The Real Exchange Rate,the Ghanaian Trade Balance,and the J-curve

Using linear and nonlinear specifications, we studied the effects of real exchange rate changes on the trade balance of Ghana during the period 1986Q1 to 2016Q3. We found no evidence in support of the short- and long-run impact of exchange rate changes on the trade balance in the linear specification. The J-curve is refuted in this case. In contrast, exchange rate changes affected the trade balance in the nonlinear specification. Depreciations improve the trade balance in the long run, but appreciations have no impact. Hence, exchange rate changes have nonlinear effects on the trade balance. This is consistent with the J-curve phenomenon.     

Flexible exchange rates and international trade: An empirical investigation of bilateral flows

This paper investigates the alleged adverse effect of floating exchange rates on international trade. A simple model is constructed to test the relationship between exchange rate variability and bilateral trade flows between the United States and three of its major trading partners: Canada, Japan and Germany. Using data from 1960 to 1983 to encompass both “stable” and floating rate regimes, it is shown that while exchange rate variability is considerably higher in the floating period, there is no evidence that this greater variability has had a negative impact on trade flows.     

The Effects of Real Exchange Rate on Trade Balance and Domestic Output: A Case of Malaysia

The main objective of this study is to determine the effects of real exchange rate changes on the real Malaysian trade balance and the domestic output during the pegged exchange rate regime, 1977:1–1998:2, using quarterly data. The cointegration results suggest that a real ringgit exchange rate depreciation improves the Malaysian balance of trade in the long run. The impulse response analysis suggests that the effects of a depreciation of ringgit on the trade balance and domestic output are quite similar. A devaluation will initially improve the trade balance and domestic output, after which the trade balance starts to deteriorate and then the recession sets in, but subsequently both the trade balance and domestic output improve.     

Exchange rate regime and external adjustment: An empirical investigation for the US

This paper analyses the relationship between the US net external position and the exchange rate regime. I find a structural break in the US net external position at the end of the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates that changed both the mean and variance of the series. On average, the US changed from a creditor to a debtor position and the variance of the external position increased during the floating period. This increase is to a large extent due to the valuation component of external adjustment that accounts for 54% of the variance of the US external position during the floating period but only 29% during the fixed exchange rate period. Further analysis shows that the exchange rate regime mainly affects the valuation channel of external adjustment. There is also evidence of another structural break in the US external position around the time of the introduction of the euro. Finally, I document asset pricing implications from the relationship between the exchange rate regime and the external adjustment process, as external imbalances predict the foreign exchange once the exchange rate regime is taken into account.     

The role of elasticity optimism in choosing an optimal currency basket with applications to Israel

In a world in which exchange rates are floating each country must have some device for measuring the average exchange rate change, whatever exchange rate policy it chooses. The weight for each currency in computing such an average depends on the objective which exchange rate stabilization, or change, is expected to achieve. If balance of trade stability is the desideratum, the optimum weights (optimum currency basket) are shown to be a function of demand elasticities, GNP, trade shares, etc. We derive a loss function measuring the cost of using a ‘wrong’ basket, and compute the value of this function for our ‘optimal’ Israeli basket as a case study.     

Book review

Abstract

Concerns about relatively high degrees of exchange rate pass-through in a number of emerging economies have contributed to a fear of floating. Despite the obvious policy relevance of this issue there is hardly any existing literature that has examined aggregate CPI pass-through for India, which has been liberalizing its economy since 1991. This paper estimates exchange rate pass-through (ERPT) at the aggregate level into India's CPI for the period 1980Q1 – 2005Q3. We also analyze whether exchange rate pass-through in India has changed over time, particular since 1991, which was the beginning of the country's economic liberalization program.     

Speculative behavior of foreign exchange rates during the current float

The current regime of floating exchange rates has been characterized by a number of informed observers as economically unsatisfactory. Use of terms such as “overshooting”, “bandwagon effects”, “destabilizing”, and “insufficient speculation” reflects serious misgivings on the part of many toward the long-run viability of a floating, rather than a fixed or semi-fixed, rate regime. Using fairly standard procedures, the authors have attempted to determine the extent to which the foreign exchange market exhibits the adverse features noted above. The authors conclude that by and large foreign exchange markets have not performed particularly poorly. The foreign exchange markets seem to be efficient at least in the weak form sense. Past exchange rate changes are not useful in predicting future exchange rate changes. This empirical finding contrasts sharply with the view that the markets “overshoot”, or that there are “bandwagon effects”, or that the amount of price stabilizing speculation is inadequate.     

NAFTA Chapter 11: “Tantamount to Expropriation”: Tantamount to Explosive

This paper provides an alternative methodology for testing the degree of international capital mobility through the analysis of a causality direction between the exchange rate and the interest rate for Sweden. The change of exchange rate regime in Sweden in 1992 is used here to illustrate how the alternative exchange rate regimes, fixed and floating, affect the degree of international capital flows. On the basis of new Granger non-causality testing procedures developed by Toda and Yamamoto (1995), the results exhibit that Granger-causality is unidirectional, running from interest rate to exchange rate under the floating exchange rate regime. The implication of this result is that the hypothesis of high capital mobility is supported only under the floating exchange rate regime.     

人民币汇率、国内外经济状况与我国贸易收支——基于Markov区制转换VAR模型的实证研究

本文采用1994年到2010年的季度数据,通过将贸易收支分解为一般贸易和加工贸易,运用MSIH(2)-VARX(1)模型研究了在人民币汇率存在升值压力和存在贬值压力两种区制下,人民币汇率和国内外经济状况对我国一般贸易收支和加工贸易收支的影响,并在模型中分析了两次金融危机对我国贸易收支的影响。实证结论表明:(1)1994年第三季度到1998年年底,以及2004年第四季度到2008年第四季度,人民币实际有效汇率存在升值压力;1999年第一季度到2004年第三季度,以及2009年第一季度到2010年第四季度,人民币实际有效汇率存在贬值压力;(2)2008年金融危机对贸易收支的影响要大于1998年金融危机;(3)人民币实际有效汇率对一般贸易收支的影响不存在J曲线效应,而对加工贸易收支的影响存在J曲线效应,但综合起来,人民币实际有效汇率变动对总体贸易收支不产生影响。国内外经济状况对我国贸易收支的影响并不是很显著;(4)人民币实际有效汇率变动将导致我国经济增长的负向响应,即人民币实际有效汇率升值不利于我国经济增长。     

Central Bank Intervention,Exchange Rate Regime and the Purchasing Power Parity

Motivated by the argument that central bank intervention leads to non‐linear exchange rate adjustment processes, we examine purchase power parity (PPP) by applying quantile unit root tests to the exchange rates of the New Taiwan Dollar (NTD) vis‐à‐vis seven Asian currencies. We show that exchange rate regime matters in determining whether PPP holds. While PPP holds overwhelmingly during the period when the NTD is under the fixed exchange rate regime, it is present only for some exchange rates during the managed floating rate regime. For exchange rates exhibiting mean reversion, the reversion occurs mainly when the shocks are large. In contrast to conclusion in the literature, our test results show little evidence of asymmetric mean reversion between positive and negative shocks.     

Monetary policy in developing countries: lessons from Kenya

We estimate and then simulate a model of Kenyan economic development from 1965 to 1997 with two objectives in mind. The first is to demonstrate the degree of volatility of cyclical shocks that developing countries experience and to calculate the domestic nominal adjustments required by these shocks under both irrevocably fixed and free exchange rates.A comparison of these counterfactual nominal adjustments identifies the short-run implications for an economy of the choice of exchange rate regime. The second objective is to provide an estimate of the consequences for the economic development of Kenya of the lack of a coherent monetary order (excessive domestic credit expansion and overvalued exchange rate) throughout most of the period since 1965.A neoclassical convergence growth model based on Barro and Sala-i-Martin (1992) is employed and calibrated to represent the long-run growth path of real GDP in Kenya. A short-run four-sector CGE model is constructed that allows for cyclical movements of real GDP about the convergence growth path. The cyclical model focuses on the adjustment of the relative price of non-traded goods that is required to ensure short-run equilibrium in the non-traded goods sector. Given that terms of trade shocks dominated the macro environment of Kenya over the sample period, we find that a free exchange rate regime would have insulated the economy to a greater degree than an irrevocably fixed regime. In the growth decomposition exercise, we estimate that the two largest (and negative) influences on Kenyan economic growth were the decline in the external terms of trade from 100 in 1965 to an average of 79.5 over the 32-year time period, and the overvalued Kenyan shilling represented by a premium on the parallel market for foreign exchange. Overall, we estimate that the overvalued exchange rate reduced economic growth by an average of 0.47 per cent per annum over the 32 years.     

Open Economy Dynamics in a Floating Exchange Rate Developing Country Context

ABSTRACT

This article develops a wavelet-based control model to simulate fiscal, monetary, and real exchange rate scenarios in an open economy developing country with an inflation-targeting regime. We use South African macro data to jointly simulate optimal fiscal and monetary policy under varying scenarios for real exchange rate stability with interest rate parity. As real exchange rate stability increases, the model simulates the effects on the trade balance under both a constant and depreciating real exchange rate. We find that short-term cycle stability problems are somewhat mitigated by allowing the real exchange rate to depreciate.     

Speculation,rational expectations,and stability of the foreign exchange market

This paper uses Muth's model of rational expectations to analyze foreign exchange speculation under floating exchange rates when a trade balance ‘J-curve effect’ exists. It extends the existing literature by basing speculative behavior explicity on maximizing behavior, by relating expectations to the underlying structure of the model, i.e. by assuming rational expectations, and by explicitly incorporating uncertainty. A surprising result is that, if speculation takes place, decreases in risk aversion increase the variance of the exchange rate.     

Foreign exchange rate and trade balance dynamics in East African countries

This study investigates the effects of real exchange rate on trade balance in East African countries. In contrast to past studies that have often focused on one country in the region and adopted traditional empirical methods that are subject to shortcomings, the present study employed the ARDL procedure and investigated the issue in 10 East African countries. The main results are as follows. First, real exchange depreciation significantly improves trade balance for four countries in individual country estimations, as well as in panel estimation. Second, the elasticity of trade balance with respect to real exchange rate is inelastic. Elasticity slightly increases after exchange rate liberalization but remains inelastic. Third, significant short-run fall was not found for trade balance, which suggests lack of evidence for J-curve relationship     

Corporate financial policies and the exchange rate regime: Evidence from Brazil

This paper analyzes the relationship between companies' financial policies and the exchange rate regime for a sample of non-financial Brazilian companies from 1996 to 2006. The adoption of a floating exchange rate regime is shown to improve the match between the currency composition of companies' assets and liabilities. The paper also shows that this reduction in companies' currency mismatches is more pronounced for companies in the highest quantile of foreign exposure; therefore the results confirm that the exchange rate regime plays an important role in the determination of companies' foreign vulnerability.     

A new assessment of floating exchange rates

The switch to floating exchange rates during the 1970s has given economists the first comprehensive opportunity to assess the arguments for and against floating. Much new work has been done on various aspects of floating exchange rate behaviour. This article attempts a limited survey of the evidence concerning two important issues—whether floating exchange rates are inherently unstable and whether they harm international trade.     

资本项目可兑换与汇率制度的互动协调分析

资本项目可兑换与汇率制度相互作用、相互协调.一方面,市场化汇率制度是资本项目可兑换的前提和基础;另一方面,资本项目可兑换决定均衡汇率,并促进汇率制度弹性化和市场化.随着中国经济不断发展和日益融入国际经济体系,中国应进一步开放资本项目,相应地逐步增大汇率制度的弹性空间,最终实现资本项目可兑换和浮动汇率制度.     

The calculation of bilateral trade patterns in a Ricardian model with intermediate products and barriers to trade

After arguing for a computational approach to the theory of international trade the paper presents an algorithm for solving a generalized Ricardian two-country model. The algorithm focuses on the ‘critical exchange ratios’ at which the pattern of specialization changes. In the absence of barriers to trade there is one exchange ratio (defined as the value of one country's labor in terms of the other country's labor) at which production of a good moves from one country to the other. With barriers to trade there are two critical ratios for each good, between which it is not traded. Taking the critical ratios in sequence the trade balance can be calculated as a discontinuous function of the exchange rate; where the balance equals zero (or some given transfer) the problem is solved. The method works with arbitrary demand functions and can handle intermediate products.     

International trade in a system of floating exchange rates

Since the introduction of the system of floating exchange rates policy-makers have been troubled by uncertainties regarding the effects of this system on international trade. Do exchange rate changes affect trade flows? Can governments manipulate exchange rates? Have countries been “injured” by exchange rate changes? What are the real costs of international monetary instability? Answers to these key questions are given in the following article.     

汇率制度选择问题的理论之争及评析

汇率制度的选择是国际金融领域的重要理论问题一在对“固定”与“浮动”、“两极”与“中间”两种汇率制度选择理论上的争论进行评述的基础上,文章认为,汇率制度的选择是一个受多种因素影响的动态体系,汇率制度选择是一国具体情况的相机抉择,任何一种汇率制度都不可能适合于所有国家和一个国家的所有时期。