Global-scale assessment of potential future risks of food insecurity

This paper presents an approach of combining biophysical, social, and economic factors for spatially explicit assessment of potential future risks of food insecurity at a global scale over the period of 2000–2020 under a certain scenario. In doing that, two indicators, namely per capita food availability and per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP), were selected to cover the four dimensions of food security, with the former representing the status of food availability and stability, and the latter reflecting the situation of food accessibility and affordability. These two indicators were then linked to an integrated modeling framework. Under this framework, a GIS-based EPIC model was adopted to estimate the potential yields of different crop types under a given biophysical and agricultural management environment, a crop choice decision model was used to model the changes in crop areas through tracking the crop choice decisions, and the IFPSIM model was utilized to evaluate the crop price in the international market. Based on these two indicators, the potential risks of food insecurity were assessed with a spatial resolution of six arc-minutes. The results show that both changes in per capita food availability and changes in per capita GDP during 2000–2020 vary across regions worldwide. Some regions such as China, most eastern European countries, and most southern American countries where there is an increase in per capita food availability or an increase in the capacity to import food between 2000 and 2020 might be able to improve their food security situation. On the contrary, certain regions such as southern Asia and most African countries will likely remain hotspots of food insecurity in the future. In these regions, both the per capita food availability and the capacity of being able to import food will decrease between 2000 and 2020. Although most developed countries will also experience both a decrease in per capita food availability and a decrease in per capita GDP, these countries are likely to be food-secure due to their higher income and purchasing power.     

Institutions,Informal Economy,and Economic Development

Using cross-national panel data, we examine the evolution of the informal economy through the course of economic development. Borrowing from previously published informal economy estimates for 141 countries over the period 1984-2009 and using panel data estimation techniques, we investigate the relationship between informal economy and the level of economic development, proxied by gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. Our findings suggest that institutional quality strongly interacts with this relationship. Specifically, we find that a higher GDP per capita is associated with a larger informal sector size in countries where the institutional quality is low. The opposite is true in countries with good institutions. These results are also in line with a two-sector dynamic general equilibrium model.     

Do Stock Index Futures Affect Economic Growth? Evidence from 32 Countries

This article investigates the relationship between stock index futures markets development and economic growth using time-series methods for 32 developed and developing countries. Evidence of cointegration between stock index futures and real economy in 29 countries suggests the presence of co-movements among the variables, indicating long-run stationarity in those countries. Our findings show that there is Granger-causality from stock index futures markets development to economic growth for middle-income countries with relatively low real per capita GDP, and Granger-causality in the reverse direction for the countries with high real per capita GDP. Variance decomposition and impulse-response function (IRF) analyses results support the existence of a relationship between stock index futures and real economy.     

Understanding Patterns of Economic Growth: Searching for Hills among Plateaus, Mountains, and Plains

The historical path of gross domestic product (GDP) per capitain the United States is, except for the interlude of the GreatDepression, well characterized by reasonably stable exponentialtrend growth with modest cyclical deviations: graphically, itis a modestly sloping, slightly bumpy hill. However, almostnothing that is true of U.S. GDP per capita (or that of othercountries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation andDevelopment) is true of the growth experience of developingcountries. A single time trend does not adequately characterizethe evolution of GDP per capita in most developing countries.Instability in growth rates over time for a single country isgreat, relative to both the average level of growth and thevariance across countries. These shifts in growth rates leadto distinct patterns. While some countries have steady growth(hills and steep hills), others have rapid growth followed bystagnation (plateaus), rapid growth followed by decline (mountains)or even catastrophic falls (cliffs), continuous stagnation (plains),or steady decline (valleys). Volatility, however defined, isalso much greater in developing than in industrial countries.These stylized facts about the instability and volatility ofgrowth rates in developing countries imply that the explodingeconometric growth literature that makes use of the panel natureof data is unlikely to be informative. In contrast, researchinto what initiates (or halts) episodes of growth has high potential.     

The run-up to the global financial crisis: A longer historical view of financial liberalization,capital inflows,and asset bubbles

Using forecast error and sensitivity analyses with a vector error correction model for the US economy, we find that the specific exogenous shocks that contributed to the run-up to the global financial crisis of 2007–2009 vary across the three time periods (1980–1988; 1989–1997; and 1998–2006) that are known for distinctive historical events. Deregulation in the 1980s and capital inflows in the early and mid-1990s triggered by the collapse of the European exchange rate mechanism contributed significantly to changes in real house prices. However, capital inflows after the Asian financial crises in 1997 were driven in large part by rising asset prices. Thus, there were interesting changes in the nature of exogenous shocks and directions of causality through the three sub-periods. These results are robust even after controlling for the exogenous global factors partly determining short-run changes in capital flows, asset prices, and per capita real GDP. We conclude that all of the short run changes in response to financial deregulation starting in the 1980s, surges in capital inflows in the early 1990s, and people's expectation of ever-rising asset prices in the late 1990s and early 2000s culminated in the crisis of 2007–2009.     

THE THREE FACES OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMPARISON PROJECT

Purchasing power parities (PPPs), this article confirms, arethe correct converters for translating GDP and its componentsfrom own-currencies to dollars (the usual numeraire); the alternativemeasure, exchange rates, obscures the relationship between thequantity aggregates of different countries. Drawing on the reportsof the United Nations International Comparison Project (ICP),the article contends that exchange rates systematically understatethe purchasing power of the currencies of low-income countriesand thus exaggerate the dispersion of national per capita incomes.Where full-scale (benchmark) PPP estimates are not available,estimates based on shortcut methods better approximate whatthe benchmark estimates would be than do the exchange rate conversions.The ICP results also illuminate price and exchange rate relationshipsamong countries by providing a measure of the difference inthe levels of prices in different countries. ICP price comparisonsfor components of GDP make possible the analysis of comparativeprice and quantity structures of different countries and providethe raw materials for many types of analytical studies.      

Personal income tax mimicry: evidence from international panel data

This paper investigates personal income tax (PIT) mimicry at the international level. It is the first to empirically investigate the extent to which PIT mimicry varies along the tax schedule and the first to include nations which are not part of the OECD. We use data on international personal income tax schedules from the world tax indicators to estimate marginal and average tax rates at various multiples of per capita gross domestic product (GDP). These tax rates are then used to estimate the extent to which countries respond to their neighbors’ PIT policy. We find evidence of PIT mimicry using a balanced panel of 53 countries over 24 years. This finding is strongest for tax rates at lower multiples of per capita GDP and survives several robustness checks.     

Finance and European regional economy

This study computes banking risk indexes for European developing countries and analyses the impact of identified risk factors on economic growth across regions and cities. We examine the short-run and long-run behaviours of the series. The results reveal that real gross domestic product (RGDP) per capita co-moves with banking risk. We find that about 17% of focal regions suffer significantly from banking risk shocks. The effect ranges from 0.1% to 0.7%, with a lower magnitude for cities. Banking risk has the most detrimental effects in Russia. Short- and long-run decrements in RGDP range between 0.2% and 0.3% across the panel.     

金融机构现金收支对人均GDP的影响——基于建国60年来数据的实证分析

本文运用我国1953～2007年金融机构现金收支与人均GDP数据,实证分析了建国60年来我国金融机构现金收支对人均GDP的影响。Johansen协整检验表明,我国金融机构现金收支与人均GDP之间存在长期的稳定关系;脉冲响应和方差分解表明,金融机构现金收支总额对人均GDP的冲击都存在时滞但方向相反;与金融机构现金收入总额的作用相比,金融机构现金支出总额对人均GDP的方差贡献率相对较大。该实证结果的政策含义是,在我国运用货币政策调节宏观经济是有效的,但政策的制定需要在对宏观经济形势准确预测的基础上具有一定的前瞻性。在全球金融危机发生后,我国及时推行宽松的货币政策,其政策取向是正确的。     

Does oil price have similar effects on the exchange rates of BRICS?

Motivated by the crucial status of oil price and exchange rates in world finance and economy, we apply daily data from August 2005 to February 2019 to investigate the impact of oil price shocks on the exchange rate of BRICS countries. This paper first adopts a new framework and EEMD method to decompose oil shocks and exchange rate series, respectively. With these econometric methods, the final research variables in this paper are constructed, including two types of oil shocks and three kinds of exchange rate series. The ARDL approach and VAR model are then employed to detect the influence of oil shocks on exchange rates in different frequencies, corresponding to the stationarity of series. The evidence, based on the original exchange rate series reveals that two oil price shocks can produce different effects on net oil-importing countries and net oil-exporting countries, while the results from different frequencies show that exchange rates will have a significant response to oil shocks only at a high frequency. It is worth noting that China is a unique case in BRICS, the relations between its exchange rate and oil price shocks is far insignificant than that of the other countries.     

Bank-specific shocks and the real economy

Governments often justify interventions into the financial system in the form of bail outs or liquidity assistance with the systemic importance of large banks for the real economy. In this paper, we analyze whether idiosyncratic shocks to loan growth at large banks have effects on real GDP growth. We employ a measure of idiosyncratic shocks which follows Gabaix (forthcoming). He shows that idiosyncratic shocks to large firms have an impact on US GDP growth. In an application to the banking sector, we find evidence that changes in lending by large banks have a significant short-run impact on GDP growth. Episodes of negative loan growth rates and the Eastern European countries in our sample drive these results.     

中国城市经济发展水平比较研究——基于环境友好视角

根据中国31个省会及直辖市2013年和2014年的人均 GDP 与空气质量综合指数数据,考量各城市经济发展水平。结果发现：主要城市人均 GDP 与空气质量具有一定的负相关性,表明以经济为主导的发展模式可能会带来一定的环境问题。     

Measures of per Capita Hours and Their Implications for the Technology-Hours Debate

Structural vector autoregressions give conflicting results on the effects of technology shocks on hours. The results depend crucially on the assumed data generating process for hours per capita. We show that the standard measure of hours per capita and productivity have significant low-frequency movements that are the source of the conflicting results. Hodrick–Prescott (HP)-filtered hours per capita produce results consistent with those obtained when hours are assumed to have a unit root. We show that important sources of the low-frequency movements in the standard measure are sectoral shifts in hours and the changing age composition of the working-age population. When we control for these low-frequency components to determine the effect of technology shocks on hours using long-run restrictions we get one consistent answer: hours decline in the short run in response to a positive technology shock. We further extend the analysis by examining the effects of demographic controls on the impulse responses to investment-specific technology shocks. Our results are less conclusive.     

Granularity in banking and growth: Does financial openness matter?

We explore the impact of large banks and of financial openness for aggregate growth. Large banks matter because of granular effects: if markets are very concentrated in terms of the size distribution of banks, idiosyncratic shocks at the bank-level do not cancel out in the aggregate but can affect macroeconomic outcomes. Financial openness may affect GDP growth in and of itself, and it may also influence concentration in banking and thus the impact of bank-specific shocks for the aggregate economy. To test these relationships, we use different measures of de jure and de facto financial openness in a panel dataset for 79 countries and the years 1996–2009. Our research has three main findings: First, bank-level shocks significantly impact upon GDP. Second, financial openness tends to lower GDP growth. Third, granular effects tend to be stronger in financially closed economies.     

欧盟东扩对我国制造业影响的实证分析

欧盟东扩后产生了贸易创造和贸易转移效应,其中贸易转移效应将影响我国对欧盟出口。东扩的国家人均GDP显著低于西欧,但也显著高于我国,所以与中国相比对欧盟出口可能拥有不同比较优势,对我国不同技术含量的制造业商品出口欧盟会产生不同程度的影响,本文首先分析了中东欧主要国家和我国制造业的双边贸易以及中国和中东欧国家出口欧盟的制造业商品结构,然后基于制造业相对显示性指数实证分析得出：欧盟东扩后,制造业商品出口结构恶化,特别是中低技能技术的制造业产品在东盟东扩后受到的贸易转移效应影响尤为明显,而对我国劳动和资源密集型产品影响不大,还有最近几年的贸易摩擦使得高技能技术产品的出口欧盟受阻,进一步恶化了我国对欧盟制造业商品出口结构。     

Are investors moonstruck? Further international evidence on lunar phases and stock returns

This study uses an alternative model specification to re-examine the influences of the new moon and the full moon on the daily returns of 62 international stock indices for the period 1988 to 2008. The fixed effects panel model incorporates the prior day effect and two calendar anomalies, i.e., the Monday effect and the turn-of-the-month effect, to assess variations in the lunar influences. A covariate, based on per capita gross domestic product (GDP), examines how the results vary between countries. The prior day effect is greater for less developed countries. The overall enhanced new moon effect is independent of GDP. An overall full moon effect is absent. These lunar effects are weakly influenced by the calendar anomalies.     

The anticipated and concurring effects of the EMU: exchange rate volatility, institutions and growth

Reduced exchange rate volatility and higher and less heterogeneous quality of institutional rules and macroeconomic policies are two of the main (anticipated and concurring) effects expected from a currency union.In this paper, we measure the magnitude of these two effects for the Eurozone countries looking at real effective exchange rates (REER) and at different indicators of quality of institutional rules and macroeconomic policies (QIRMP). We find that the first effect is much stronger than the second when we compare relative changes for Eurozone countries and the rest of the world in the relevant period.We further evaluate the impact of both effects on economic growth on a larger sample of countries. Our findings show that both have significant impact on levels (more robust) and on rates of growth (weaker) of per capita GDP.     

中国的主权信用评级是否被低估?

本文以1986至2009年期间120个国家的宏观经济数据和三大评级机构的主权信用评级结果为研究对象;运用面板数据的多元回归模型和有序Probit概率模型研究中国的主权信用评级是否被低估的问题。通过对三大评级机构的定量分析模型进行模拟与验证发现,中国的主权信用评级在20世纪90年代和2001年至2002年前后的确被低估,但2003年以后,随着穆迪、标准普尔等评级机构相继调高我国的主权信用等级,目前我国的模拟评级与实际评级已经基本持平。     

东亚国家金融结构与经济增长的实证研究

文章首先通过构造衡量金融结构的不同指标,运用金融结构与经济增长的动态面板数据模型,并用广义矩估计法进行估计,得出了在人均GDP高的国家,股票市场比重也高的结论;为验证其显著性,文章把东亚国家分成银行主导型和市场主导型两组分别回归,结论是股票市场比重的提高与人均GDP有显著的关系, 因此, 东亚国家应积极发展股票市场,提高银行体系和股票市场的效率。     

Economic policy uncertainty and sovereign credit rating decisions: Panel quantile evidence for the Eurozone

We employ a panel quantile framework that quantifies the relative importance of quantitative and qualitative factors across the conditional distribution of sovereign credit ratings in the Eurozone area. We find that regulatory quality and competitiveness have a stronger impact for low rated countries whereas GDP per capita is a major driver of high rated countries. A reduction in the current account deficit leads to a rating or outlook upgrade for low rated countries. Economic policy uncertainty impacts negatively on credit ratings across the conditional distribution; however, the impact is stronger for the lower rated countries. In other words, the creditworthiness of low rated countries takes a much bigger ‘hit’ than that of high rated countries when European policy uncertainty is on the rise.