Exchange Rate Volatility and Output Volatility: A Theoretical Approach*

This paper makes an attempt to determine the factors influencing exchange rate and exchange rate uncertainty, as well as output and output variability. In the context of a small open economy under flexible exchange rates regime it is found that the level both of exchange rate and output is affected by monetary and inflationary shocks, as well as shocks in government spending, output, and trade balance. Further, the uncertainty of exchange rate and output is associated positively with the uncertainty of all shocks while the contemporaneous occurrence of selected shocks imposes either a positive or negative impact on exchange rate and output volatility. Finally, it is shown that the effect of the determinants either of exchange rate volatility or output volatility is very sensitive to the parameter values.     

Macroeconomic uncertainty and performance in the European Union

We use a very general bivariate GARCH-M model and monthly data on EU countries covering the 1962–2003 period to test for the impact of real (output growth) and nominal (inflation) macroeconomic uncertainty on inflation and output growth. Our evidence supports a number of important conclusions. First, in the majority of countries uncertainty regarding the output growth rate is related to the average growth rate and the effect in several countries is negative. Second, in half of the cases there is no significant relationship between inflation uncertainty and output growth performance. Third, inflation and output uncertainty have a mixed effect on inflation. Nevertheless, considerable evidence for the Cukierman–Meltzer hypothesis is obtained. Our conclusions are based on adopting both a structural and a reduced-form bivariate GARCH model. Finally, we also find statistically significant evidence of regime switching for both inflation and output growth volatility throughout the sample.     

An Empirical Analysis of Short-run and Long-run Irish Export Functions: Does exchange rate volatility matter?

We analyse the long-run and short-run relationship between merchandise export volume and its determinants, foreign income, relative prices and exchange rate volatility, using the techniques of cointegration and error correction. The model was estimated for Irish exports and sectoral exports SITC 0-4 and SITC 5-8 to the EU using quarterly data for the period 1978-1998. The sectoral classification corresponds to the exports of mainly indigenous Irish firms and multinationals, respectively. We find that the exchange rate volatility has no effect on the volume of trade in the short-run but a significant positive effect in the long run. This is true in the aggregate and for our sectoral classifications. We can tentatively conclude that the decline in intra-EU exchange rate volatility associated with the single currency will lead to a long-run fall in Irish exports to the EU.     

Policy Effectiveness in the Post-ERM Era: Evidence from Six Countries

The objective of this paper is to determine whether ERM-participating countries have experienced a change in the effectiveness of monetary and fiscal policies since the establishment of the ERM. Countries which have come to rely more heavily on fiscal policy instruments as the means of output, price and exchange rate stabilization since the establishment of the ERM (and currently exceed the fiscal criteria) are expected to find the Maastricht fiscal criteria restrictive and perhaps destabilizing. We find that Belgium, Italy and Ireland are the countries that are likely to face the most difficulties.     

Cointegration Tests of the Profit-maximising Equilibrium in Greek Manufacturing: 1958–91

This paper applies the recently developed cointegration techniques to test for a long-run equilibrium among real wages and the average productivity of labour as implied by profit maximisation in the Greek manufacturing sector. We find evidence for a profit-maximising equilibrium and for adjustment towards this long-run equilibrium through nominal wages and labour productivity. We have also provided an estimate of the elasticity of substitution of 0.23 which is consistent with that of other studies using alternative approaches.     

Oil volatility and the option value of waiting: An analysis of the G‐7

There has recently been considerable interest in the potential adverse effects associated with excessive uncertainty in energy futures markets. Theoretical models of investment under uncertainty predict that increased uncertainty will tend to induce firms to delay production and investment. These models are widely utilized in capital budgeting and production decisions, particularly in the energy sector. There is relatively little empirical evidence, however, on whether such channels have effects on industrial production. Using a sample of G7 countries we examine whether uncertainty about a prominent commodity—oil—affects the time series variation in industrial production. Our primary result is consistent with the predictions of real options theory—uncertainty about oil prices has had a negative and significant effect on manufacturing activity in Canada, France, UK, and US. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 31:679–702, 2011     

Inflation Uncertainty, Output Growth Uncertainty and Macroeconomic Performance

We use a bivariate generalized autoregressive conditionally heteroskedastic (GARCH) model of inflation and output growth to examine the causality relationship among nominal uncertainty, real uncertainty and macroeconomic performance measured by the inflation and output growth rates. The application of the constant conditional correlation GARCH(1,1) model leads to a number of interesting conclusions. First, inflation does cause negative welfare effects, both directly and indirectly, i.e. via the inflation uncertainty channel. Secondly, in some countries, more inflation uncertainty provides an incentive to Central Banks to surprise the public by raising inflation unexpectedly. Thirdly, in contrast to the assumptions of some macroeconomic models, business cycle variability and the rate of economic growth are related. More variability in the business cycle leads to more output growth.     

Output Variability and Economic Growth: the Japanese Case

We examine the empirical relationship between output variability and output growth using quarterly data for the 1961–2000 period for the Japanese economy. Using three different specifications of GARCH models, namely, Bollerslev's model, Taylor/Schwert's model, and Nelson's EGARCH model, we obtain two important results. First, we find robust evidence that the “in‐mean” coefficient is not statistically significant. This evidence is consistent with Speight's (1999) analysis of UK data and implies that output variability does not affect output growth. In other words, this finding supports several real business cycle theories of economic fluctuations. Second, we find no evidence of asymmetry between output variability and growth, a result consistent with Hamori (2000) .     

Is real GDP stationary? Evidence from a panel unit root test with cross-sectional dependence and historical data

We use historical data that cover more than one century on real GDP for industrial countries and employ the Pesaran panel unit root test that allows for cross-sectional dependence to test for a unit root on real GDP. At first, we find strong evidence against the unit root null. Our results seem to be robust to the chosen group of countries and, in most cases, the sample period. However, the sequential panel selection method reveals that the rejection of the unit root null is due to the stationarity of real GDP in a few countries only. Real GDP is less stationary mostly in fixed exchange rate regimes like the Gold Standard and the Bretton Woods system.     

Inflation,inflation uncertainty and growth: Are they related?

We examine the relationship between inflation uncertainty, inflation and growth using annual historical data on industrial countries covering in many cases more than one century. Proxying inflation uncertainty by the conditional variance of inflation shocks, we obtain the following results. (1) There is significant evidence for the positive effect of inflation uncertainty on inflation supporting the Cukierman–Meltzer hypothesis. (2) There is mixed evidence on the causal effect of inflation on inflation uncertainty. (3) There is strong evidence that inflation uncertainty is not detrimental to output growth.