Business Cycle Fluctuations,Large Macroeconomic Shocks,and Development Aid

We examine the cyclical properties of development aid using bilateral data for 22 donors and 113 recipients during 1970–2005. We find that bilateral aid flows are on average procyclical with respect to the business cycle in both donor and recipient countries. While aid outlays contract sharply during severe downturns in donor countries, they rise steeply when aid-receiving countries experience large adverse shocks. Our findings suggest that development aid may play an important cushioning role in developing countries, but only during times of severe macroeconomic stress. Our results are robust to alternate definitions of aid flows, specifications, and estimation techniques.     

Macroeconomic Policy, Exchange Rate Regimes and Economic Growth

China has been keeping high economic growth rate since it carried out managed floating exchange rate regimes in 1994, while now begins to face retrenchment pressure brought by the depression of internal and external economy. The establishment of RMB exchange rate regime should take account of the validity of macroeconomic policy, macroeconomic growth and the regional internationalization of RMB.     

A Small Macroeconomic Model of the EU-Accession Countries

This paper develops a small macro-economic model of the CEECs to analyze various aspects of integration with the current EU and the role of monetary and exchange rate strategies during the (pre-) accession phase. The model gives insight into both the adjustment of the internal balance (as for output and employment) and the external balance (as for exports and competitiveness) in the accession countries. The model provides more insight into the basic macroeconomic relationships governing macroeconomic adjustment in the accession countries and also the role of the integration with the EU in that adjustment. We perform empirical simulations of different scenarios and analyze the resulting macroeconomic adjustment. In particular, we compare how a macroeconomic shock in the current EU is transmitted to the accession countries under flexible and fixed euro exchange rates, respectively.     

The Money Trail: Ranking Donor Transparency in Foreign Aid

Transparency of aid activity is being recognized to be one of the key areas whereby aid effectiveness can be improved. In this paper, we propose an index to measure and rank donors on the transparency of their aid activities. The Transparency Index rates 31 bilateral and multilateral donor agencies on six measures of transparency. We find that being a member of the IATI is a powerful signal of a donor being more transparent across most other dimensions as well. We find no relationship between transparency and donor aid volumes. Overall IDA and Australia are identified as the most transparent donors, while Korea and IDB Special Fund are the least transparent.     

Aid Quality and Donor Rankings

This paper offers new measures of aid quality covering 38 bilateral and multilateral donors, as well as new insights about the robustness and usefulness of such measures. The 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness and the follow-up 2008 Accra Agenda for Action have focused attention on common donor practices that reduce the development impact of aid. Using 18 underlying indicators that capture these practices—derived from the OECD-DAC’s Survey for Monitoring the Paris Declaration, the new AidData database, and the DAC aid tables—the authors construct an overall aid quality index and four coherently defined sub-indexes on aid selectivity, alignment, harmonization, and specialization. Compared with earlier indicators used in donor rankings, this indicator set is more comprehensive and representative of the range of donor practices addressed in the Paris Declaration, improving the validity, reliability, and robustness of rankings. One of the innovations is to increase the validity of the aid quality indicators by adjusting for recipient characteristics, donor aid volumes, and other factors. Despite these improvements in data and methodology, the authors caution against overinterpretation of overall indexes such as these. Alternative plausible assumptions regarding weights or the inclusion of additional indicators can still produce marked shifts in the ranking of some donors, so that small differences in overall rankings are not meaningful. Moreover, because the performance of some donors varies considerably across the four sub-indexes, these sub-indexes may be more useful than the overall index in identifying donors’ relative strengths and weaknesses.     

Funding Shocks and Optimal University Admissions and Financial Aid Policies

A positive shock to funding, such as a major donation, causes an optimizing university to raise its admissions standards and reduce tuition charges net of financial aid across all student categories. However, the shock’s effect on enrollment may not be uniform. Student categories given little weight in the university’s objective function may be treated as inferior goods; that is, positive shocks decrease their enrollments, while other student categories’ enrollments are increased. The paper’s findings shed light on the effect of federal direct-to-student aid on tuition levels, permitting a new perspective on William Bennett’s controversial hypothesis that aid accommodates tuition hikes.

经济政策不确定性视角下宏观杠杆的调控效应及其策略选择

新常态下保证宏观杠杆稳步下降是供给侧结构性改革的重要任务之一。以中国经济政策不确定性为门限变量,构建了包括经济政策不确定性、宏观经济政策以及宏观杠杆在内的门限结构向量自回归(T-SVAR)模型,研究高低两种政策不确定性区制下我国需求端货币政策与财政政策以及供给端金融改革政策对宏观杠杆的调控效应。结果显示,三种政策均存在明显的门限效应且在中长期内均出现逆转,区别在于,虽然货币政策对宏观杠杆的短期作用效果最为显著,但当政策不确定性水平快速攀升时,其调控效果会略微降低,而此时财政政策和金融供给侧结构性改革能有效平抑过高的杠杆率增速,且在长期依旧保持一定的调控效果。因此,央行在对宏观杠杆进行调控时应依据各政策调控效应的阶段性特征进行搭配使用,同时通过推进资本市场基础性制度改革,优化融资结构,为实现宏观政策调控效果的最大化奠定基础。     

宏观调控面面观

市场经济运行不能没有宏观调控,这是我国改革以来的重要经验。当前宏观调控面临着新的情况,出现了“保经济增长”还是“遏制通贷膨胀”的争论。本文认为,两者是统一的。经济增长回到9％左右,不能说是“滑坡”;物价上涨控制在5％以下,却有难度。一定要运用计划、规划和适度从紧的货币政策和财政政策,力争实现平稳较快增长,治理通胀,不损害中低收入者的利益。     

新农村建设与农业政策性金融发展方略

社会主义新农村建设与农业政策性金融发展是一个互动共进的过程。一方面,新农村建设对农业政策性金融发展提出新的要求;另一方面,农业政策性金融发展对新农村建设提供强大的政策和金融支持。新时期我国农业政策性金融发展,要坚持以科学发展观为指导,把握新时期支农战略重点,不断拓展农业政策性金融边界,推进农业政策性金融生态建设,积极防范和化解农村金融风险,培养高素质的农业政策性金融人才。