The role of miniatures in computable general equilibrium modelling : Experience from ORANI

ORANI is a large general equilibrium model of the Australian economy used by policy analysts and university research workers. This paper describes the role of miniature models in the development and application of ORANI. Miniature versions of ORANI have been useful in (a) explaining results; (b) detecting errors; (c) conducting sensitivity analyses; (d) experimenting with new specifications; and (e) teaching. The present paper concentrates mainly on (a) and (b). A miniature model is developed to explain ORANI results for the effects of increases in protection, reductions in the real costs of labour, increases in oil prices and increases in real aggregate demand.     

How Reliable are ORANI Conclusions?*

This paper seeks to systematically review the main criticisms of the ORANI model by developing a graphical version of a two-sector (exportables and nonexportables) miniature ORANI model. This model shows that ORANI results occur because while supply curves in both sectors have similar slopes. the slopes of the demand curves are polar opposites. Furthermore this model shows that results will tend to be more sensitive to variations in supply rather than demand parameters. Experiments using the ORANI model itself verified these findings. These results indicate that some form of sensitivity analysis with respect to assigned parameter values should form an integral part of any ORANI experiment.     

An Analysis of the Effects of Recent Changes in the Exchange Rate and the Terms of Trade on the Level and Composition of Economic Activity

Over the eighteen-month period ending June 1986, the Australian economy experienced two major shocks: a nominal devaluation of the $A of some 28 per cent and a terms of trade decline of some 16 per cent. The effects of these influences are examined using the ORANI model of the Australian economy. The effects of the devaluation on selected macroeconomic variables and key sectoral variables are presented for various degrees of wage indexation. Effects on quota rents are calculated and compared with actual outcomes. The terms of trade decline has an adverse impact on the balance of trade and in order to offset this impact while maintaining aggregate employment demand the model calculates that both real wages and real absorption would need to be around 4 per cent less than the values they would otherwise take.     

新常态下我国宏观经济政策框架的重构*

我国宏观经济政策“微刺激”效果下降,而“强刺激”带来了严重后遗症,导致这种状况的关键原因是政策框架在整体上出了问题。重构我国宏观政策框架的战略定位应该包括以下内容：（1）短期应对不断加剧的宏观经济和金融风险;（2）中期应对结构调整的负面冲击;（3）长期构建高效的、可持续的和动态一致的宏观调控模式。重构政策框架的原则性要求包括：（1）宏观经济及金融的稳定性与国际收支平衡应该成为显性目标;（2）财政政策主要指向结构调整期的短期阵痛,货币政策指向宏观经济及金融稳定性;（3）宏观政策应该遵循市场化、可预期的操作模式。在具体策略上可以选择国债市场作为突破口,通过改变国债发行规模和方式,推动国债市场的大发展和大开放,以此拓展整个金融市场的深度和开放程度。     

The Orani-Macro Interface: An Illustrative Exposition*

The paper provides on illustration of the procedure used to interface the MACRO and ORANI modules of the IMPACT Project. The main interfacing problem is that of temporal aggregation. This problem arises when information is to be passed between a dynamic disequilibrium model such as MACRO and a comparative static general equilibrium model such as ORANI. A diagrammatic treatment of the solution to this problem is presented. The procedure is then illustrated by a numerical experiment .     

商业银行信用风险与宏观经济——基于压力测试的研究

本文采用压力测试框架,研究了宏观经济波动对商业银行信用风险的影响。文章以不良贷款率度量信用风险,以名义GDP增长率、广义货币供应量（M2）增速、居民消费价格指数（CPI）以及房地产销售价格指数作为宏观经济变量,建立了合适的宏观压力测试模型。在GDP增速放缓、CPI上升、M2增速下降的压力情景下,预测了2011年第一季度到第四季度的不良贷款率的变化路径。实证结果表明在压力情景下商业银行的不良贷款率将会显著上升。     

Calibration of Computable General Equilibrium Models from Synthetic Benchmark Equilibrium Data Sets*

The most common procedure for estimating the share parameters of a CGE model is to calibrate the model using a particular year-of-record benchmark equilibrium data set. In this paper we argue the case for calibration from synthetic benchmark equilibrium data sets which portray the economy in a notional typical year. The development of a synthetic agricultural sector in the benchmark equilibrium data set of the ORANI model of the Australian economy is described Finally a comparison is made of the results from ORANI of an across-the-board tariff cut simulation computed with both the synthetic benchmark equilibrium data set and a particular year-of-record data set.     

Structural Reform, Macro Policies and Income Distribution

Since the mid-1980s, Australia has been under considerable pressure to restructure its economy. This restructuring has been necessitated by the need to generate surpluses in its external trade account in order to meet the growing interest payments on its foreign debt. To facilitate this process of restructuring, the Commonwealth Government initially used two macro policies that have the desired structural effects: ‘wage moderation’ and ‘fiscal management’. In this paper, we examine the distributional effects of these policies. The analysis depends on simulations using an extended version of the ORANI model of the Australian economy, taken in conjunction with unit record data from an updated version of the 1981–82 Income and Housing Survey database.     

Prospects for Some Australian Corporations Derived from a General Equilibrium Model

The ORANI computable general equilibrium model of the Australian economy has traditionally been used to estimate the effects of changes in the economy on industries. In this article the ORANI model is extended to include corporations. Medium-run forecasts of the Australian economy over the period 1988-95 89 to 1994-95 are used to estimate the effects on revenue and costs for selected corporations. These forecasts are generated by weighting the industry projections by the holdings of corporations across industries.     

Internal and external balance in a centrally planned economy

This paper presents a model of an open centrally planned economy. In a framework that allows disequilibrium and (informal) quantity rationing, we seek to represent both the effects of domestic macroeconomic processes on trade flows and the effects on domestic macro variables of foreign-sector phenomena. We investigate the adjustment of the system to exogenous shocks and the policy trade-offs facing the planners, using a diagrammatic apparatus analogous to the Swan and Mundell diagrams for an open developed market economy. The model is also intended to serve as a basis for specification of empirical models of the macroeconomic aspects of foreign trade in centrally planned economies.     

Macroeconomic Stability or Cycles? The Role of the Wage‐Price Spiral

We formulate a small and stylised dynamic macroeconomic model, and study how different specifications of the supply side affect the model's dynamic properties. The wage‐price equilibrium‐correction model (ECM) and the Phillips curve model (PCM) that both can be used to represent the supply side of a New Keynesian macro model, are synthesised in a generalised model of the wage‐price spiral. We show that the choice of ECM or PCM has implications for the long‐run stability of the macro model, without need of a NAIRU. We also find that the range of theoretically admissible dynamics is wide. For example, both the ECM and PCM may display endogenous cyclical fluctuations in inflation and unemployment, showing that even simple structures can give rise to complex dynamics. In practice that may entail that forecasting the effects of shocks and policy changes is difficult even in the best of circumstances.     

宏观经济理论中的金融因素:若干认识误区

本文以主流宏观经济学的若干认识误区为切入点,对宏观经济理论中的金融因素及相关问题进行了初步的理论反思。这一反思主要围绕以下六个基本命题展开:一是金融因素在宏观经济中的影响被严重低估,二是主流货币政策框架的致命缺陷源于其政策视野的短期性,三是货币与信用的创造机制存在着本质差别,四是财政机制与信用机制并非独立,五是金融创新指向信用创造并改变了经济金融环境,六是泡沫问题金融化的本质在于杠杆扩大化。这些命题的共同启示是:宏观经济理论必须在纳入内生性金融因素的基础上予以系统重建。     

我国产业结构升级对经济波动的熨平效应分析

本文基于时变参数模型的经验研究表明,改革开放以来我国产业结构升级对经济波动平稳化趋势有着显著的熨平效应,并且随着产业结构升级的不断推进,这种熨平作用亦趋明显。TGARCH模型的深入分析发现三大产业对我国经济波动幅度的影响是非对称性的:第一产业波动对经济总量波动几乎没有影响;第二产业波动对经济总量波动存在杠杆效应,而这种杠杆效应主要是由重工业带来的;但第三产业波动对经济总量波动存在明显的熨平作用,交通运输仓储和邮政业、住宿餐饮业及除五大类之外的其他服务业对经济波动的熨平效应最为显著,而批发零售业、金融业和房地产业因其自身的波动较大,对经济总量波动的熨平效应较小。本文结论的政策性启示是,为保持我国国民经济的平稳化增长势头,必须进一步优化三大产业之间的关系,深入推进产业结构升级,特别是要加快第三产业发展。     

Deleveraging crises and deep recessions: a behavioural approach

Macroeconomic dynamics are characterized by alternating patterns of periods of relative stability and large swings. Standard microfounded macroeconomic models account for these patterns through exogenous and persistent shocks. In this article, we develop a fully decentralized and microfounded macroeconomic agent-based model, augmented with an opinion model, which produces endogenous waves of pessimism and optimism that feed back into firms’ leverage and households’ precautionary saving behaviour. A major emergent property of our model is precisely the complex successions of stable and unstable macroeconomic regimes. The model is further able to account for a wide spectrum of macro and micro empirical regularities. Within this framework, we analyse a series of macroeconomic phenomena of key relevance in the current macroeconomic debate, especially the occurrence of deleveraging crises and Fisherian debt-deflation recessions. Our analysis suggests that the relative dynamics of prices and wages and the resulting income distribution along a deflationary path are critical determinants of the severity of the recession and the chances of recovery.     

Human capital and economic growth: A macroeconomic model for Pakistan

The paper presents a small macro model for Pakistan economy focusing the impact of investment in human capital on the key macroeconomic variables. The demand side is modeled along the Keynesian lines while the supply side is modeled as per neoclassical theory of production. This framework allows analyzing the effects of investment in human capital on supply side variables (like labor, physical and human capital) and demand side variables (like consumption and investment) at the same time.The model has small forecasting horizon in which three alternative scenarios regarding government spending on education are evaluated from 2012 to 2016. The model shows that the link between human capital and labor market is weak however a change in education spending affects output through enhancing productivity and through multiplier-accelerator principle. Though the model is small in size and forecasting horizon, it can help in evaluating the future paths of key macroeconomic variables associated with education spending.     

Monetary policy credibility and macrodynamics: evidence from Ghana

We compute a time-varying metric of monetary policy credibility based on Ghana’s experience, using both symmetric and asymmetric approaches. We then follow-up with some empirical evidence to address the linkages between macroeconomic developments and central bank credibility. The empirical results reveal high and low credibility cycles with an average duration of 2 years over the study period. Particularly, higher levels of credibility were associated with stable domestic currency and lower nominal interest rates. This reinforces the notion that efficient monetary policy delivers higher central bank credibility with better outcomes for macroeconomic variables. In contrast, the level of credibility tends to worsen in the wake of weakening macro fundamentals which are not adequately countered by monetary policy decisions. There is therefore the need for efficient monetary policy formulation to achieve a stable macroeconomic environment in Ghana. This will in the long-run build policy credibility towards attaining the central bank’s medium-term inflation target.     

政府支出与私人消费的关系研究——基于跨国数据（1983—2008年）的面板协整分析

文章运用面板协整分析方法和世界上36个国家（20个发达国家和16个发展中国家）1983—2008年的面板数据进行跨国研究,通过建立变系数面板模型并结合可支配收入和宏观经济环境的影响,分析了政府支出和私人消费的关系。研究结果显示,总体上而言,样本国家的政府消费支出与私人消费成互补关系,可支配收入仍然是影响私人消费的主要因素,宏观经济环境（经济开放程度和失业率）对消费的影响在统计上很不显著。为了扩大消费,中国政府应实施积极的财政政策、扩大财政支出和提高社会保障水平以及切实解决民生基本难题。     

The sovereign property of foreign reserve investment in China: A CVaR approach

This paper investigates the role of foreign exchange reserve investment to hedge overall macroeconomic risks. Different from usual micro profit-maximizing purpose, the investment with macro objective is unique in the field of foreign reserve investment. We propose a framework of mean-variance-CVaR (conditional value at risk) model to capture the features of such investment and calculate the optimal allocation of foreign reserves in China. We use Cornish–Fisher method to calculate CVaR and adopt quasi-Newton algorithm to solve the optimization problem. Two scenarios are compared in the paper: the usual micro profit-maximizing portfolio and the sovereign portfolio hedging macro risks. We find that hedging the overall macro risks and lower the overall volatility of the economy through foreign reserve investment is possible under certain risk constraints.     

The Cost Channel of Monetary Transmission and Stabilization Policy in a Post-Keynesian Macrodynamic Model

This paper develops a macrodynamic model that takes into account the potentially inflationary consequences of interest rate manipulations through the cost channel of monetary transmission. Evaluations of the macroeconomic implications of the cost channel are common in the mainstream literature. But this literature uses supply-determined macro models and provides standard optimizing microfoundations for the various ways in which the interest rate can affect mark-ups, prices and ultimately the form of the Phillips curve. Our purpose is to study the implications of different Phillips curves, each embodying the cost channel and derived from Post-Keynesian, cost-based-pricing microfoundations, in a monetary-production economy. We focus on the impact of these Phillips curves on macroeconomic stability and the consequent efficacy of stabilization policy. Ultimately, our results suggest that the presence of the cost channel is less significant for stabilization policy than the general orientation of the policy regime. These results corroborate earlier findings that, in a monetary-production economy, more orthodox policy regimes are inimical to macro stabilization.