DEMOGRAPHIC SHIFT,POPULATION AGEING AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN CHINA: A COMPUTABLE GENERAL EQUILIBRIUM ANALYSIS

Abstract. Using a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model and a given ageing profile of the population to forecast the growth path of China's economy during the twenty‐first century, this study finds that: population ageing leads to declining economic growth as labour supply shrinks and the rate of physical capital formation declines; households’ material living standards improve, albeit at a declining rate; falling domestic investment partially offsets declining national savings; and the resulting saving‐investment surplus generates a current account surplus and capital outflows. Finally, the main force that can sustain China's economic growth against the backdrop of population ageing is productivity improvement.     

Accounting for China's Saving‐Investment Imbalance from 2002–2008

This paper decomposes and analyzes China's saving‐investment imbalance (equivalent to current account imbalance) from 2002–2008. We first use the Flow of Funds Accounts to calculate the saving and investment rates (propensity) of the household, corporate and government sectors and to evaluate their relative contribution to the aggregate saving‐investment surplus. The results indicate that the increase of saving‐investment surplus can be attributed to the steady increase of saving by the household and government sectors and the short‐term downsizing of investment by the corporate and government sectors. We then use more disaggregate supplementary datasets to explore the factors behind the evolution of the saving and investment rates for the three sectors. The rise of the household saving rate mainly sources from the urban sector. The corporate saving rate experienced a steady increase because of the rise of profitability. Government macroeconomic policies have had a strong influence on the saving and investment patterns of the corporate and government sectors.     

人民币境外存量、国际收支 与人民币国际化进程*

人民币国际化问题已成为各国学者研究的热点。本文依据弗里德曼货币需求函数设立国内货币需求模型,并基于间接测算法和模型稳定性检验结果,选取1992-2003年的季度数据估测2004-2014年季度人民币境外存量,以此作为人民币国际化的衡量标准。在此基础上运用协整理论、格兰杰（Granger）因果检验、脉冲分析法等时间序列处理方法对我国现有的国际收支结构、经济规模、实际汇率及人民币国际化之间的动态关系进行实证分析。本文研究发现,上述变量之间存在长期稳定的均衡关系,我国经济规模扩大、经常项目顺差和人民币稳步升值有利于推动人民币国际化进程,而资本和金融项目顺差会对人民币国际化产生阻碍作用。因此,在发展国民经济及维持人民币币值坚挺的同时,合理调整我国国际收支双顺差结构也是人民币国际化进程的客观要求。     

Foreign aid,external debt and governance

This paper investigates the impact of foreign aid, external debt and governance on the economic growth by extending the Ramsey–Cass–Koopman's growth model in an open economy framework. Steady-state and short run analysis shows that external debt and foreign aid do not affect the growth rate of consumption but have level impact on consumption. Foreign aid and governance encourage the economic growth but external debt creates a burden on the economy. Both investment and saving are independent of external debt and thus the current account surplus. Foreign aid does not affect investment directly but it has a direct positive impact on the savings in the economy. Therefore, it is argued that improvements in the quality of governance will stimulate the output and consumption rapidly and it acts like a catalyst.     

Structural factors associated with primary fiscal balances in developing countries

The study explores the conditions under which a government in a developing country is likely to run a balanced or surplus budget. We contend that primary fiscal deficits are likely to persist where the economy is too saving constrained to raise private sector investment. To conduct the investigation, a logit model is applied to a sample of developing countries to see whether the saving constraints are associated with the fiscal stance of governments. Accordingly, income level, growth, external current account balance and foreign direct investment are used as indicators of the saving constraint. With the exception of economic growth, positive developments in these variables turned out to be significant to the likelihood of the government adopting a surplus budget.     

新常态下内需拉动经济增长是否存在有效边界*

新常态下,中国如何维持经济中高速增长既是重点,也是难点。由于外需拉动型经济增长方式逐渐难以为继,扩大内需的重要性日益突出。然而,扩大内需真的是有效国策吗？投资和消费拉动经济增长,是否存在有效边界？基于此,本文通过构建面板门限模型,利用2012-2013年中国275个市级数据,对内需拉动经济增长是否存在有效边界问题进行了实证检验。研究结果显示：投资拉动经济增长确实存在有效边界,当投资率较低时,增加投资能够有效拉动经济增长,当投资率已经较高时,增加投资对经济增长的拉动作用将不再显著;消费拉动经济增长也存在有效边界,当投资效率较低时,增加消费会抑制经济增长,当投资效率足够高时,增加消费才能够有效拉动经济增长。\     

Is business saving really none of our business?

This paper revisits the role of business saving in the economy by critically scrutinizing the existing macroeoconomic and corporate finance literatures. We assemble and exploit a broad international, unbalanced panel of 47 countries over 1995–2013 on saving and investment by institutional sector to shed new light on the relevance of business saving for private saving and investment around the world. We show that businesses contribute on average more than 50% of national saving around the world. Using this unique dataset, we find evidence of partial piercing of the corporate veil: a $1 increase in business saving gives rise to a decrease of approximately $0.40 in household saving–thereby raising private saving by as much as $0.60. We also find that a $1 increase in business saving increases private investment by as much as $0.20 in countries where limited financing is a binding constraint on firms’ investment. The evidence suggests that business saving and external financing are complementary sources of financing for investment.     

中国经济国民投资率的福利经济学分析

本文首次系统地从福利经济学角度出发,运用前沿计算方法,试图回答中国投资率是否过高这一重要问题。本文首先计算了两个投资率:一是境内投资率;二是国民投资率,即(境内投资+对外投资)/GDP。通过横向的对比,发现无论是境内投资率还是国民投资率,即便考虑高经济增长率,中国经济都远高于世界各国。其次,采用经济增长理论的基准模型,利用中国的参数进行校准,并且进行稳健性检验,运用逆向积分法模拟中国经济福利最大化的投资路径。结果表明,中国经济上世纪90年代平均境内投资率低于福利最大化的投资率6%,国民投资率4%;2002年后,平均境内投资高于福利最大化的投资率5%,国民投资率12%;1990—2008年实际投资相对福利最大化的投资路径总福利损失约为5.9%,相当于每期损失约3.8%的GDP。最后,本文进一步分析,如果适当地降低国民投资率,同时改善投资效率,中国经济的GDP增长率并不会大幅下降。     

人口结构变化与中国贸易顺差:理论与实证研究

文章首先通过构建一个开放经济三期世代交替模型讨论了人口结构变化对中国经常账户余额的影响。理论研究发现,少儿抚养系数的下降会引起储蓄率相对于投资率上升从而形成经常账户盈余,人口老龄化会降低储蓄率从而对经常账户余额产生负向影响。文章然后运用中国1993-2009年省级面板数据进行了实证分析,经验结论与理论模型预测一致,人口结构变化能够解释中国经常账户余额变化的近45%。在控制了其他解释变量后,人口年龄结构变量对经常账户的影响依然显著。文章的估计结果对替代性的经常账户余额指标、人口年龄结构变量的选取以及模型的动态设定也非常稳健。     

The Current Account, Fiscal Policy, and Medium-Run Income Determination

This article presents a new framework for analyzing the simultaneous determination of current account imbalances and the path of national income. Using standard macroeconomic behavioral relationships, it first examines how and why current account deficits matter by investigating links between domestic consumption, government spending, output, saving, investment, interest rates, and capital flows. Central to the model is the distinction between aggregate output and expenditure that enables dissection of the effects of discretionary fiscal change on the current account and national income. The framework yields results relevant to the twin deficits hypothesis that are contrary to those of standard models. (JEL E10 , F32 )     

An Inter-temporal General Equilibrium Econometric Model for a Small Open Economy with Application to Australia

An inter-temporal general equilibrium econometric model is developed for the Australian economy and used to simulate a trade policy. The model treats the prices of non-traded goods as endogenous and takes account of the inter-temporal optimality conditions implicit in the determination of saving, capital formation and the price of new investment. Utilising quarterly Australian data, the model is estimated by the method of full information maximum likelihood. Estimates of supply and demand elasticities are presented and discussed. Finally, the model is used to simulate the effects upon the economy over time of anticipated and unanticipated changes in the tariff rate.     

An Absorption Approach to Modeling the US Current Account

This paper derives and estimates a current account model based on the absorption approach (which views the current account balance as the difference between domestic saving and investment). This approach provides a framework which allows drivers of cross‐border financial flows and other determinants of saving and investment to be included in a current account model, an advantage not offered by the elasticity approach (which views the current account balance as the sum of net exports, net investment income, and net unilateral transfer). We estimate and compare vector error‐correction models of the absorption and elasticity approaches, with the absorption model nesting the elasticity model. We find that (1) the restrictions imposed by the elasticity model are rejected; and (2) the mean‐squared prediction errors of the absorption model are significantly smaller than those of the elasticity model.     

Financial Inflows to Poland, 1990–96

Foreign exchange flows in Poland in the 1990s, especially during 1994–96, resulted from two developments. First, there was a current account surplus, as growth revived due to efficiency improvements, while macroeconomic policy limited domestic demand. Second, Poland had rejoined international capital markets and regained favorable credit ratings, triggering investment inflows. We can classify the effects of these inflows into three groups: changes in the institutional framework; changes in the stabilization path; and changes in the real economy. The crawling band introduced in May 1995, rapid development of the money market, and improvement of the central bank's capacity to intervene on that market are in the first group. As to the second, relative currency appreciation and import competition, constraining domestic price increases, contributed to the strong disinflationary push which began in 1995. Under the third heading, foreign direct investment and portfolio inflows helped to maintain rapid growth of investment and output.     

HOUSEHOLD SAVING,FINANCIAL CONSTRAINTS,AND THE CURRENT ACCOUNT IN CHINA

In this article, we present a model that can account for the changes in the current account balance in China since the 2000s. Our results suggest that inadequate insurance through government programs for the elderly and the decline in family insurance due to the one-child policy led to large increases in the household saving rate. These increases coupled with the financial frictions preventing the household saving from being invested in domestic firms resulted in large current account surpluses until 2008. Relaxation of financial constraints, on the other hand, was responsible for the decline in the current account surplus after 2008.     

经济滞胀风险及其宏观政策选择

我国经济的深层隐患不仅是通胀问题,更是通胀、停滞与失业并存的"滞胀"问题。相关分析表明,滞胀的风险来自于"投资拉动、出口依赖"的经济增长方式、货币超经济发行、流动性过剩、收入分配失衡、外部输入性以及不合理的经济体制等因素的叠加作用。抑制政府的投资冲动和财政需求,保障民生、促进社会公平、培育新的经济增长点,实现经济的内生型增长是今后我国宏观政策的关键所在。     

The Dynamic Effects of the US Productivity Boom on Australia*

How has the USA's ‘new economy’ productivity boom affected Australia? We consider this question using a dynamic multisector growth model of the Australian and US economies. We find that productivity growth in the US durables sector generates small but important gains to Australia. We find that the transmission of growth is generated through increased export demand for agriculture. Consequently, the USA's productivity growth tends to favour Australia's traditional export sectors. Likewise, it increases the relative demand for less skilled labour in Australia and reduces the demand for more skilled labour and higher education.     

外商直接投资对中国国际收支双顺差影响的分析

20世纪90年代以来，中国的国际收支呈现出经常项目和资本与金融项目顺差并存的“双顺差”特点。造成双顺差的原因有很多，其中外商直接投资（FDI）是一个重要的影响因素。运用理论和实证的分析结果表明，外商直接投资与“双顺差”之间存在着显著的因果关系，且两者之间存在着长期稳定的均衡关系。积极合理的利用外商直接投资，不仅有利于化解中国宏观经济的外部失衡，也有利于带动中国经济的协调发展。     

中国国际收支双顺差成因与影响分析

国际收支双顺差已成为中国经济中备受关注的问题。多年的双顺差和外汇储备的大量累积已经影响了我国经济的可持续性,若要清除其负面影响,必须要转变经济增长方式,走消费、出口和投资协调拉动的经济增长模式。     

Equity, Efficiency and Financial Viability: Public-Utility Pricing with Special Reference to Water Supply

The pricing and investment policies of a public enterprise should be designed to achieve efficiency since equity is better pursued by general policy regarding income distribution. Short-run marginal-cost pricing does not generally lead to long-term deficit, but may involve price and surplus/deficit cycles for the case with lumpy investments and growing demand, where the price increases with demand but is reduced with capacity expansion. Taking account of the extra costs of government revenue collection and the likely average price/cost ratio in the economy, the third-best pricing policy is likely to result in long-term surplus, making the objectives of equity, efficiency and financial viability much more consistent with each other than is generally believed. This is particularly true for water with historically increasing costs of additional sources of supply.     

ESTIMATED DYNAMIC STOCHASTIC GENERAL EQUILIBRIUM MODEL OF THE TAIWANESE ECONOMY

Abstract.  I develop a small open economy dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model to study monetary policy and the business cycle in Taiwan. Several versions of the model with different representations of Taiwanese monetary policy are estimated using Bayesian techniques. The major findings are that: (i) monetary policy in Taiwan is best described by a money supply growth rate rule; (ii) the Taiwanese economy is more flexible than the Euro area economy; and (iii) export price mark-up and investment-specific technology shocks are the main driving forces of output growth fluctuations in Taiwan.