Determinants of Current Account Imbalances in 16 OECD Countries: An Out-Of-Sample Perspective

We employ panel data as well as country-specific models to uncover empirically the determinants of current account imbalances. We find evidence of slope heterogeneity likely rendering the fixed-effect estimator inconsistent. Mean group estimation is followed to overcome the latter difficulty. Both estimation techniques are evaluated by means of in- and out-of-sample criteria. The mean group estimator outperforms the fixed-effect approach and, moreover, only three economic variables are found to impact on the current account balance significantly. These are the government budget balance, the domestic output gap and the changes of the terms of trade. We finally propose a parsimonious dynamic model of the current account, including only these variables and illustrate that it has similar predictive accuracy as country-specific benchmark models. JEL no. F32, C23, C53     

A distributional analysis of union-wage effects in South Africa: Evidence from panel data

This paper examines whether individual workers’ time-invariant unobservable characteristics influence estimates of the South African union wage premium across the length of the conditional wage distribution. It employs the 2001–7 South African Labour Force survey and a fixed effects quantile regression estimator. Results show a relatively large (small) wage premium at the bottom (top) of the conditional wage distribution when workers’ time-invariant unobserved characteristics are ignored. Accounting for this set of factors substantially reduces the wage premium at all points of the distribution. In fact, the wage premium becomes somewhat constant across the conditional wage distribution, suggesting that unions in South Africa have little wage compressionary effects.     

Forecasting Risk in Earnings

Conventional measures of risk in earnings based on historical standard deviation require long time‐series data and are inadequate when the distribution of earnings deviates from normality. We introduce a methodology based on current fundamentals and quantile regression to forecast risk reflected in the shape of the distribution of future earnings. We derive measures of dispersion, asymmetry, and tail risk in future earnings using quantile forecasts as inputs. Our analysis shows that a parsimonious model based on accruals, cash flows, special items, and a loss indicator can predict the shape of the distribution of earnings with reasonable power. We provide evidence that out‐of‐sample quantile‐based risk forecasts explain incrementally analysts' equity and credit risk ratings, future return volatility, corporate bond spreads, and analyst‐based measures of future earnings uncertainty. Our study provides insights into the relations between earnings components and risk in future earnings. It also introduces risk measures that will be useful for participants in both the equity and credit markets.     

Equity Risk Premium Puzzle: Evidence from Indonesia and Sri Lanka

This paper investigates the equity risk premium puzzle in the Indonesian and Sri Lankan stock markets in order to identify the relationship between the volatility of excess returns and the equity risk premium. The asymmetric impact of negative shocks on the equity risk premium is also examined using threshold and exponential GARCH-M models. We analyse data on the excess returns of the Indonesian and Sri Lankan stock markets from 2004 to 2013, and we find that the impact of the conditional volatility of excess returns on the equity risk premium is not significant in either country. Instead, we find an impact from negative return shocks on the equity risk premium only in Sri Lanka. Therefore, we conclude that investors are not compensated for the conditional volatility of the excess returns in these two markets, while Sri Lankan investors are compensated for the risk of negative shocks.     

The trade-growth nexus in the developing countries: a quantile regression approach

This paper applies quantile regression techniques to investigate how the impact of trade openness on the growth rate of per capita income varies with the conditional distribution of growth. Using formal robustness analyses, we first identify robust variables affecting economic growth (investment, government balance, terms of trade, inflation, and population growth) which we then use as controls in the quantile regression estimations. Our findings suggest a heterogeneous trade-growth nexus: for both the short and the long run, the effect of openness on growth is higher in countries with low growth rates compared to those with high growth rates.     

Foreign Exchange Risk,Equity Risk Factors and Economic Growth

This paper examines the information content of the equity risk factors that explain cross variation of stock returns and predicting future macroeconomic growth. For the first time we incorporate a new foreign exchange risk factor, providing important insights into the relationship between risk factors and the business cycle. The methodology involves the performance of a stepwise regression analysis of future macroeconomic growth against the lagged returns of five risk factors (market risk premium, size, value, momentum and foreign exchange risk). The results are validated with Granger causality tests and out-of-sample dynamic forecasting. They show that the foreign exchange risk factor contains strong, stable and statistically significant incremental information concerning future macroeconomic growth. Firms that are sensitive to the foreign exchange risk thrive when an economic upturn is anticipated and firms that are insensitive to the foreign exchange risk will have larger returns when an economic downturn is anticipated.     

Does Economic Policy Uncertainty Predict Exchange Rate Returns and Volatility? Evidence from a Nonparametric Causality-in-Quantiles Test

Recent studies have analysed the ability of measures of uncertainty to predict movements in macroeconomic and financial variables. The objective of this paper is to employ the recently proposed nonparametric causality-in-quantiles test to analyse the predictability of returns and volatility of sixteen U.S. dollar-based exchange rates (for both developed and developing countries) over the monthly period of 1999:01–2012:03, based on information provided by a news-based measure of relative uncertainty, i.e., the differential between domestic and U.S. uncertainties. The causality-in-quantile approach allows us to test for not only causality-in-mean (1st moment), but also causality that may exist in the tails of the joint distribution of the variables. In addition, we are also able to investigate causality-in-variance (volatility spillovers) when causality in the conditional-mean may not exist, yet higher order interdependencies might emerge. We motivate our analysis by employing tests for nonlinearity. These tests detect nonlinearity, as well as the existence of structural breaks in the exchange rate returns, and in its relationship with the EPU differential, implying that the Granger causality tests based on a linear framework is likely to suffer from misspecification. The results of our nonparametric causality-in-quantiles test indicate that for seven exchange rates EPU differentials have a causal impact on the variance of exchange rate returns but not on the returns themselves at all parts of the conditional distribution. We also find that EPU differentials have predictive ability for both exchange rate returns as well as the return variance over the entire conditional distribution for four exchange rates.     

Decomposing and Analysing the Determinants of Current Accounts’ Cyclicality: Evidence from the Euro Area

Open Economies Review - In this paper, we decompose the current account (CA) balance in 19 Euro area countries into cyclical and non-cyclical components. For the period 1999:Q1 to 2015:Q4, we...     

Stock Returns and Exchange Rate Nexus in Ghana: A Bayesian Quantile Regression Approach

This paper presents analysis of the relationship and dependence structure between stock returns and exchange rates in Ghana using data of daily periodicity from January 4, 2011 to July 31, 2014. Analyses are conducted by means of Bayesian quantile regression (QR) technique and multiple causality tests. Our findings suggest high dependence of the equity market on the foreign exchange market in Ghana, and that the link between the two markets follows the international trade‐oriented model more than the portfolio balance theory. We report that among the six exchange rates used, only the cedi–dollar registers instantaneous effect on the equity market.     

Rational Beliefs or Distorted Beliefs: The Equity Premium Puzzle and Micro Survey Data

This paper examines whether the expected equity premium constructed from survey forecasts is consistent with the implications of the rational belief approach or the distorted belief approach to explaining the equity premium puzzle. To address this question, a panel data model with a fixed individual effect and a business cycle effect is analyzed. The results appear more favorable to the distorted belief approach. The average expected equity premium is lower than the average realized equity premium during the sample period. The average bias across economists is significant and varies over the business cycle, which is consistent with distorted beliefs that are excessively pessimist.c over expansions and excessively optimistic over contractions.     

THE EQUITY PREMIUM AND RISK-FREE RATE PUZZLES IN A TURBULENT ECONOMY: EVIDENCE FROM 105 YEARS OF DATA FROM SOUTH AFRICA

This paper presents a detailed empirical examination of the South African equity premium, and a quantitative theoretic exercise to test the canonical inter-temporal consumption-based asset-pricing model under power utility. Over the long run, the South African stock market produced average returns six to eight percentage points above bonds and cash, and at the 20-year horizon, an investor would not have experienced a single negative realised equity premium over the entire 105-year period we examine. Yet the maximum equity premium rationalised by the consumption-based model is 0.4%. The canonical macro-financial model closely matches the average risk-free rate, using realistic parameters for the coefficient of risk aversion and a positive rate of time preference.     

基于分位回归模型的西部上市公司资本结构研究

利用我国西部上市公司的数据,运用分位回归模型研究资本结构的各类影响因素,与OLS回归结果相对照,可以发现公司规模、股本结构、资产担保价值、非债务税盾和收益性等因素对处于资本结构不同分位的公司的非对称性影响,从而丰富了对资本结构影响因素的理解。     

An artificial intelligence approach to the role of exports in the economic development of Malaysia

Over the past three decades, Malaysia has shown impressive economic growth, placing this country in a group of fast-growing Southeast Asian economies and among the top performing economies in the world. This achievement has been consciously undertaken through export expansion strategies and by attracting foreign investments. Using an artificial intelligence approach and data from 1966 to 1994, the purpose of this study is to investigate the role of exports in the economic growth and development of Malaysia. The results of this new methodology confirm the earlier findings that exports strongly contributed to the economic growth and development of Malaysia. The results of the model simulation for the in-sample and out-of-sample data show that the model's forecast is better than of the regression approach.     

Evaluating the performance of futures hedging using multivariate realized volatility

This paper investigates the performance of a conditional hedging model using the realized covariance measure (RCM) with noisy high-frequency data. We employ a bivariate realized exponential GARCH (BREG) model with some RCMs to estimate conditional optimal hedge ratios in the Japanese stock and futures markets. The bivariate Student’s t-distribution as well as the bivariate normal distribution are used for the return distribution. The out-of-sample results show that the BREG model outperforms the DCC-EGARCH model and the OLS approach using daily returns for a short hedge in the period without unpredictably large fluctuations in returns such as the Lehman aftermath and the economic impact of the Great East Japan Earthquake. The BREG model with a Student’s t-distribution is likely to be superior to that with a normal distribution. The use of RCMs with methods reducing bias induced by microstructure noise and non-synchronous trading improves the performance. We also find that the joint model of returns and RCM such as the BREG model yields better performance for a short hedge than a model in which RCM is included as an exogenous variable.     

How does school district adjustment affect housing prices: An empirical investigation from Hangzhou,China

A quality promotion of neighborhood primary schools no doubt elevates nearby housing price. But which houses benefit from the public policy is important to improve educational equity. Accurate identification of such capitalization effects will help policymakers optimize the allocation of scarce public goods. Previous studies on this issue have been biased due to endogeneity and overlooking the impacts of facility quality change. Based on the Hangzhou's school district adjustment in 2012, the current work contributes to housing price effects of policies and education quality changes, rather than a static educational facility. The difference-in-differences model with quantile regression is constructed to obtain a more precise and detailed estimation among the different sub-markets. Results show that the average price effect estimated by the difference-in-differences is up to nearly 800 yuan/m², higher than cross-sectional estimation. Only housing with better schools after reassignment witness a price premium. Low-priced and small houses earn more than 1000 yuan/m², whereas high-priced and large houses are not significantly affected. The results demonstrate that future policies should ensure the rights of low-income groups to attend high quality primary school and guard against the gentrification of low-priced houses.     

THE PRICE OF RISK IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN EQUITY MARKET

This paper investigates domestic risk–return behaviour by focussing on the intertemporal relationship between the conditional domestic equity market premium, its conditional variance and its conditional covariance with the international equity market. The paper finds that the domestic equity market prices in both domestic and international diversification risk. The estimated daily price of domestic variance risk is 0.0279% (EAR: 7.28%) for every one unit of expected domestic variance. The estimated daily price of covariance risk is 0.0111% (EAR: 2.83%) for every unit of expected covariance risk. The representative domestic investor values domestic variance more than covariance risk. The variances of domestic and international equity returns are found to be time‐varying, as is the covariance between the two. Evidence is found that the Johannesburg Securities Exchange is not perfectly integrated with the world economy, in an absolute sense. The volatility spillover effect is observed to be both significant and positive. The standard Capital Asset Pricing Model misspecifies the return to domestic risk, biasing the risk–return coefficient upwards. Domestic investors are rewarded for holding internationally diversified portfolios, with an internationally diversified portfolio expected to have an additional daily return of 0.0238% (EAR: 6.29%) for the same level of risk as an entirely domestic equity portfolio.     

相对风险规避系数与中国股权溢价之谜

本文通过基于消费的资本资产定价模型利用消费与个人财富弹性、股票收益与消费增长协方差以及股权溢价来计算中国的相对风险规避系数,认为中国证券市场明显存在股权溢价之迷,股票收益与消费增长还呈现出与理论不符的负相关关系,这从侧面证明中国股票市场的财富效用传导机制并不畅通,基于消费的资本资产定价模型在中国缺乏解释力。     

Assessing the risk forecasts for Japanese stock market

We evaluate predictive performance of a selection of value-at-risk (VaR) models for Japanese stock market data. We consider traditional VaR models such as Riskmetrics method, historical simulation, variance–covariance method, Monte Carlo method, and their variants which are integrated with various ARCH models. Also considered are more recent models based on non-parametric quantile regression and extreme value theory (EVT). We apply these methods to the Japanese stock market index (1984–2000) and compare their performances in terms of various evaluation criteria using the method of White [Econometrica 68 (5) (2000) 1097–1126] for three out-of-sample periods of 1995–1996, 1997–1998, and 1999–2000.     

中国的股权溢价之谜：基于Hansen—Jagannathan方差界的实证研究

本文使用HJ方差界检验了我国的股权溢价之谜。并比较了CRRA、递归效用与习惯形成三种不同的效用函数下模型的定价能力。本文的实证研究发现：（1）我国不存在股权溢价之谜，也不存在无风险利率之谜，该结论有别于以往的研究；（2）对该结论的可能解释在于，较高的股权溢价来自于对消费风险的补偿，而较强的预防性储蓄动机抵消了借贷以增加当期消费的效应；（3）相对基于CRRA效用函数的模型。引入递归效用和习惯形成的模型具有更强的定价能力。     

The Relation between Market Values,Earnings Forecasts,and Reported Earnings*

Recently, much of the research into the relation between market values and accounting numbers has used, or at least made reference to, the residual income model (RIM). Two basic types of empirical research have developed. The “historical” type explores the relation between market values and reported accounting numbers, often using the linear dynamics in Ohlson 1995 and Feltham and Ohlson 1995 and 1996. The “forecast” type explores the relation between market value and the present value of the book value of equity, a truncated sequence of residual income forecasts, and an estimate of the terminal value at the truncation date. The analysis in this paper integrates these two approaches. We expand the Feltham and Ohlson 1996 model by including one‐ and two‐period‐ahead residual income forecasts to infer “other” information regarding future revenues from past investments and future growth opportunities. This approach results in a model in which the difference between market value and book value of equity is a function of current residual income, one‐ and two‐period‐ahead residual income, current capital investment, and start‐of‐period operating assets. The existence of both persistence in revenues from current and prior investments and growth in future positive net present value investment opportunities leads us to hypothesize a negative coefficient on the one‐period‐ahead residual income forecast and a positive coefficient on the two‐period‐ahead residual income forecast. Our empirical results strongly support our hypotheses with respect to the forecast coefficients.