Year one of the Yudhoyono–Kalla duumvirate

In the first year of their government, the joint leadership of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Vice President Jusuf Kalla is reminiscent of Indonesia's first presidential and vice presidential team, the duumvirate or dwitunggal of President Sukarno and Vice President Mohammad Hatta. Though not without its weaknesses, the Yudhoyono–Kalla duumvirate is more likely to be successful than its predecessor, whose dissolution led to the overthrow of parliamentary democracy in the late 1950s. The problems that Indonesia faces today are more manageable; today's leaders are also more compatible in policy goals and understanding of politics. Progress to date is most notable in the organisation of the government's political power base, the policy response to the tsunami, the forging of the Aceh peace agreement, and action against corrupt officials, while economic policy making has been less successful.     

Deflation,Productivity Shocks and Gold: Evidence from the 1880–1914 Period

In this paper we examine the sources and impact of deflation on the growth experiences of the four dominant countries on the gold standard in the period 1880–1913: the United States, The United Kingdom, France and Germany. We distinguish between good deflation, (driven by positive aggregate supply shocks) and bad deflation (driven by aggregate demand shocks). We use an empirical Blanchard/Quah model which decomposes the behaviour of prices, output and the money stock into the impact of shocks such as a world price level shock, a domestic supply shock, and domestic demand shocks including a shock to the domestic gold stock. Our key finding is that the European economies were essentially classic in the sense that output was mainly supply driven and that money was neutral even when country specific gold stocks are included. In the United States, however, we observe both good and bad deflation.     

Separating shocks from cyclicality in Indian aggregate supply

Simultaneity issues as well as incorrect measurement of shocks and of the cyclical variable bias estimated slopes of the Indian aggregate supply curve (AS). Our initial Generalised Method of Moments estimation, based on a filtered output gap variable and including supply shocks, also gives an unrealistic downward sloping AS. But we find measures of asymmetries in price changes outperform traditional measures of supply shocks. Estimation using marginal costs as a proxy for the output gap gives a positive coefficient that reduces in size on including our comprehensive supply shock variable, implying the correct AS has a small positive slope, but is subject to multiple shifts. The semi-structural specification, closer to firms’ actual decisions, gives estimates of structural parameters such as degree of price stickiness and extent of forward-looking price adjustment. The results more correctly separate shocks from cyclicality, help to interpret India's growth and inflation experience, and have implications for policy.     

A history of aggregate demand and supply shocks for the United Kingdom, 1900 to 2016

This paper presents a history of aggregate demand and supply shocks spanning 1900 – 2016 for the United Kingdom. Sign restrictions derived from a workhorse Keynesian model are used to identify the signs of those shocks. We compare the 30 largest shocks implied by a vector autoregressive model in unemployment and inflation with the narrative historical record. Our approach provides a new perspective on well-known events in economic history. We highlight two episodes of particular interest: an aggregate supply shock in the late 1920s, which we attribute to changes in the bargaining power of labor, and positive aggregate demand shocks in the mid-1970s, which we attribute to fiscal policy.     

收益波动与随机冲击的非对称性影响：中国与美国股票市场的对比

通过讨论股票收益与随机;中击之间的关系,对中国股票市场和美国股票市场进行了对比研究。研究中使用了中国上海和深圳股票市场1990年12月31日至2005年12月30日的两市A股算术平均周指,以及美国股票市场1973年1月2日至2004年月12月30日的标准普尔500周指。在进行经验研究的过程中,分别使用了线性GARCH模型和GJR—GARCH模型计量股票收益的条件波动——即模型中的条件方差。研究发现,中国股票市场自1990年——1995年波动剧烈,之后波动趋于平缓,而美国股票市场在研究期间内收益波动一直处于一定范围内。同时还发现,美国股票市场的随机冲击对股票收益产生非对称性影响,即负冲击使股票收益产生的波动大于正冲击。而在中国股票市场却找不到相似的证据。鉴于对中国股票市场收益波动的研究结果,在剔除1996年以前的数据之后又进行了扩展研究,但是似然比率检验结果表明,正冲击对股票收益的影响还要略强于负冲击。     

Mitigating Natural Disasters through Collective Action: The Effectiveness of Tsunami Early Warnings

The megathrust earthquake centered near Sumatra on December 26, 2004, generated a tsunami that resulted in an estimated 150,000 deaths in Indonesia alone. In response, commitments have been made to extend the existing tsunami early warning systems in the Pacific to the remainder of the world subject to tsunamis. Surprisingly, while these systems have been in place in some cases for more than half a century, to date no analysis of their effectiveness has been presented. We fill this research gap by analyzing 146 out of the 202 tsunamis occurring worldwide since 1966. Relying on a negative binomial regression model that controls for the dynamics of the tsunami, we find early warnings to be quite effective in reducing deaths. The model also controls for additional factors important in determining a tsunami's death toll such as socioeconomic conditions, which have been shown to be important in other natural disasters.     

Effect of Money Supply on Real Output and Price in China

Over the past 30 years, China has achieved remarkable long-term economic growth. Using quarterly data, we study the effects of money supply on real output and inflation in China between 1993 and 2008. To this end, we use money supply shocks afler filtering out the expected component of the money supply. Our findings provide evidence supporting the asymmetric effect of positive and negative money supply shocks on real output and inflation in China. That is, real GDP growth in China responds to negative money supply shocks but not positive money supply shocks. In addition, inflation responds to positive money supply shocks but not negative money supply shocks. We conclude that the People＇s Bank of China＇ s policy of steady monetary growth appears to be appropriate. Our study offers important policy implications for China.     

LINKING POVERTY AND INCOME SHOCKS TO RISKY SEXUAL BEHAVIOUR: EVIDENCE FROM A PANEL STUDY OF YOUNG ADULTS IN CAPE TOWN

Is there a link between household income and income stress, and risky sexual behaviour of young people? Anecdotal and qualitative evidence suggests this may be the case, but there is little quantitative research measuring this relationship. We use two waves of new data from the Cape Area Panel Study to investigate this link for 2,993 African and coloured youths aged 14 to 22 in 2002. In the process, we discuss one type of research design that could allow for a causal interpretation of the effect of income poverty on HIV risk. This design plausibly separates out the effect of income stress from the effect of living in a poor household by comparing behaviours across households with and without negative economic shocks, conditional on baseline income. Our results indicate that females in poorer households are more likely to be sexually active in 2002 and more likely to sexually debut by 2005. In addition, girls in households experiencing negative economic shocks are more likely to reduce condom use between 2002 and 2005. However, they are less likely to have multiple partners in 2002 or have transitioned to multiple partners by 2005. Males who experienced a negative shock are more likely to have multiple partners. Despite the tight research design for assessing shocks, the findings on the impacts of shocks do not generate clear recommendations for policy. There appears to be no systematic difference in condom use at last sex by household income levels or income shocks.     

The role of borrowing in crisis coping among ultra-poor households in rural Bangladesh

In this study, we show how decisions to borrow from different formal and informal sources are associated with different types of disasters. We estimate the associations between loans from different sources using monthly panel data from Northern Bangladesh. Households borrow from different sources to cope with disasters. The cost of loans, however, may vary by the source of funds. MFI loans, while low in terms of interest cost, usually require a savings deposit, loan or application fee, with a longer trip or waiting time. Hence, households resort to loans from informal sources to deal with crises. We estimate the impulse responses of loans from different sources, which clearly show a hump-shape centring for the months of disasters. Pre-emptive loans are associated only with partially anticipated shocks. Aggregate shocks also limit how much households can borrow from their local peers. Our findings rationalise the roles played by both informal and formal micro-loans in crisis coping in Bangladesh, where the market for microfinance is ubiquitous. The development of the emergency credit market and the introduction of insurance services in rural areas will require the non-price costs of such financial products to be lowered.     

China's ‘New Normal’: Is the growth slowdown demand- or supply-driven?

China's ‘New Normal’ has been much discussed in recent years. An important aspect of the New Normal is the growth slowdown from levels of around 10% per annum to a more modest 6 or 7%. Not surprisingly, there has been widespread discussion of whether the slowdown is permanent or not and, in either case, what the sources of the slowdown are. However, much of this discussion has been based on informal analysis of the data rather than formal econometric results. We make a move in the direction of formal empirical analysis of this issue by estimating and simulating a vector autoregressive (VAR) model which distinguishes between demand, supply and foreign shocks as possible drivers of changes in economic growth. We analyse both two-variable (growth and inflation) and three-variable (foreign growth, domestic growth and inflation) VAR models and identify demand, supply and foreign shocks, using a modification of the Blanchard-Quah identification procedure. In the two-variable model we identify two shocks (demand and supply) and find that the slowdown since the GFC has been mainly supply-driven. This conclusion is not changed when a foreign growth variable is added to the model and a foreign shock is allowed for – we find that demand continues to be of relatively little importance, that the foreign shock also makes little contribution to explaining the long-run growth decline in China which continues to be driven by long-term supply factors. This conclusion is robust to a number of alternative formulations of the model. Thus, the growth slowdown may, indeed, be characterised as the ‘New Normal’.     

Macroeconomic policy-induced wealth effects on Chinese foreign housing investments

The unpegging of China's currency in 2005 creates positive wealth effects that trigger Chinese foreign buyers' responses to pay 3.42% more in housing prices relative to other foreign buyers. We find evidence of a higher propensity to purchase housing units with more visible features among Chinese foreign buyers after the policy shock relative to other foreign buyers. Chinese foreign buyers pay 11.0% premiums for high-floor units, 7.25% premiums for large units and 4.61% for luxury (more expensive) units after experiencing positive incomrtde shocks. We find that conspicuous consumption motives are augmented in high-income neighborhoods and neighborhoods with strong enclaves and social networks comprising residents from China. We show that conspicuous consumption motives are more significant for Chinese foreign buyers who are owner occupiers than for those who are investors. The results survive a slew of robustness and falsification tests, and we cannot reject the finding of wealth-induced conspicuous consumption by Chinese foreign buyers in Singapore's private housing market.     

Postwar business cycles in Japan: A quest for the right explanation

This paper explores the nature of postwar business cycles in Japan. Our basic strategy is to study different production behaviors of various manufacturing industries over business cycles. We are particularly interested in the problems of whether only monetary shocks are important and, if not, what kind of real shocks are important. We conclude that purely monetary theory is inadequate, and that construction activities were major causes of aggregate fluctuations in the pre-first oil shock period of rapid growth. We also present some evidence suggesting that real business cycle theory is implausible.     

What caused Japan’s Great Stagnation in the 1990s? Evidence from an estimated DSGE model

Despite the widespread belief that Japan’s “Great Stagnation” in the 1990s is due to the financial dysfunction after the collapse of asset price bubbles, Hayashi and Prescott (2002) argue that its main cause is a slowdown in total factor productivity growth, using a calibrated neoclassical growth model. The present paper aims to fill this gap by estimating a New Keynesian dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model augmented with a financial accelerator mechanism and associated financial shocks. Our estimation results show that even in the presence of the financial shocks an adverse neutral technology shock mainly induced the Great Stagnation and that the rate of neutral technological change is strongly correlated with all enterprises’ financial position in the Tankan. Based on these findings, the paper argues that the Great Stagnation was caused by an adverse neutral technology shock that is likely to represent a tightening of firms’ financing, which induced reduction of R&D investment and misallocation of resources as indicated in previous literature.     

供求冲击与人民币汇率的波动：基于DSGE两国模型的模拟分析

为分析人民币汇率的波动,本文应用当前新开放经济学主流的动态随机一般均衡两国模型的研究方法,通过引入垄断竞争的市场结构和粘性的价格调整方式,模拟了在以技术冲击为代表的供给冲击和以货币冲击为代表的需求冲击下汇率的波动,进而用来拟合人民币汇率的波动。结果表明相对于需求冲击,供给冲击对人民币汇率波动的拟合比较好,这表明“巴拉萨-萨缪尔森”效应是解释和预测人民币汇率波动的合理途径,也给我国的人民币汇率稳定政策提供了明确的导向。     

Hong Kong's growth synchronization with China and the US: A trend and cycle analysis

This paper investigates the synchronization of Hong Kong's economic growth with mainland China and the US. We identify trends of economic growth based on the permanent income hypothesis. Specifically, we first confirm whether real consumption in Hong Kong and mainland China satisfies the permanent income hypothesis, at least in a weak form. We then identify the permanent and transitory components of income of each economy using a simple state-space model. We use structural vector autoregression models to analyze how permanent and transitory shocks originating from mainland China and the US affect the Hong Kong economy, and how such influences evolve over time. Our main findings suggest that transitory shocks from the US remain a major driving force behind Hong Kong's business cycle fluctuations. On the other hand, permanent shocks from mainland China have a larger impact on Hong Kong's trend growth.     

Changing nature of North–South linkages: Stylized facts and explanations

This paper examines the changing nature of growth spillovers between developed economies, the North, and developing countries, the South, driven by the process of globalization—the phenomenon of rising international trade and financial flows. We use a comprehensive database of macroeconomic and sectoral variables for 106 countries over the period 1960–2005. We consider the South to be composed of two groups of countries, the Emerging South and the Developing South, based on the extent of their integration into the global economy. Using a panel regression framework, we find that the impact of the Northern economic activity on the Emerging South has declined during the globalization period (1986–2005). In contrast, the growth linkages between the North and Developing South have been rather stable over time. Our findings also suggest that the North and Emerging South economies have started to exhibit more intensive intra-group growth spillovers.     

Recollections of My Career

Teuku Mohamad Daud, a pioneer Indonesian entrepreneur, was born in Perlak, Aceh, in 1920. Educated in Aceh and Jakarta, he joined the fledgling Indonesian National Army (TNI) at the proclamation of independence in 1945. Charged with procuring military equipment for the TNI Sumatra Command based at Bukittinggi, West Sumatra, Mr Daud was forced to finance the procurement by smuggling agricultural commodities, with the help of his uncle, Teuku Abdul Hamid Azwar. In 1947, at the suggestion of Vice President Hatta, Mr Daud and his uncle established Indonesia's first state-owned general trading company, the Central Trading Corporation (CTC, renamed PN Tri Bhakti in 1961, and later PN Panca Niaga), based in Bukittinggi. Mr Daud became a director of CTC while remaining on the TNI staff, and was later President Director until his resignation in 1966. He and several colleagues then established a group of private companies, engaged mainly in construction work.

On 1 October 1996 and again in June 1997, Mr Daud talked with Howard Dick and Thee Kian Wie of the BIES Editorial Board about his experiences in running CTC, both during Indonesia's revolutionary struggle and in the early period of independence, and about his views on the role of government in commerce. References to current government policy relate to the Soeharto administration.     

人口流动管制与中国宏观经济波动——基于异质性技能视角分析

人口流动是我国经济的热点问题之一，那么人口流动管制对我国宏观经济波动有什么样的影响?文章在标准RBC一般均衡模型中引入了异质性高低技能劳动，考察了人口流动管制对宏观经济波动的影响。研究发现：（1）劳动人口流动管制对总产出和总消费都有负向影响，会增加低技能工资，降低高技能工资；（2）资本质量冲击、政府购买冲击不仅会使消费和工资水平下降，同时也会造成福利下降，其中单位政府购买冲击会使居民福利下降最大，低技能总福利损失大于高技能总福利损失；（3）通过方差分解发现人口流动冲击能解释产出波动的7.83%和投资波动的5.60%，同时还发现随着经济中高技能比重加大，单位人口流动负冲击对社会福利损失越大。文章基于人口流动管制异质性视角研究得出流动人口管制不利于经济增长和社会总福利，为我国流动人口研究提供了新的研究视角。     

Energy price shocks,monetary policy and China's economic fluctuations

This paper develops a New Keynesian dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model with energy factors to study various channels through which China's economic fluctuations are linked to energy price shocks and to search for the optimal monetary policy to cope with energy price shocks. We conclude that there are channels through which changes in energy prices will have the following cause–effect relationships. First, a rise in energy price as a negative technology shock will raise the costs of providing capital services per unit of capital, thereby reducing output. Second, a rising energy price distorts the intertemporal choices of households and firms, creating downward pressure on the expected future return on capital. Third, an energy price shock places upward pressure on the marginal costs associated with an increase in inflation. Numerical simulation results show that a positive energy price shock has a positive effect on energy technology improvements. In addition, the effects of energy price shocks can be mitigated by nominal rigidities, and interest rate rules will determine the magnitude of those effects. Using the efficient frontier method, we also show that optimal monetary policy in China should help control energy price volatility.     

School attendance and economic shocks: Evidence from rural Zimbabwe

Unpredicted shocks such as weather, pests or price changes affect agricultural households negatively or positively. The shocks have two opposite effects (income and substitution) on parents’ investments in the human capital of their children, and it is not predictable from theory whether the income effect or the substitution effect of a shock has a greater impact on the investments. Therefore, it is unknown whether human capital investments (i.e. sending children to school rather than having them work) are procyclical or countercyclical. In this paper we show how hyperinflation may affect investments in the education of children by their parents using three data-sets from Zimbabwe. We find that human capital investments are countercyclical (the substitution effect dominates) in rural areas of Zimbabwe during a shock. Therefore, policymakers in Zimbabwe need to be worried about decreased schooling of children during positive shocks in the rural areas.