Interventions in the Yen–dollar spot market: A story of price,volatility and volume

We test the effectiveness of Bank of Japan (BOJ)’s foreign exchange interventions on conditional first and second moments of exchange rate returns and traded volumes, using a bivariate EGARCH model of the Yen/USD market from 5-13-1991 to 3-16-2004. We also estimate a friction model of BOJ’s intervention reaction function based on reducing short-term market disorderliness and supplementing domestic monetary policy. Important finding of this study are that: (i) we find ineffectiveness of BOJ interventions in influencing exchange rate trends pre-1995, in general, but effectiveness post-1995; (ii) FED intervention amplified the effectiveness of the BOJ transactions; (iii) interventions amplified market volatility and volumes through a ‘learning by trading’ process; (iv) BOJ’s interventions were based on ‘leaning against the wind’ motivations on the exchange rate trend and volumes; and (v) BOJ interventions were vigorously used in support of domestic monetary policy objectives post-1995. Though some of our findings confirm recent studies, our analysis goes deeper to provide new findings with important implications for central banks and foreign exchange market participants.     

Firm Characteristics,Shareholder Sophistication and the Incidence of a ‘First Strike’ Under the ‘Two Strikes’ Rule in Australia

To restrain ‘excessive’ executive pay, Australia introduced new legislation in 2011, commonly known as the ‘two strikes’ rule. This rule has predictable consequences for publicly listed firms and their directors. In this study, we investigate which firm characteristics are associated with the incidence of a ‘first strike’ under the two strikes rule. We find that the incidence of a first strike is positively associated with higher levels of CEO pay, lower ownership concentration, smaller firm size, higher level of institutional ownership and CEO duality. Additional analysis suggests that shareholders fail to differentiate between CEO pay, which is related to the economic characteristics of a firm, and the pay that is not related to firm characteristics. This finding suggests that, unlike US shareholders, Australian shareholders do not appear to have a sophisticated understanding of CEO pay structure.     

国际资本流入的易变性及其对策研究

国际资本流入的易变性是影响一国金融稳定的主要因素,主要表现在国际资本在短期内过度流入,并在特定环境下迅速逆转。本文采用1980-2008年78个国家和地区的数据,运用变异系数法对国际资本的三种类型(直接投资、组合投资和其他投资)的易变性分别进行了测算和比较,并采用广义的自回归条件异方差(GARCH)模型,对易变性的决定因素进行了面板数据检验。结果表明,组合投资和其他投资的易变性要显著大于直接投资,经济增长率、制度质量对FDI易变性产生影响,而国内金融体系结构、汇率波动和通货膨胀等则造成各国非FDI资本易变性的差异。这一发现对各国资本流动管理具有重要启示。     

Spot and forward volatility in foreign exchange

This paper investigates the empirical relation between spot and forward implied volatility in foreign exchange. We formulate and test the forward volatility unbiasedness hypothesis, which may be viewed as the volatility analogue to the extensively researched hypothesis of unbiasedness in forward exchange rates. Using a new dataset of spot implied volatility quoted on over-the-counter currency options, we compute the forward implied volatility that corresponds to the delivery price of a forward contract on future spot implied volatility. This contract is known as a forward volatility agreement. We find strong evidence that forward implied volatility is a systematically biased predictor that overestimates movements in future spot implied volatility. This bias in forward volatility generates high economic value to an investor exploiting predictability in the returns to volatility speculation and indicates the presence of predictable volatility term premiums in foreign exchange.     

高利率能否捍卫汇率稳定：基于马尔科夫变换的世代交叠模型的分析

按照传统观点,在本国货币遭受投机攻击时,中央银行的典型做法是提高短期利率来捍卫货币和汇率制度。但批评者认为,提高利率会增加经济发展的成本,容易引发信用恐慌和产出减少。通过建立一个基于马尔科夫变换的世代交叠模型可以发现,利率被提的越高,汇率波动率也会随之相应增加。当高利率的货币政策使经济增长放缓甚至衰退,维持汇率稳定的可信度下降时,投机者就会发动对本币的投机攻击。最后在外汇储备耗尽的情况下,中央银行权衡得失后不得不实行浮动汇率制。     

Analyst earnings forecast precision and local advantage: evidence from American depositary receipt firms

Prior research has documented a finding that local analysts provide more accurate earnings forecasts than nonlocal analysts in many settings. However, little is known about local and nonlocal analysts’ relative earnings forecast abilities for ADR stocks. In this study, we find that the local advantage disappears for ADR stocks and that nonlocal analysts in fact outperform local ones in this case. We investigate the source of this ‘local disadvantage’ and find evidence against hypotheses based on accounting standards and exchange rates. We document that the local advantage decreases with increased investor interest in foreign firms, consistent with our nonlocal investors’ interest hypothesis.     

Floating exchange rates,expectations and new information

This paper analyzes the relationship between forward exchange rates, future spot rates and new information. A stochastic model of exchange rate determination is used to formally show how unanticipated changes in the exchange rate determinants (or ‘news’) affect the spot rate. The empirical analysis indicates that ‘new information’ plays an important role in explaining the market forecasting error, or difference between the spot rate and the forward rate, determined in the previous period.     

投资者关注会影响个体投资者的汇率预期吗?--基于银行代客结售汇数据的实证分析

为考察个体投资者汇率预期的非理性及形成机制,本文基于外汇市场异质主体理论和行为金融学观点,构建了包含投资者关注的个体投资者汇率预期形成模型,并采用远期和即期银行代客结汇售汇比作为个体投资者汇率预期的替代指标,进行了实证分析。结果表明,远期结售比受到前一期汇率变动和境内外利差的影响,而即期结售比受前一期汇率变动影响。进一步引入投资者关注,采用MS-FTP和MS-TVTP模型的实证研究表明,投资者关注对远期和即期结售比的影响是时变的。在人民币贬值阶段,投资者关注对结售比存在显著的负向冲击,会导致更大的结售汇逆差;而在人民币升值阶段,投资者关注对结售比则无显著影响。本文的结论表明,个体投资者汇率预期具有显著的非理性特征,符合动量原则和套息规则,同时还受到投资者关注的影响。央行在人民币处于持续贬值区间时,应通过汇率沟通作用于投资者关注,稳定汇率预期。     

Preparing for the unknown… unknowns: ‘doomsday’ prepping and disaster risk anxiety in the United States

This article examines the collapse-based thinking energising ‘doomsday’ prepping: a growing American phenomenon centred on storing food, water and weapons for the purpose of surviving disasters. Existing understandings of prepping indicate that its practitioners are driven to prepare by peculiar and delusional certainty that apocalyptic collapse will occur in the near future. This view, however, has not yet been tested by empirical research. This article draws on ethnography with 39 preppers in 18 American states to present a new understanding of this phenomenon, as it shows prepping consistently being practiced in the absence of both apocalyptic predictions and certainty regarding the future occurrence of disaster. Demonstrating that preppers’ activities are undergirded by precautionary projections around numerous non-apocalyptic ‘threats’, the article argues that prepping principally responds to uncertain anxieties around disaster risks. Moreover, it establishes that these imprecise anxieties are regularly influenced by preppers’ consumption of disaster-based speculation in mainstream news media – showing that their concerns tend to emerge in response to numerous disaster risks that are widely reported and recognised in wider American culture, rather than marginal conceptions of ‘threats’. The article, therefore, contends that, rather than being a marginal apocalyptic practice, prepping is a phenomenon with clear, previously unacknowledged links to broader risk communications and concerns in the twenty-first century United States – one that must be understood as a reflection of the broader resonance of disaster-based speculation and uncertainty in this cultural context.     

民元后华商证券交易所的创设动机及其脆弱性

近代华商证券交易所具有极高的脆弱性,这是交易所过度投机和违规经营而且得不到有效遏制的结果;而华商证券交易所浓重的投机性和道德风险,又与其复杂的创设动机有关。考察民元以后华商证券交易所的脆弱性、投机性与其创设动机之间的关系,是为了以史为鉴,确保现实中国的交易所有正确的经营方向,谨慎选择交易所的组织制度,弱化交易所的逐利性,强化交易所的自律功能,淡化交易所的政策市色彩,使我国证券交易所能够持续、稳定和有力地服务于市场经济建设。     

利差、美元指数与跨境资本流动

一般认为跨境资本流动由利差决定,政策制定也强调利差对资本流动的指示意义。但本文发现,中国跨境资本流动历史上主要是由套汇而非套息资本决定,且套汇的显著指标是多边美元指数(DXY)而非人民币兑美元双边汇率,我们把这一现象称之为“中国的跨境资本流动之谜”。我们提出,汇率影响大于利率且多边汇率影响大于双边汇率的原因在于人民币兑美元双边汇率历史上波动幅度较小,及时和充分反映中美基本面的分化还不够。美元指数是市场指标,能够预示人民币兑美元双边汇率的走势,进而驱动资本流动。进一步研究发现,由于中国经济的外溢效应,中美经济基本面的分化不仅决定中美利差,还在很大程度上驱动美欧、美日经济基本面的分化,进而略有时滞地驱动美元指数。因此,中美利差在统计意义上是美元指数的同步甚至略微领先的指标,从这个意义上讲,政策制定仍要关注利差。随着人民币汇率弹性增强,中美利差和美元指数对中国跨境资本流动的解释力都会边际减弱。     

Predictable events and excess returns: The case of dividend announcements

This paper hypothesizes that the risk per unit of time and the required rate of return are higher than normal during an event period whose timing can be predicted. Consistent with this hypothesis this paper presents empirical evidence indicating that the unconditional mean rate of return, the variance of stock returns and their systematic risk are higher than ‘usual’ during dividend announcement periods. However, the documented increases in the systematic risk are not large enough to fully explain the ‘excess returns’. This finding is puzzling and hard to reconcile with existing theory.     

The intrinsic value of gold: An exchange rate-free price index

In this paper, we propose a gold price index that enables market participants to separate the change in the ‘intrinsic’ value of gold from changes in global exchange rates. The index is a geometrically weighted average of the price of gold denominated in different currencies, with weights that are proportional to the market power of each country in the global gold market. Market power is defined as the impact that a change in a country’s exchange rate has on the price of gold expressed in other currencies. We use principal components analysis to reduce the set of global exchange rates to four currency ‘blocs’ representing the U.S. dollar, the euro, the commodity currencies and the Asian currencies, respectively. We estimate the weight of each currency bloc in the index in an error correction framework using a broad set of variables to control for the unobserved intrinsic value. We show that the resulting index is less volatile than the USD price of gold and, in contrast with the USD price of gold, has a strong negative relationship with global equities and a strong positive relationship with the VIX index, both of which underline the role of gold as a safe haven asset.     

Forward and spot exchange rates in a bivariate TAR framework

Structural exchange rate models explain only a small part of the movements in dollar exchange rate. Recent empirical work has focused on the failure to account for nonlinearities in the data generating mechanism, as an explanation of this bad performance. Here two bivariate threshold autoregressive models for the spot and forward exchange rates are considered. In the first model the regimes are determined by the log difference of the two rates; in the second one the regimes are driven by the forward spot no-arbitrage condition. These processes are able to capture the ‘swing’ behaviour observed in the exchange rate market. Finally the forecasting ability of the models for the dollar/DM exchange rate is evaluated by stochastic simulation.     

Nonlinear effects of climate policy uncertainty and financial speculation on the global prices of oil and gas

With the acceleration of global energy transition and financialization, intense climate policy uncertainty and financial speculation have significant impacts on the global energy market. This paper uses TVP-VAR-SV models to analyze the nonlinear effects of climate policy uncertainty (CPU), financial speculation, economic activity, and US dollar exchange rate on global prices of crude oil and natural gas respectively, and then compare the time-varying response of oil prices and gas prices to six representative CPU peaks. The results show that responses of energy prices to various shocks have significant nonlinear effects: the time-varying effect of CPU on energy prices from positive to negative over time is significant, and financial speculation has the opposite effects on oil and gas prices. The effect from economic activity is mainly positive, while the effects of US dollar exchange are negative and stable. These results provide important implications for policymakers and investors dealing with high levels of climate policy uncertainty, financial speculation, and global economic activity.     

Modelling long-run equilibrium exchange rate in Botswana

The paper estimates the equilibrium real exchange rate for Botswana. It also reviews the country’s exchange rate regimes. Botswana operated a fixed exchange – without adjustable pegs from 1966 to 1976; with adjustable pegs from 1976 to 1980; and with a currency basket from 1980 to date. Using the autoregressive distributed lag bounds testing procedure, the paper found terms of trade and trade openness to determine the equilibrium real exchange rate. The actual real exchange rate has deviated significantly from the equilibrium exchange rate. The estimated speed of adjustment is very slow, which calls for policies that could raise it in order to avoid excess misalignments.     

Relative price changes and deviations from purchasing power parity

During recent years, exchange rate fluctuations have exceeded variation in price indices. As a result, a number of theories have been developed to explain the apparent ‘overshooting’ of the exchange rate. The purpose of this paper is to argue that such elaborate extensions may be unnecessary, because the law of one price is more robust than previously believed. In particular, it can be shown that the law of one price is consistent with the observed variability of exchange rates and that it outperforms the overshooting models in explaining the stochastic behavior of exchange rates and interest rates.     

全球流动性膨胀与图际货币体系危机

本文首先描述了黄金非货币化后国际本位货币美元以及欧元向外过度提供引致全球流动性膨胀的机制和规模,指出了美国经济的去工业化和经济虚拟化的过程,进而从境外美元资产规模和投机资金力量、美国外汇储备等方面分析了美元危机不可避免的原因,目前美国的次贷危机只是美元危机的一个前奏。最后文章指出国际第二大本位货币欧元已经加入了无节制扩张行列,现行国际货币体系面临巨大的危机。     

从汇率制度视角看我国商业银行的流动性过剩

从汇率制度角度透视我国当前的商业银行流动性过剩现象，目的在于为经济金融的进一步开放提供理论依据和决策参考。本文通过对“三元悖论”理论的解读和1998～2006年各季度数据的实证检验，揭示了我国商业银行流动性过剩与汇率制度之间存在密切相关性，即在我国现行的；汇率制度下，外汇储备的不断增加直接导致了商业银行存差的扩大，造成金融系统乃至整个社会的流动性过剩。基于上述研究，作者提出了如下相关建议：完善我国汇率形成的市场机制，培育相对均衡汇率；深化我国外汇管理体制改革，有序开放资本市场；汇率制度改革要与其他政策改革协调配合。     

从汇率制度视角看我国商业银行的流动性过剩

从汇率制度角度透视我国当前的商业银行流动性过剩现象,目的在于为经济金融的进一步开放提供理论依据和决策参考。本文通过对“三元悖论”理论的解读和1998～2006年各季度数据的实证检验,揭示了我国商业银行流动性过剩与汇率制度之间存在密切相关性,即在我国现行的汇率制度下,外汇储备的不断增加直接导致了商业银行存差的扩大,造成金融系统乃至整个社会的流动性过剩。基于上述研究,作者提出了如下相关建议:完善我国汇率形成的市场机制,培育相对均衡汇率;深化我国外汇管理体制改革,有序开放资本市场;汇率制度改革要与其他政策改革协调配合。