Cyclicality of taxes and external debt

In their work, Vegh and Vuletin have shown that statutory tax rates are acyclical in developed economies and procyclical in developing ones. This article extends their analysis by checking the interaction of statutory tax rates with countries’ external public debt. In general, we found that the value added tax rates are changed procyclically in both developed and developing countries (i.e. taxes are raised in bad times and reduced in good times). However, when the external debt is high, in the developing countries the procyclicality increases, while the opposite result holds for developed economies. This pattern occurs mainly in times of recession, when the need for loans is the highest. Although we found that there was a reduction in procyclicality after the 2000s, these findings pose a challenge to policy-makers, who should think of ways of dealing with lack of foreign funds in difficult times.     

Capital flight from sub‐Saharan Africa: linkages with external borrowing and policy options

Even as African countries became increasingly indebted, they experienced large‐scale capital flight. Some of this was legitimately acquired capital fleeing economic and political uncertainties; some was illegitimately acquired wealth spirited to safer havens abroad. This paper presents new estimates of the magnitude and timing of capital flight from 33 sub‐Saharan African countries from 1970 to 2004. We then analyze its determinants, including linkages to external borrowing. Our results confirm that sub‐Saharan Africa is a net creditor to the rest of the world, in that the subcontinent’s private external assets exceed its public external liabilities: total capital flight amounted to $443 billion (in 2004 dollars), compared to the external debt of $195 billion. Econometric analysis indicates that for every dollar in external loans to Africa in this period, roughly 60 cents flowed back out as capital flight in the same year, a finding that suggests the existence of widespread debt‐fueled capital flight. The results also show a debt‐overhang effect, as increases in the debt stock spur additional capital flight in later years. In addition to policies for recovery of looted wealth and repatriation of externally held assets, we discuss the need for policies to differentiate between legitimate and odious debts, both to ease current burdens on African countries and to improve international financial governance in the future.     

External debt and economic reform: does a pain reliever delay the necessary treatment?

Recent literature argues that conflict in shifting adjustment costs between different socioeconomic groups delays necessary reforms and finds that such reforms often follow economic crises. This paper expands these models by including external borrowing by the private sector and shows that this may lead to a further delay in economic reform. Empirical evidence based on a large panel of developing and emerging economies supports this argument and shows that the result is slower economic growth. External financing sometimes acts like a “pain reliever”, postponing the much needed “treatment” of a “sick” economy by reform.     

Currency devaluations,aggregate demand,and debt dynamics in economies with foreign currency liabilities

The article uses a post Kaleckian model to analyze how currency devaluations affect aggregate demand and capital accumulation in an economy with foreign currency liabilities in the short-run. In benchmark post Kaleckian open economy models, currency devaluations have two effects. First, they change international price competitiveness and thus affect net exports. Second, devaluations change income distribution and thereby affect consumption and investment demand. The overall effect on aggregate demand and investment is ambiguous and depends on parameter values. Existing models, however, disregard balance sheet effects that arise from foreign currency-denominated external debt. The article develops a novel post Kaleckian open economy model that introduces foreign currency-denominated external debt and balance sheet effects to examine the demand-effects of devaluations. Furthermore, the article models the dynamics of external and domestic corporate debt. It discusses how an economy may end up in a vicious cycle of foreign-currency indebtedness and derives the conditions under which indebtedness becomes stable or unstable. It shows that the existence of foreign currency-denominated debt means that contractionary devaluations are more likely, and that foreign interest rate hikes, and high illiquidity and risk premia compromise debt sustainability. Devaluations only stabilize debt ratios if they succeed in boosting domestic capital accumulation.     

Post-Crisis Gender Gaps: Women Workers and Employment Precariousness

The Gender Gap Index (GGI) is very useful when it comes to international comparisons, and it offers diverse and interesting approaches to equality, human wellbeing, and development. The central goal of this paper is to demonstrate the way in which this index is indirectly related to the distribution of public expenditure in different strategic sectors of economic development. When reducing healthcare and education expenditures in order to service the external debt due to institutional investors of the shadow financial system (SFS), the gender gap widens because of the austerity policies implemented by the state. This contributes to deepening of the unpaid work within the household, alongside widening the gender gap.     

基于Bayes逐步判别分析的油气储量价值分级

油气储量是国家的战略资源,鉴于其经济性差异,要实现资产化管理,必须首先评价其价值的优劣等级。本文选取影响油气储量价值等级的7个因素,将Bayes逐步判别分析方法应用于油气储量价值等级评价与分类中,建立了油气储量价值综合评判的Bayes判别分析模型。首先,经逐步分析,剔除储层渗透率,模型筛选出采收率、储量丰度、原油粘度、储层埋深、储量规模、原油凝固点等6个指标作为有判别意义的判别因子;然后,以已知价值等级的油气储量数据作为训练样本。将油气储量价值划分为优、良、中、差4个等级,建立4个Bayes线性判别函数,并回判检验判别函数的优良性。最后,并对待判样品进行Bayes判别。研究表明,Bayes逐步判别分析模型误判率较低,回判正确率达到85％,是评价油气储量价值等级的有效方法。     

我国石油储备的实施条件分析

石油储备的建立对保障石油安全的重要性毋庸置疑,而石油储备的实施需要内外条件兼备,既要国内政策体制保障,也要基于有效运行的石油市场基础上采取外向型石油战略。     

个人负债与政府负债的比较分析

不管是个人或是政府,负债都是具有一定风险的,如果确需负债,必须在资金使用的监控、披露制度的建设上予以加强,以减少债务风险;做好防范和化解财政风险的预案,以避免对国家宏观经济造成冲击。     

A Systemic Debt Payoff Policy

The average family in the US takes on debt to buy homes, to get education, and sometimes to even pay for normal daily expenditures. Outstanding debt generates a stream of rents to creditors and has become a significant burden on many households. A policy of household debt forgiveness could increase both economic equality and individual liberty. Under what conditions might such a policy be socially acceptable and what would be the implications of such a policy? For debt forgiveness to gain social acceptance the U.S. population would have to perceive the policy as fair and believe that such a program would treat all households equally. Furthermore, any such policy would be politically impossible if it stripped asset owners of money due or would not substantially lower household debt levels. This article explores some possible parameters that a politically feasible policy would contain, and it offers an estimate of policy costs.     

External debt and real exchange rates’ adjustment in the euro area: new evidence from a nonlinear NATREX model

In this article, we revisit medium- to long-run real exchange rate determination within the euro area, focusing on the role of external debt. Accordingly, we rely on the NATural Real EXchange rate (NATREX) approach which provides an explicit framework of the external debt–real exchange rates nexus. In particular, given the indebtedness levels reached by the euro area economies, we investigate potential nonlinearity in real exchange rates dynamics, according to the level of the external debt. Our results evidence that during the monetary union, gross and net external debt positions of the euro area countries have exerted pressures on real exchange rate dynamics within the area. Moreover, we find that, beyond a threshold reached by the external debt, euro area countries are found to be in a vulnerable position, leading to an unavoidable adjustment process. Nevertheless, the adjustment process, while effective, is found to be low and occurs slowly.     

我国石油储备的必要性分析

本文从经济学供需分析的视角,采取计量的方法,分析我国石油储备建立的必要性。建立石油储备是我国国内需求不断攀升的需要,是我国国民经济稳定发展的需要,可以避免油价的大幅波动,减少石油供应中断风险,减少国家的外汇支出。     

中国上市公司债权对公司绩效影响的实证研究

关于债权的治理效应，代理成本理论和控制权理论都认为，企业资本结构中一定的负债有利于公司治理效率的提高。本文以2002～2004年度沪市上市公司为样本（样本总量为2284组数据），对我国上市公司的债权治理效率进行了实证分析。结果表明，我国上市公司负债对其绩效有重要影响：债权比例与公司绩效在统计上呈显著的负相关关系，即上市公司的负债比例越大，其绩效也会越差，公司绩效与负债还存在着显著的二次关系，当资产负债率（DAR）为21．79％时，若其他条件不变时，债权对公司绩效促进作用最大，超过这一比例，债权与公司绩效呈负相关。本文对这一结果进行了原因分析，并提出了政策建议。     

What determines outstanding corporate debt mix? Evidence from fractional multinomial logit estimation

This study employs the fractional multinomial logit setting proposed by Papke and Wooldridge (1996) to examine factors driving the choice among nonbank private (144A) debt, bank loans and public debt made by 988 nonfinancial firms during 1993–2007. We document that the majority of firm-level factors have persistent effects on corporate outstanding debt mix across economic conditions. We also highlight the importance of macroeconomic variables on firms’ borrowing decisions as predicted by Diamond (1991). Finally, we document a substitution effect among debt financing sources due to credit rating downgrades, which is inconsistent with Rauh and Sufi (2010).     

我国地方政府债务管理的问题及对策

由于地方政府债务规模不断扩大,债务管理过程中存在的问题日益凸显。在阐述地方政府债务规模及结构的基础上,提出地方政府债务管理中存在的问题,并有针对性地提出加强地方政府债务管理的具体建议。     

债务结构、政府干预与市场环境

使用2002—2005年上市公司的面板数据对上市公司负债融资结构的影响因素研究发现:除一些企业内部的具体因素影响了企业的债务结构外,企业外部环境因素也影响了企业的债务结构。尤其表现在,企业所处地区的政府干预越多,市场化程度越低,法治水平越差,银行债务占总负债的比例越高;企业所处地区的政府干预越少,市场化程度越高,法治水平越好,信用债务占总负债的比例越高。