How stable is M2 money demand function in Japan?

The cointegrating property of the demand for money in Japan has been investigated by several researchers who have provided mixed results. None has investigated its stability. In this paper we employ the ARDL approach combined with CUSUM and CUSUMSQ tests to show that not only M2 is cointegrated with income and interest rate, but the estimated relation is stable.     

An extension of the benefit segmentation base for the consumption of organic foods: A time perspective

Abstract

Benefit segmentation is a long-standing marketing approach that emphasises the ‘what’ and ‘how’ dimensions of consumer benefits; that is, what benefits consumers perceive in product/service consumption, and how such benefits are perceived. This research proposes a fresh time-based approach to benefit segmentation – namely, focusing on the ‘when’ element or when in time benefits take effect. Drawing upon a survey of UK consumers, it explains and discusses consumption motivations through examining antecedents of temporally dominated benefits in application to organic food. Specifically, the study investigates why some consumers predominantly seek present-based benefits vis-à-vis future-based benefits or vice versa in organic food purchase and consumption behaviour. Using correlation and regression analyses, the research findings establish significant associations of level of involvement, prior knowledge level, and product usage level, and some association of time orientation with the temporally emphasised consumption benefits consumers ultimately pursue. Overall, the research highlights the added contribution of a time perspective in a benefit segmentation approach which can assist marketers in understanding better and communicating more effectively with consumers through drawing up consumer profiles based on when in time their dominantly pursued benefit for an offering is perceived to take effect.     

S-Curve at the Commodity Level: Evidence from US-India Trade

The short-run response of the trade balance to changes in the terms of trade or the real exchange rate comes under the heading of the “J-Curve” or the “S-Curve.” While the J-Curve is mostly investigated through regression analysis, the S-Curve is based on the cross-correlation function between the terms of trade and the trade balance. Previous research has shown that in a country where support for any of the two curves is weak, disaggregation of the trade data helps discover more evidence of either curve. This article adds to the literature by considering the experience of India. We demonstrate that once the trade data between India and the United States is disaggregated by commodity, there is evidence of the S-curve in most industries that trade between the two countries. Out of total of 27 industries that constitute about 70% of trade, there are 15 that support the S-Curve.     

Exchange-rate volatility and industry trade between Canada and Mexico

While it has long been assumed that exchange-rate volatility introduces a level of uncertainty that helps reduce trade flows, this need not be the case for particular country pairs or for specific products. This study examines the case of trade between Canada and Mexico—two members of the highly integrated North American market. Trade flows are examined for a number of specific products using the “bounds testing” cointegration approach over the period from 1973 to 2006. Relatively few industries see a long-run reduction in trade volumes due to volatility. This indicates that multinational producers in these integrated markets might be able to hedge against exchange-rate risk. Since major Mexican exports appear to see the largest reductions, Mexico might have a stronger incentive to reduce the volatility of the peso.     

Towards solving the PPP puzzle: evidence from 113 countries

Several different approaches have been followed by researchers to test the validity of Purchasing Power Parity (PPP). Since the introduction of the unit-root tests, researchers have applied a battery of these tests to determine whether the real exchange rates are stationary. If the answer is in the affirmative, PPP is validated. While application of the standard augmented Dickey–Fuller test has not provided much support for PPP, a test that incorporates nonlinearity in the rates has. Under both tests, however, the null of nonstationary is tested against the alternative of stationarity. In this article, when we switch the null with the alternative and apply Kwiatkowski et al. (1992 Kwiatkowski, D, Phillips, PCB, Schmidt, P and Shin, Y. 1992. Testing the null hypothesis of stationarity against the alternative of a unit root. Journal of Econometrics, 54: 159–78. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) test, we provide relatively more support for the theory, getting closer and closer towards solving the PPP puzzle.     

The J-curve in the emerging economies of Eastern Europe

Devaluation or depreciation of a currency worsens the trade balance before improving it, resulting in a J-curve pattern. A new definition of the hypothesis implies a short-run deterioration combined with the long-run improvement. By using monthly data over the January 1990–June 2005 period from 11 east European emerging economies, most of which are the new European Union (EU) members or the EU candidate countries, this article uses the bounds testing approach to cointegration and error-correction modelling and finds empirical support for the J-curve hypothesis in three countries of Bulgaria, Croatia and Russia. The results have important implications for policymakers involved in economics in terms of using exchange rate policy as a policy device to achieve real convergence toward EU standards.     

The J-curve: evidence from commodity trade between UK and China

China is often accused of manipulating its currency to gain international competitiveness. Previous studies have tried to address this issue by investigating the impact of yuan depreciation on China’s trade balance. Not only have they failed to establish the link between the Chinese exchange rate and its trade balance with the rest of the world but also between China and her major trading partners. In this article, we consider the China–UK trade balance and disaggregate their trade flows by commodity. Out of the 47 industries considered, we show that the real depreciation has favourable short-run effects in most industries. However, the short-run effects last into the long run only in seven cases.     

US–Indonesia trade at commodity level and the role of the exchange rate

Previous studies that assessed the impact of currency depreciation on inpayments and outpayments of Indonesia with her major trading partners did not find much significant results, especially in the trade with the United States. We wonder whether insignificant link between the real rupiah-dollar rate and Indonesia’s inpayments and outpayments with the United States is due to aggregation bias. To answer this question, we disaggregate the trade flows between the two countries by commodity and consider the sensitivity of inpayments of 108 US exporting industries and outpayments of 32 US importing industries from Indonesia. We find that most industries respond to exchange rate changes in the short run. In the long run, however, 32 inpayments schedule and 17 outpayments schedule are significantly affected. A 1% real depreciation of the dollar was found to improve US trade balance by 1.8%.     

Bilateral J-curve between the UK vis-à-vis her major trading partners

Currency depreciation is said to worsen the trade balance first before resulting in an improvement, yielding a short-run pattern labelled the J-curve phenomenon. While early studies tested the J-curve by using aggregate trade data, a few recent studies have employed bilateral data, mostly between the US and her major trading partners. In this paper we extend the literature by considering the experience of the UK. We test the phenomenon between the UK and her twenty major trading partners by employing data over 1973Q1–2001Q3 period. In most instances, we find no support for the J-curve in the short-run. In the long run, only in five cases has the exchange rate had significant impact on the bilateral trade balance.