不完全资本市场、预防性储蓄与通货膨胀的福利成本分析

本文假设不完全资本市场条件下个体的“自我保险”为持币的主要动机，在总体风险和个体风险的框架下，讨论了通货膨胀对异质个体福利的影响。研究表明：对于像中国这样一个有很强信贷约束的不完全资本市场国家，本方法比传统基于MIU和CIA的模型更能反映通货膨胀对中国居民福利的影响。传统的方法低估了对像中国这样的国家中个体的通货膨胀福利成本。此外研究还表明，平均失业期对个体造成的通货膨胀成本影响很大。那些没有储蓄计划个体的出现减少了所有个体的平均福利。通过对总体风险的讨论，我们发现较高的失业率（平均失业期）将大大增加通货膨胀的成本，而工作分享计划则是一种降低通货膨胀成本的好措施。     

东亚消费风险分担的度量及潜在福利分析

文章利用1970-2004年的相关数据,度量了东亚13个经济体的消费风险分担的程度以及东亚地区在实现完全风险分担后带来的潜在福利收益.实证结果表明:东亚区域资本市场在平滑GDP冲击方面的作用非常小,对区域借贷市场虽有一定的作用,但较为有限,这说明东亚的消费风险分担程度还相当低;相比OECD国家和欧盟国家,东亚各经济体风险分担的福利收益是比较高的.     

中国通货膨胀的福利成本研究

通货膨胀一直以来都是衡量一国宏观经济运行是否稳定和健康的重要指标。本文对国内外关于通货膨胀福利成本的研究发展进行了较为完整的综述,并在此基础之上运用消费者剩余方法和新古典宏观经济学一般均衡模型对中国通货膨胀的福利成本进行了计算和比较。实证结果说明,在中国高通货膨胀会带来较高的福利损失,因此将通胀率保持在较低的水平对提高中国的经济福利水平是有利的。     

浅析企业适度负债经营

本文针对企业如何适度负债经营,从资本成本、投资收益、资本结构、企业税负、通货膨胀等不同方面就企业负债经营的益处、风险和负债比率进行了讨论和分析,着重讨论了企业负债比率与其资本成本、投资收益、借贷能力和偿债能力的关系,对影响企业负债比率的主要因素进行了定量分析,探讨了企业负债比率的合理范围。本文还对企业适度负债经营中应注重的方面以及我国国有企业如何摆脱过度负债困境的对策与途径进行了讨论     

通货膨胀福利成本与消费攀比

本文在一个引入消费攀比的McCallum-Goodfriend框架中,讨论了通货膨胀的福利成本。在政府开支由收入税、一次总付税和铸币税融资的假定下,消费攀比程度与通货膨胀福利成本之间的相关性受收入税率的影响。另外,本文所得到的福利成本要稍高于Lucas模型中的成本。本文还发现,当经济中不存在消费攀比时,最优收入税率和最优名义利率都等于零;反之,则最优名义利率等于零,最优收入税率不等于零。     

信用交易与通货膨胀的福利损失——基于货币搜寻理论的视角

不同于货币效用模型(MIU)和现金约束模型(CIA)引入货币的特定方式,货币搜寻模型具有货币更深刻的微观基础。本文拓展了FaigLi(2009)货币搜寻理论新古典一般均衡的框架,分析了信用交易对通货膨胀福利损失的影响。本文发现:一方面,信用交易使购买者的需求不受当期持有货币数量的约束,从而减少了通货膨胀带来的福利损失;另一方面,信用交易通过影响购买者的货币需求增加了福利损失。因此,信用交易对通货膨胀福利成本总的影响取决于信用交易的正效应和负效应哪种效应占优。校准模型后数值模拟结果显示,随着信用交易规模的增加,通货膨胀的福利损失是逐渐减小的。由本文的结论可知,推动我国金融市场不断发展,扩大信用交易的规模对提高国民的福利具有重要作用。     

后工业时代从福利国家到社会投资转型及启示

后工业化时代,欧洲福利国家面临去工业化和第三产业就业带来的失业、女性劳动参与率提高、家庭结构不稳定、无法协调家庭与工作等新社会风险。通过实证分析发现,后工业化进程中福利国家或多或少转向社会投资政策。北欧社会民主主义国家在此过程中走得最远,成功地将积极的社会投资政策与传统福利国家"消极补偿型"福利政策相结合。借鉴欧洲福利国家经验,我国应该大力推动人力资本投资,完善社会保障制度,提高劳动力市场安全性,鼓励终身教育与延迟退休或灵活退休政策相结合,并系统策划、实施针对儿童的社会投资政策。     

通货膨胀福利成本与消费攀比

本在一个引入消费攀比的McCallum-Goodfriend框架中。讨论了通货膨胀的福利成本。在政府开支由收入税、一次总付税和铸币税融资的假定下，消费攀比程度与通货膨胀福利成本之间的相关性受收入税率的影响。另外，本所得到的福利成本要稍高于Lucas模型中的成本。本还发现，当经济中不存在消费攀比时，最优收入税率和最优名义利率都等于零；反之，则最优名义利率等于零，最优收入税率不等于零。     

中美股市收益率联动性研究——基于量化宽松货币政策背景

随着中国资本市场的不断开放,中国股市也逐渐融入到全球资本市场中,中国资本市场的发展会受其他国家的影响,同时,也会对其他国家的资本市场产生影响。美国作为世界头号经济强国,对中国的经济乃至世界经济产生很大的影响。因此,在全球金融危机的大背景下,研究中美股市的联动性,对于引导投资者进行正确的投资决策,降低投资风险有重要意义。     

中国转型期城乡居民收入波动的福利成本分析

本文在卢卡斯理论模型基础上,拓展并构建了估算居民收入波动的福利成本理论模型,采用中国1978-2005年度数据估算城乡居民收入波动的福利成本,并分析城乡居民收入波动福利成本的跨时差异性。结果表明:居民收入波动的福利成本取决于居民收入波动率和相对风险规避系数;当相对风险规避系数相同时,总体来说,在1978-2005年间,城镇居民收入波动的福利成本大于农村居民收入波动的福利成本;在考虑跨时差异性情形下,在1978-1992年间,城镇居民收入波动的福利成本大于农村居民收入波动的福利成本,但在1993-2005年间,城镇居民收入波动的福利成本却小于农村居民收入波动的福利成本;横向比较结果显示,收入波动的福利成本大于消费波动的福利成本。在中国转型期,随着住房、养老、医疗、就业和教育等方面改革进程的逐步展开,居民会提高对未来收入不确定程度的预期,因此中国应加快市场经济体制改革的步伐,最终确立完善的市场经济体制。     

Money,liquidity and welfare

This paper develops an analytically tractable Bewley model of money demand to shed light on some important questions in monetary theory, such as the welfare cost of inflation. It is shown that when money is a vital form of liquidity to meet uncertain consumption needs, the welfare costs of inflation can be extremely large. With log utility and parameter values that best match both the aggregate money demand curve suggested by Lucas (2000) and the variance of household consumption, agents in our model are willing to reduce consumption by 3–4% to avoid 10% annual inflation. The astonishingly large welfare costs of inflation arise because inflation increases consumption risk by eroding the buffer-stock-insurance value of money, thus hindering consumption smoothing at the household level. Such an inflation-induced increase in consumption risk at the micro level cannot be captured by representative-agent models or the Bailey triangle. Although the development of financial intermediation can mitigate the problem, with realistic credit limits the welfare loss of moderate inflation still remains several times larger than estimations based on the Bailey triangle. Our findings provide a strong justification for adopting a low inflation target by central banks, especially in developing countries where money is the major form of household financial wealth.     

Trade-offs between macroeconomic and financial stability objectives

Ten years after the 2008-09 global financial crisis, most advanced economies have recovered and global economic growth has taken hold. However, partly due to accommodative financial conditions, financial risks are on the rise while inflation remains subdued. This revives the debate on the role of monetary policy in containing financial risks. This paper provides a framework to investigate trade-offs between macroeconomic and financial stability when the central bank has a financial stability objective. Relying on a New Keynesian model with an endogenous financial bubble, our simulations suggest that a central bank attempting to “lean against the wind” may face trade-offs between inflation/output stability and financial stability. We therefore argue that the interest rate should be used for achieving traditional macroeconomic goals, and a second, macroprudential instrument should complement the policy rate to tackle financial risk accumulation.     

PRICE DISPERSION,INFLATION, AND WELFARE*

We examine the implications of inflation for both price dispersion and welfare in a monetary search economy. In our economy, if the degree of buyers' incomplete information about prices is fixed, both price dispersion and real prices are increasing in inflation. As the inflation rate approaches the Friedman rule, both price dispersion and welfare losses vanish. If households choose the number of prices to observe, then the optimal inflation rate may exceed the Friedman rule as inflation induces search and, up to a point, raises welfare by eroding market power.     

Monetary policy with heterogeneous agents and borrowing constraints

We show that the long-run neutrality of inflation on capital accumulation obtained in complete market models no longer holds when households face binding credit constraints. Borrowing-constrained households are not able to rebalance their financial portfolio when inflation varies, and thus adjust their money holdings differently compared to unconstrained households. This heterogeneity leads to a new precautionary savings motive, which implies that inflation increases capital accumulation. We quantify the importance of this new channel in an incomplete market model where the traditional redistributive effects of inflation are also introduced. We show that this model provides a quantitative rationale for the observed hump-shaped relationship between inflation and capital accumulation.     

Money, credit and banking

In monetary models where agents are subject to trading shocks there is typically an ex post inefficiency since some agents are holding idle balances while others are cash constrained. This problem creates a role for financial intermediaries, such as banks, who accept nominal deposits and make nominal loans. In general, financial intermediation improves the allocation. The gains in welfare come from the payment of interest on deposits and not from relaxing borrowers’ liquidity constraints. We also demonstrate that when credit rationing occurs increasing the rate of inflation can be welfare improving.     

IDIOSYNCRATIC AND AGGREGATE RISKS,INEQUALITY AND GROWTH

The paper disaggregates productivity shocks at a firm level into idiosyncratic and aggregate risks, and studies their impacts on inequality, growth and welfare. It develops a growth model with human capital and incomplete insurance and credit markets that provides a closed‐form solution for income inequality dynamics. We find that uninsured idiosyncratic risks are the most important determinants of inequality, growth and welfare. They are the source of nondegenerate wealth distribution. A lower weight of these shocks leads to lower steady‐state inequality, higher growth and welfare. A redistribution of income that serves as social insurance against such risks increases welfare and decreases inequality. But, it also decreases growth by distorting individual consumption and saving decisions.     

Long-term investment with stochastic interest and inflation rates: The need for inflation-indexed bonds

We examine the long term investment problem, under stochastic interest and inflation rates and within financial market incompleteness. Four basic financial assets are available on the financial market: a money market account (the cash), a real consumption good, a financial stock index and a bond with constant maturity. In this incomplete framework, we provide the general solution of the expected utility maximization. We compute the monetary loss from not having access to an inflation-indexed bond, in order to be hedged against the inflation risk. We show that this latter one usually reaches high levels (more than 1% per year). Thus, the magnitude of such costs reaches those of management fees or transaction costs. They highlight the significant value of introducing inflation-indexed bonds in the financial markets.     

Inflation and capital gains taxes in a small open economy

Inflation distorts an economy through many channels. This paper highlights the interaction between inflation and capital gains tax and their distortions to a small open economy through the financial market. This research captures several observations. First, capital formation or investment is an important channel for consumption smoothing over the life cycles. Second, capital gains are taxed only when the gains are realized. Third, inflation introduces an upward bias in the calculation of tax base. Thus, a capital gains tax in the presence of inflation can have a significant welfare effect even though its contribution to the government revenue is relatively small. The quantitative analysis shows that high inflation alone can lower social welfare. This problem becomes more severe when capital gains tax is introduced in an inflationary economy. The implicit inflation tax can be more hazardous to the economy than the explicit counterpart.     

How do business startup modes affect economic growth?

This paper examines researchers’ choices between either collaborating with venture capitalists or going independent when investing in research (e.g., labs, scientists, equipment, perishable materials, etc.) and how their interaction affects long‐run growth in an economy characterized by incomplete contracts and financial market imperfections. We find that venture capital is more likely to be selected by entrepreneurs when startup risks are median to high. A ranking of the welfares associated with each startup mode under different legal and financial environments shows that economic policy and research incentives may not always align as entrepreneurs may not select the mode that provides the highest welfare level.     

New financial markets: who gains and who loses

Summary. We evaluate the effects of new financial markets in a two-period incomplete markets model with heterogenous agents. For analytical tractability, we focus on the special case where utility is exponential and risks are normally distributed. We provide a complete characterization of life-cycle consumption and portfolio choice. The effect of new financial markets on individual welfare equals the sum of what we call the portfolio effect and the price effect. The portfolio effect is proportional to the square of the difference between the average exposure to the new asset in the economy and an individual investors exposure adjusted for risk aversion. The portfolio effect is always positive and measures the improved ability of investors to transfer consumption across states. The price effect captures the effect on individual welfare of changes in asset prices. We show that new financial markets drive down the prices of all assets which raises the interest rate and thus affects the ability of investors to transfer consumption across time. The price effect is positive for net savers but can be negative for net borrowers. For net borrower households, the price effect can wipe out the portfolio effect and lead to welfare reductions.Received: 24 July 2003, Revised: 22 March 2004, JEL Classification Numbers: D31, D52, G11, G12.Paul Willen: Thanks to Viral Acharaya, Alberto Bisin, Steve Davis, John Geanakoplos and a thoughtful anonymous referee for helpful comments and suggestions. Thanks also to seminar audiences at Stanford, Berkeley and at the 2001 Stony Brook workshop on incomplete markets for comments and suggestions. I gratefully acknowledge research support from the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago.