model of expectations formation. However, long memory of the type documented in this study would be implied by a model of multiple inflationary regimes in which agents base their probability distributions of future regimes on past inflationary experience.
Comparing the Welfare Costs and the Initial Dynamics of Alternative Temporary Stabilization Policies
Authors: Uribe Martin
Published: August 2019

This paper compares the welfare costs and initial dynamics of three alternative inflation stabilization policies using the staggered price model with imperfect credibility and currency substitution developed by Calvo and Vegh (1990). In addition to the policies analyzed by Calvo and Vegh (1990)--a temporary exchange-rate based stabilization program (ERB) and a temporary money based program (MB)--this paper considers a third stabilization policy consisting of a temporary money based program with initial reliquefication--i.e., an initial once-and-for-all increase in the money supply--that keeps the nominal and real exchange rate from appreciating on impact (MBR). Simulation results suggest that the welfare costs associated with ERB and MBR programs are lower than those generated by MB programs. This seems to be the case even for highly temporary programs and for economies with low degree of currency substitution. ERB and MBR programs produce similar welfare costs except in two cases; when the policy change is very temporary, MBR programs do better, while for high values of the elasticity of currency substitutmitted efficiently within the bank-based German system of corporate governance.
Monetary Policy in the End-Game to Exchange-Rate Based Stabilizations: The Case of Mexico
Authors: Kamin Steven , Rogers John Harold
Published: August 2019

Exchange-rate based stabilizations, while useful in accelerating the disinflation process, typically lead to overvalued exchange rates and large current account deficits. These factors, in turn, make it difficult to sustain exchange rate pegs, placing heaving demands upon monetary policy to sustain exchange-rate based programs in their later phases. This paper evaluates the extent to which Mexican monetary policy in 1994 may have loosened, or not tightened sufficiently, in the lead up to the devaluation of the peso that December. Using econometric models of the demand for money, we find evidence that the high growth of the monetary base in 1994 reflected strong positive shocks to the demand for money, not to its supply. Next, we estimate a monetary policy reaction function for Mexico. Based on this estimate, we argue that interest rates rose only moderately less in 1994, in response to downward pressure on the peso and on international reserves, than was predicted by the authorities' reaction function. This result is qualified somewhat by our finding that if interest rates are modeled as reacting to reserves net of Tesobonos, rather than gross reserves, the measured deviation of actual from predicted interest rates would have been much greater. However, the relative complacency with which both the authorities and the market viewed the build-up in Tesobonos, at least until late in 1994, suggests that the reaction function based on net reserves probably does not capture "normal" monetary policy behavior. Our findings suggest that in order to have maintained the peg, the authorities would have needed to intensify their response to exchange market developments--that is, to alter their reaction function--at a time when concerns over the health of the banking sector, and of the economy more generally, would have pointed to a relaxation of monetary policy. Insofar as such tightenings of monetary reaction functions are difficult to achieve, Mexico's experience suggests that policymakers relying on the exchange rate as a nominal anchor probably should be prepared either to abandon that anchor or tighten monetary policy well before speculative pressures intensify.
High Real Interest Rates in the Aftermath of Disinflation: Is It a Lack of Credibility?
Authors: Kaminsky Graciela Laura , Leiderman Leonardo
Published: August 2019

High real interest rates have been observed in many countries for several months after the adoption of disinflation programs. While they may reflect primarily a liquidity crunch, high ex post real interest rates can also be explained in terms of an ex post error in inflation expectations that reflects a lack of credibility of the low-inflation policy. The latter hypothesis is tested using data for Argentina, Israel, and Mexico during the implementation of the stabilization programs in the mid-1980s.
More Evidence on the Link between Bank Health and Investment in Japan
Authors: Gibson Michael S.
Published: August 2019

Among stock-market-listed Japanese firms in 1994-95, the financial health of the firm's main bank did not significantly affect its investment behavior, after controlling for stock market valuation and cash flow. However, among the subset of bank-dependent firms, investment was lower by over 50 percent at firms that have one of the lowest-rated banks as their main bank. Because low-rated banks are smaller and deal with fewer firms, and because bank-dependent firms themselves tend to be smaller than non-bank-dependent firms, the aggregate effect on business investment in 1994-95 that I identify is tiny. These results contrast with Gibson (1995), a similar study which, using data for 1991-92, found a small effect of poor bank health on investment for all stock-market-listed Japanese firms and no difference between bank-dependent and non-bank-dependent firms.
The Accumulation of Human Capital: Alternative Methods and Why They Matter
Authors: Iyigun Murat , Owen Ann L.
Published: August 2019

We show how the ability to accumulate human capital through formal education and through a learning-by-doing process that occurs on the job affects the dynamic behavior of the human capital stock under a liquidity-constrained and a non-constrained case. When there are alternatives to formal schooling in the accumulation of human capital, investing resources in increasing school enrollment rates in low-income countries may not be the most efficient means of increasing the human capital stock. In addition, removal of liquidity constraints may not be sufficient to escape a development trap.
The Tequila Effect: Theory and Evidence from Argentina
Authors: Uribe Martin
Published: August 2019

The Tequila Effect hypothesis states that the economic crisis that affected several South American countries in 1995 was caused by an exogenous capital flight triggered by the loss of confidence of foreign investors after the collapse of the Mexican peso in December 1994. I analyze the recent Argentine experience before and after the Mexican crisis and argue that the Tequila Effect played an important role in the 1995 crisis. I model the Tequila Effect in an optimizing, small, open economy, as a situation in which agents at time 0 learn that at some random future date foreign investors will pull their assets out of the country. The model captures key features of the Argentine crisis of 1995: the decline in aggregate domestic spending and the outflow of capital that began in December 1994; the credit crunch and interest rate hike of March 1995; the slow return of the real interest rate to its pre-crisis level, and the protracted decline in output and investment that began in March 1995.
Macroeconomic State Variables as Determinants of Asset Price Covariances
Authors: Ammer John
Published: August 2019

This paper explores the possible advantages of introducing observable state variables into risk management models as a strategy for modeling the evolution of second moments. A simulation exercise demonstrates that if asset returns depend upon a set of underlying state variables that are autoregressively conditionally heteroskedastic (ARCH), then a risk management model that fails to take account of this dependence can badly mismeasure a portfolio's "Value-at-Risk" (VaR), even if the model allows for conditional heteroskedasticity in asset returns. Variables measuring macroeconomic news are constructed as the orthogonalized residuals from a vector autoregression (VAR). These news variables are found to have some explanatory power for asset returns. We also estimate a model of asset returns in which time variation in variances and covariances derives only from conditional heteroskedasticity in the underlying macroeconomic shocks. Although the data give some support for several of the specifications that we tried, neither these models nor GARCH models that used only asset returns appear to have much ability to forecast the second moments of returns. Finally, we allow asset return variances and covariances to depend directly on unemployment rates -- proxying for the general state of the economy -- and find fairly strong evidence for this sort of specification relative to a null hypothesis of homoskedasticity.
Real Exchange Rates and Inflation in Exchange-Rate Based Stabilizations: An Empirical Examination
Authors: Kamin Steven
Published: August 2019

Considerable research has focused on explaining why currencies appreciate in real terms after the nominal exchange rate is stabilized, but this research generally has taken a theoretical approach, and rarely has tested its hypotheses empirically. In this paper I estimate a simple error-correction model for Mexico, based on the Salter-Swan framework, in which inflation is determined by (1) the gap between the actual real exchange rate and the exchange rate that clears the market for non-traded goods, and (2) persistence effects of past inflation. Using this model, I decompose the excess of Mexican inflation in 1988-94 over peso-adjusted international inflation rates--that is, the real appreciation of the peso--into that part attributable to the initial undervaluation of the peso, that part explained by the subsequent expansion of domestic demand, and that part attributable to inertial inflation. The results indicate that the effects of inertial inflation in appreciating the real exchange rate were quite temporary, lasting only about a year after the stabilization of the peso in 1988. Of the real appreciation that took place between 1988 and 1994, about half was attributable to the expansion of domestic demand-which appreciated the equilibrium real exchange rate in the non-tradeables sector--and about half reflected the correction of the initial undervaluation of the real exchange rate relative to its equilibrium level in the non-tradeables sector. Finally, the paper uses the model to illustrate the impact of various prospective exchange rate policies on inflation and the real exchange rate in Mexico.
The Sovereignty Option: The Quebec Referendum and Market Views on the Canadian Dollar
Authors: Thomas Charles P. , Leahy Michael P.
Published: August 2019

We use exchange traded options on Canadian dollar futures to estimate the market's risk-neutral distribution for the Canadian dollar in the days before and after the Quebec sovereignty referendum. We employ a relatively new technique that places little a priori structure on the estimated distribution. This lack of structure allows the estimated distribution to reflect the multi-modal nature of expectations associated with the referendum's results. The technique is especially suited to circumstances in which a particular event will reduce a large degree of uncertainty prior to the expiration date of the options. Our estimated distributions are consistent with a significant perceived probability that the Canadian dollar would move up or down by as much as 5 percent as a result of the vote.
Regulation and the Cost of Capital in Japan: A Case Study
Authors: Ammer John , Gibson Michael S.
Published: August 2019

Over the last several years, a combination of loan losses and regulatory barriers to equity issuance have left Japanese banks starved for capital. In September 1995, the Mitsubishi Bank was permitted to issue a complicated convertible security in a foreign market. The results of simulations of the price path of the underlying equity imply that Mitsubishi Bank's annualized risk-adjusted cost of capital through this instrument was between 80 and 310 basis points higher than if the bank had instead been able to issue common stock at its current price.
The Management of Financial Risks at German Nonfinancial Firms: The Case of Metallgesellschaft
Authors: Frankel Allen B. , Palmer David E.
Published: August 2019

In late 1993 and early 1994, the wholly-owned U.S. subsidiary of a German conglomerate experienced substantial losses in connection with the implementation of a petroleum marketing strategy, triggering an emergency recapitalization of the German parent company. The rescue was overseen by the firm's supervisory board, which was chaired by a member of the senior management of the largest German bank. This paper draws on a special auditor's report that examined the near-bankruptcy of the firm, as well as other sources. We develop a case study which finds that the German bank was not well informed as to the formulation and execution of the client firm's risk management strategy that was to be implemented through the large-scale use of financial derivatives. The analysis in the paper raises questions as to whether private information is transmitted efficiently within the bank-based German system of corporate governance.
Country Fund Discounts and the Mexican Crisis of December 1994: Did Local Residents Turn Pessimistic before International Investors?
Authors: Frankel Jeffrey A. , Schmukler Sergio L.
Published: August 2019

It has been suggested that Mexican investors were the "front-runners" in the peso crisis of December 1994, turning pessimistic before international investors. Different expectations about their own economy, perhaps due to asymmetric information, prompted Mexican investors to be the first ones to leave the country. This paper investigates whether data from three Mexican country funds provide evidence that supports the "divergent expectations" hypothesis. We find that, right before the devaluation, Mexican country fund Net Asset Values (driven mainly by Mexican investors) dropped faster than their prices (driven mainly by foreign investors). Moreover, we find that Mexican NAVs tend to Granger-cause the country fund prices. This suggests that causality, in some sense, flows from the Mexico City investor community to the Wall Street investor community.
The Use of the Parallel Market Rate as a Guide to Setting the Official Exchange Rate
Authors: Ghei Nita , Kamin Steven
Published: August 2019

This paper addresses the merits of using the parallel exchange rate as a guide to setting the official exchange rate. Ideally, policymakers would set the exchange rate at the level that would balance trade and sustainable capital flows--that level is referred to as the equilibrium exchange rate. In practice, it is difficult to identify the equilibrium exchange rate, particularly in countries that have experienced macroeconomic volatility and/or structural change. In this context, where parallel markets for foreign exchange exist, it is natural to consider the parallel rate as a proxy for the equilibrium exchange rate, since it is set directly by the market. The paper develops an analytic model to explore the relationship between the parallel exchange rate and the equilibrium rate. It is determined that only under a fairly narrow set of circumstances will the parallel rate be set at a level close to the equilibrium exchange rate. The paper then compares the evolution of official and parallel exchange rates over time, in a large sample of different countries, to provide a feel for the applicability of the previously-derived theoretical results.
Long-Term Evidence on the Tobin and Fisher Effects: A New Approach
Authors: Ahmed Shaghil , Rogers John Harold
Published: August 2019

Using a new approach, we reexamine the empirical evidence on the long-term interactions between inflation and real variables. We find, using over 100 years of U.S. data, that in the long run the effect of inflation on investment and output is positive (a "Tobin type effect") and the investment rate, and hence the real interest rate, are not independent of inflation. However, over the full sample at least, the variability of the innovations to the stochastic inflation trend is small relative to the variability of the innovations to the productivity and fiscal trends. We conclude that models generating a reverse-Tobin effect, including standard real-business-cycle and endogenous growth models that incorporate money, may not be the best models for understanding the long-term real effects of inflation.
Hazards in Implementing a Monetary Conditions Index
Authors: Eika Kari H. , Ericsson Neil R. , Nymoen Ragnar
Published: August 2019

Some recent studies have suggested constructing a Monetary Conditions Index (or MCI) to serve as an indicator of monetary policy stance. The central banks of Canada, Sweden, and Norway all construct an MCI and (to varying degrees) use it in conducting monetary policy. Empirically, an MCI is calculated as the weighted sum of changes in a short-term interest rate and the exchange rate relative to values in a baseline year. The weights aim to reflect these variables' effects on longer-term focuses of policy -- economic activity and inflation. This paper derives analytical and empirical properties of MCIs in an attempt to ascertain their usefulness in monetary policy.An MCI assumes an underlying model relating economic activity and inflation to the variables in the MCI. Several issues arise for that model, including its empirical constancy, cointegration, exogeneity, dynamics, and potential omitted variables. Because of its structure, the model is unlikely to be constant or to have strongly exogenous variables; and we show that constancy and exogeneity are critical for the usefulness of an MCI. Empirical analyses of Canadian, Swedish, and Norwegian MCIs confirm such difficulties. Thus, the value of an MCI for conduct of economic policy is in doubt.
Inflation Regimes and Inflation Expectations
Authors: Gagnon Joseph E.
Published: August 2019

There has been much talk in the popular press about the difficulty of attaining credibility in the bond markets for the low-inflation policies that have been adopted by a number of central banks in recent years. This credibility problem is particularly severe for those countries that have a history of high inflation. Gaining credibilty is often viewed in the context of learning by the public about the central bank's true intentions. However, this paper argues that a more important aspect of credibility--at lease for long-term inflation expectations--may be public views about how future changes in personnel, electoral results, or economic shocks may affect central bank behavior. In other words, there is always a positive probability that the current regime will end. Views about the nature of possible future regimes are likely to be influenced by observed past regimes.
Information Systems for Risk Management
Authors: Gibson Michael S.
Published: August 2019

Risk management information systems are designed to overcome the problem of aggregating data across diverse trading units. The design of an information system depends on the risk measurement methodology that a firm chooses. Inherent in the design of both a risk management information system and a risk measurement methodology is a tradeoff between the accuracy of the resulting measures of risk and the burden of computing them. Technical progress will make this tradeoff more favorable over time, leading firms to implement more accurate methodologies, such as full revaluation of nonlinear positions. The current and likely future improvements in risk management information systems make feasible new ways of collecting aggregate data on firms' risk-taking activities.
Intra-National, Intra-Continental, and Intra-Planetary PPP
Authors: Engel Charles , Hendrickson Michael K. , Rogers John Harold
Published: August 2019

This paper presents a general framework to address several issues that have arisen in recent work that investigates purchasing power parity (PPP) and other inter-regional relative price movements: (1) How can we model real exchange rate movements in a consistent manner, so that our model for the real exchange rate for country B relative to country C is commensurate with our models for country A/ country B and country A/ country C real exchange rates? For example, can things be modeled so that our tests do not depend on the "base country"? (2) How should we handle correlation across real exchange rates in panel tests of PPP? (3) Are speeds of adjustment toward PPP different for intra-national, cross-national and cross-continental real exchange rates? (4) Is the innovation variance different for intra-national, cross-national and cross-continental real exchange rates; and, if so, how does that influence how we model and test PPP?
Nominal Wage Rigidities and the Propagation of Monetary Disturbances
Authors: Erceg Christopher J.
Published: August 2019

Recent research has challenged the ability of sticky price general equilibrium models to generate a contract multiplier, i.e., an effect of a monetary innovation on output that extends beyond the contract interval. We show that a simple dynamic general equilbrium model that includes "Taylor-style" (1980) wage and price contracts can account for a substantial contract multiplier under various assumptions about the structure of the capital market. Most interestingly, our results do not rely on a high intertemporal labor supply elasticity or elastic supply of capital: our preference specification is standard (logarithmic), and we can account for a strong contract multiplier even when the aggregate stock of capital is fixed. Finally, our analysis highlights the importance of the income elasticity of money demand in accounting for output persistence.
Roads to Prosperity? Assessing the Link between Public Capital and Productivity
Authors: Fernald John G.
Published: August 2019

At a macroeconomic level, infrastructure and productivity are positively correlated in the United States and other countries. However, it remains unclear whether this correlation reflects causation, and if so, whether causation runs from infrastructure to productivity, or the reverse. This paper focuses on roads, and finds that vehicle-intensive industries benefit disproportionately from road-building: when road growth changes, productivity growth changes more in industries that are more vehicle intensive. These results suggest that causation runs from infrastructure to productivity. However, there is no evidence that at the margin, roads offer an above-average return; road-building in essence offered a one-time boost to the level of productivity in the 1950s and 1960s. Finally, it appears that congestion significantly affects road-services at the margin, although congestion does not appear important before 1973.
Aggregate Productivity and Aggregate Technology
Authors: Basu Susanto , Fernald John G.
Published: August 2019

Aggregate productivity and aggregate technology are meaningful but distinct concepts. We show that a slightly-modified Solow productivity residual measures changes in economic welfare, even when productivity and technology differ because of distortions such as imperfect competition. We then present a general accounting framework that identifies several new non-technological gaps between productivity and technology, gaps reflecting imperfections and frictions in output and factor markets. Empirically, we find that these gaps are important, even though we abstract from variations in factor utilization and estimate only small average sectoral markups. Compared with productivity growth, our measured technology shocks are significantly less correlated with output, and are essentially uncorrelated with inputs. Our results imply that calibrating dynamic general equilibrium models as if Solow residuals were technology shocks confuses impulses and propagation mechanisms.
Globalization and Productivity in the United States and Germany
Authors: Mann Catherine L.
Published: August 2019

This paper investigates the impact of globalization on productivity growth and the procyclicality of productivity growth in manufacturing industries in the United States and Germany. For U.S. industries, the analysis suggests that changes in international demand affect productivity growth differently from changes in exposure to international competition. An increase in foreign demand for U.S. exports raises trend productivity growth, but to a lesser degree than does a similar demand shock from domestic buyers. On the other hand, whereas an increase in U.S. imports reduces trend productivity growth of U.S. industries, a loss of market share to imports is associated with gains to productivity growth. For Germany, neither international demand shocks nor exposure to international competition seem to be associated with productivity growth rates, perhaps because German industries experienced a smaller increase in exposure to international competition over the time period. Comparing the U.S. and German results suggests that "going global" may affect productivity growth rates more than simply "being global." As for the procyclical characteristics of productivity growth, the U.S. and German measures evidence different procyclical behavior. For many industries, both U.S. and German labor productivity growth rates exhibit some degree of procyclicality. For German industries, this procyclicality of productivity growth disappears with broader measures of productivity growth that include utilization of capital and intermediate inputs. For U.S. industries, the degree of procyclicality increases when productivity growth is measured on these broader bases. Moreover, in the United States, procyclicality appears to be accentuated by export demand growth and dampened by import demand growth.
The Demand for Broad Money in the United Kingdom, 1878-1993
Authors: Ericsson Neil R. , Hendry David F. , Prestwich Kevin M.
Published: August 2019

Using annual data from Friedman and Schwartz (1982), Hendry and Ericsson (1991a) developed an empirical model of the demand for broad money in the United Kingdom over 1878-1975. We update that model over 1976-1993, accounting for changed data definitions and clarifying the concept of constancy. With appropriate measures of opportunity cost and credit deregulation, the model's parameters are empirically constant over the extended sample, which was economically turbulent. Policy implications follow for parameter nonconstancy and predictive failure, causation between money and prices, monetary targeting, deregulation and financial innovation, and the effect of policy on economic agents' behavior.
Evaluating Forecasts of Correlation Using Option Pricing
Authors: Gibson Michael S. , Boyer Brian H.
Published: August 2019

A forecast of the correlation between two asset prices is required to price or hedge an option whose payoff depends on both asset prices or to measure the risk of a portfolio whose return depends on both asset prices. However, a number of factors make it difficult to evaluate forecasts of correlation. We develop a forecast evaluation methodology based on option pricing, extending a technique that Engle et al. (1993) introduced to evaluate volatility forecasts. A forecast of the variance-covariance matrix of joint asset returns is used to generate a trading strategy for a package of simulated options. The most accurate forecast will produce the most profitable trading strategy. The package of simulated options can be chosen to be sensitive to correlation, to volatility, or to any arbitrary combination of the two. In an empirical application, we focus on the ability to forecast the correlation between two stock market indices. We compare the correlation forecasting ability of three more sophisticated models (two GARCH models and a two-state Markov switching model) and two simple moving averages. We find that the more sophisticated models produce better correlation forecasts than the simple moving averages.
Regionalism and Permanent Diversion
Authors: Freund Caroline L.
Published: August 2019

We compare free trade reached through expanding regional trading blocks to free trade accomplished by multilateral negotiation. With sunk costs, the outcomes are different. Trade in an imperfectly competitive good flows disproportionately more between the original members of a regional agreement even after free trade is reached. They secure a higher welfare level from regionalism than from free trade achieved multilaterally; non-members, however, reach a lower welfare level. A surprising result is that world welfare during free trade is greater when it is achieved by the regional path. We conclude with some empirical evidence from the European Union that is consistent with the model.
Asset Bubbles, Domino Effects and 'Lifeboats': Elements of the East Asian Crisis
Authors: Edison Hali J. , Luangaram Pongsak , Miller Marcus
Published: August 2019

Credit market imperfections have been blamed for the depth and persistence of the Great Depression in the USA. Could similar mechanisms have played a role in ending the East Asian miracle? After a brief account of the nature of the recent crises, we use a model of highly levered credit-constrained firms due to Kiyotaki and Moore (1997) to explore this question. As applied to land-holding property companies, it predicts greatly amplified responses to financial shocks--like the ending of the land price bubble or the fall of the exchange rate. The initial fall in asset values is followed by the 'knock-on' effects of the scramble for liquidity as companies sell land to satisfy their collateral requirements--causing land prices to fall further. This could lead to financial collapse where--like falling dominoes--prudent firms are brought down by imprudent firms. Key to avoiding collapse is the nature of financial stabilisation policy; in a crisis, temporary financing can prevent illiquidity becoming insolvency and launching 'lifeboats' can do the same. But the vulnerability of financial systems like those in East Asia to short-term foreign currency exposure suggests that preventive measures are also required.
U.S. Monetary Policy and Econometric Modeling: Tales from the FOMC Transcripts 1984-1991
Authors: Edison Hali J. , Marquez Jaime R.
Published: August 2019

This paper uses the transcripts from the FOMC meetings to characterize the interactions between policymakers and macro models in the formulation of U.S. monetary policy. We develop a taxonomy of these interactions and present two case studies. The first case focuses on the debate on the choice of monetary target and the second case focuses on the 1990/1991 recession. The analysis reveals that U.S. monetary policy relies on models for information. Models give estimates of both the outlook and the response of the economy to policy changes. Models also evolve to recognize the changing context in which policymakers operate--exchange rate flexibility, financial deregulation, and international trade agreements.
Multilateralism and the Endogenous Formation of PTAs
Authors: Freund Caroline L.
Published: August 2019

This paper examines the interaction between preferential trade agreements (PTAs) and multilateral tariff reduction in a model of imperfect competition. A growing literature finds that the formation of PTAs alters the incentives for and the sustainability of multilateral tariff reduction. We show that the causation is not one-sided -- multilateral tariff reduction also affects the formation of PTAs. Specifically, tariff reduction enhances the incentives to form a PTA and increases the likelihood that it is self-enforcing. Thus, each round of multilateral tariff reduction should lead to a new wave of PTAs. This may help to explain the current trend towards regionalism.
Exogeneity, Cointegration, and Economic Policy Analysis
Authors: Ericsson Neil R. , Hendry David F. , Mizon Grayham E.
Published: August 2019

This overview examines conditions for reliable economic policy analysis based on econometric models, focusing on the econometric concepts of exogeneity, cointegration, causality, and invariance. Weak, strong, and super exogeneity are discussed in general; and these concepts are then applied to the use of econometric models in policy analysis when the variables are cointegrated. Implications follow for model constancy, the Lucas critique, equation inversion, and impulse response analysis. A small money-demand model for the United Kingdom illustrates the main analytical points. This paper then summarizes the other articles in this special section of the Journal of Business and Economic Statistics on "Exogeneity, Cointegration, and Economic Policy Analysis."
The Business Cycles of Currency Speculation: A Revision of the Mundellian Framework
Authors: Mendoza Enrique G. , Uribe Martin
Published: August 2019

In his seminal 1960 study on the dynamics of alternative exchange rate regimes, Robert Mundell proposed a theory of balance-of-payments crises in which speculators base their actions on the observed holdings of central bank foreign reserves. We examine the quantitative implications of this view from the perspective of an equilibrium business cycle model in which rational expectations of a devaluation are conditioned on foreign reserves. The model explains some of the empirical regularities of the business cycle associated with temporary fixed-exchange-rate regimes. In turn, these cyclical dynamics validate the agents' expectations by producing devaluation probabilities that resemble those estimated from the data. The model thus aims to explain both the real effects and the collapse of exchange-rate-based stabilizations in a unified framework.
'Big Bang' Deregulation and Japanese Corporate Governance: A Survey of the Issues
Authors: Gibson Michael S.
Published: August 2019

The "Big Bang" deregulation of Japanese financial markets focuses on financial modernization. I argue that financial modernization is of secondary importance for improving the performance of the Japanese economy. A key long-term issue facing Japan is to maintain its high level of per capita income in the face of an aging population and slower productivity growth. To achieve this, it is important to increase the return earned on Japanâ s large stock of wealth. I argue the low return on wealth reflects characteristics of the Japanese corporate governance system. The proper focus of the Big Bang should be on measures to strengthen corporate governance.I identify three characteristics of the Japanese corporate governance system that lead Japanese managers to produce low returns for shareholders. First, insider stakeholders dominate corporate governance. Second, institutional investors are weak. Third, there is no market for corporate control. For each characteristic, I describe potential changes which would strengthen Japanese corporate governance. For each potential corporate governance change, I review empirical evidence on its effectiveness, its current status in Japan, and how it is addressed, if at all, in the Big Bang. I conclude that the progress of the Big Bang reforms to corporate governance has been limited.
Inflation and the Great Ratios: Long-Term Evidence from the U.S.
Authors: Ahmed Shaghil , Rogers John Harold
Published: August 2019

Using more than 100 years of data from the United States, we find that the long-run effects of inflation on consumption, investment, and output are positive. Thus, models generating long-term negative effects of inflation on output and consumption (including endogenous growth and RBC models with money) seem to be at odds with data from the moderate inflation rate environment we consider. Also, great ratios like the consumption and investment rates are not independent of inflation, which we interpret in terms of the Fisher effect. However, in the full sample, the variability of the stochastic inflation trend is small relative to the variability of the productivity and fiscal trends, so inflation accounts for little of the movements in real variables. By comparison, we find in the post-WWII sub-period that although significant "permanent" shocks to inflation are a more regular feature of the data, the long-run real effects of an inflation shock of a given size are much smaller.
Why Has China Survived the Asian Crisis So Well? What Risks Remain?
Authors: Fernald John G. , Babson Oliver D.
Published: August 2019

China's strong growth in the midst of the Asian crisis is striking. We explore features of China's financial system that helped insulate it from the crisis, and then try to assess whether China has avoided crisis or simply deferred it. We argue that regardless of whether the Asian crisis resulted from weak fundamentals or from "country runs" by investors, it is not surprising that China has survived so far. In a market-oriented system, pressures generally force rapid adjustment when institutions are, or are perceived to be, insolvent; these mechanisms do not operate fully in China. In addition, China's external accounts remain strong. Even in the absence of capital controls, the strength of these external fundamentals would plausibly preclude a self-fulfilling "country run" on China. Whatever their other effects, capital controls may have played a role in preventing Chinese financial institutions from borrowing excessively abroad, and hence may have helped keep China's external fundamentals strong. Clear risks remain for China's outlook.
Optimal Monetary Policy with Staggered Wage and Price Contracts
Authors: Erceg Christopher J. , Henderson Dale W. , Levin Andrew
Published: August 2019

We formulate an optimizing-agent model in which both labor and product markets exhibit monopolistic competition and staggered nominal contracts. The unconditional expectation of average household utility can be expressed in terms of the unconditional variances of the output gap, price inflation, and wage inflation. Monetary policy cannot replicate the Pareto-optimal equilibrium that would occur under completely flexible wages and prices; that is, the model exhibits a tradeoff between stabilizing the output gap, price inflation, and wage inflation. The Pareto optimum is attainable only if either wages or prices are completely flexible. For reasonable calibrations of the model, we characterize the optimal policy rule. Furthermore, strict price inflation targeting is clearly suboptimal, whereas rules that also respond to either the output gap or wage inflation are nearly optimal.
Monetary Policy and Price Stability
Authors: Johnson Karen , Small David H. , Tryon Ralph W.
Published: August 2019

This paper explores issues that arise in implementing monetary policy under conditions of sustained price stability. We discuss several issues that concern the selection of a central bank's inflation objective under such conditions: price measurement; the behavior of other key variables, particularly wages; and the possible existence of other channels through which low inflation could change relationships within the real economy. We present a framework for analyzing monetary policy reaction functions that can illuminate the choices facing policy makers in a regime of price stability. The zero lower bound on nominal interest rates is a potential constraint on monetary policy when nominal interest rates are low on average, which will tend to be the case when long-term inflation is low. We summarize the results of research done at the Federal Reserve to clarify these issues for the United States and consider the availability and effectiveness of alternative policy tools when the nominal interest rate is at the zero bound.
Trade Prices and Volumes in East Asia through the Crisis
Authors: Barth Marvin , Dinmore Trevor
Published: August 2019

This paper presents a break-down of the export and import performance of select East Asian countries into price and volume effects. The results show that in aggregate, the decline in export revenue experienced by these countries in 1998 was largely due to a 9.1 percent fall in prices, and that export volume actually rose. Similarly, while the import volume of these countries did fall in 1998, the decline was not as great as in the dollar value of those imports, but reflected a greater slide in import prices of 10.8 percent. The fall in import and export prices in the East Asian region began in 1996, before the crisis, but intensified in the Summer and Fall of 1997 as the currency crisis unfolded and has continued through the Spring of 1999. Since the fall in import prices was apparently greater than the corresponding fall in export prices, these countries have collectively seen an improvement in their terms of trade during the crisis, reversing pre-crisis declines. The six countries that form the heart of this study were the source of 12.5 percent of US non-oil imports in 1998, and the accrued benefit to the United States of this price collapse may have been as much as a quarter of the value of these imports over two years.
Efficient Tests for Autoregressive Unit Roots in Panel Data
Authors: Bowman David
Published: August 2019

In this paper the class of admissable tests for unit roots in panel data sets of autoregressive, Gaussian time series will be partially characterized. Using this characterization, several recently suggested tests are shown to be inadmissable. Since the sufficient statistic for this testing problem is multidimensional, there is no uniformly most powerful test; however, in light of the inadmissability result, a new test is proposed that appears to do well relative to existing tests. The test is parameterized in a way that allows the choice of different directional deviations from the null hypothesis over which power is to be maximized, giving added flexibility to researchers.