Oil price shocks and Japanese macroeconomic developments

Using quarterly data for Japan over the period 1976:I–2008:II within a modelling strategy incorporating information about structural breaks in the variables included to represent the macroeconomic transmission channels, this paper shows that oil price shocks led to a fall in industrial production and higher inflation. However, these effects are only evident in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In more recent episodes of sharp oil price increases, inflationary effects are barely visible, and there is very limited evidence of oil‐induced industrial slowdowns.     

The Competitive Impact of International Trade: The Case of Import Liberalization of the Japanese Oil Product Market

This paper analyzes the competitive impact of the recent import liberalization of the Japanese oil product market. In response to the import liberalization in March 1996, not only did the market price of gasoline decline sharply but also its domestic production kept rising and did not decline relative to imports. Moreover, its price fell substantially before the actual liberalization of the import. This paper demonstrates both theoretically and empirically that the theory of implicit cartel can explain such features of the impact of import liberalization very well. The paper also identifies the significantly positive welfare impact of such liberalization due to the expansion of supply in a market with a large tax wedge between price and cost and, possibly more importantly, due to the transformation of competitive conduct from unproductive investment for cartel-rent shifting into price cuts. J. Japan. Int. Econ., December 1999, 13(4), pp. 397–423. Hitotsubashi University; and Keio University. Copyright 1999 Academic Press.Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: L40, F12, K21.     

The effect of oil price on China's exports

The increase in oil prices in recent years has occurred concurrently with a rapid expansion of Chinese exports in the world markets, despite China being an oil importing country. In this paper we develop a theoretical model that explains the positive correlation between Chinese exports and the oil price. The model shows that Chinese growth can lead to an increase in oil prices that has a stronger impact on its export competitors. This is due to the large labor force surplus of China. We then examine this hypothesis by estimating a reduced form equation for Chinese exports using Rodrik [Rodrik, Dani, 2006. What's so special about China's exports? China and World Economy 14, 1–19.]'s measure of export competitiveness, together with the oil price, productivity, real exchange rate, and foreign industrial production over the monthly 1992–2005 period. The results suggest a stable relationship and yields slightly positive values for the price of oil and elastic coefficients for export competitiveness, along with the expected negative elasticity for the real exchange rate.     

Monetary targeting for price stability in Bangladesh: How stable is its money demand function and the linkage between money supply growth and inflation?

Since the mid-1980s Bangladesh has implemented a loose form of monetary targeting under two exchange-rate régimes: a pegged system until May 2003 and a ‘managed floating’ exchange-rate system. Under both régimes, broad money has been used as an intermediate target to maintain price stability, which implies as the ultimate goal a relatively low and stable rate of inflation. Inflation in this country has, however, remained moderately high and volatile, especially during the 1970s under the pegged exchange-rate system. With the apparent ineffectiveness of the monetary-targeting system in achieving price stability, even following the 2003 ‘managed float’ of the currency, there has been some suggestion that it should be replaced by, say, inflation targeting. This paper forms an element of a fuller study of the issue. It investigates the behaviour of broad money demand in Bangladesh using annual data over the period 1973–2008. Empirical results suggest that an open-economy broad money demand function has remained stable in Bangladesh since the early 2000s. Empirical results also suggest the existence of a causal relationship between money supply growth and inflation. The paper concludes that, although monetary targeting remains appropriate for Bangladesh, its implementation can be made more effective in stabilising the price level if the Bangladesh Bank enhances its control over the money supply by eschewing nominal exchange-rate stabilisation through foreign exchange market interventions.     

The demand for minor league baseball

Conclusions Overall our model explains 80 percent of the variation in attendance at minor league baseball games for 27 teams over the 1973–77 seasons. This is a remarkable proportion of the variance to be explained by a pooled cross-section-time-series model with 86 observations. Demmert's model explained 58 percent of the variation in per capita attendance in major league baseball over the 1951–69 period and Noll's model explained 69 percent of the variation in absolute attendance at major league baseball games during 1970–71. The F-ratio indicates that our overall model is statistically significant.Our empirical estimation of the demand for minor league baseball attendance supports the general hypotheses one derives from the theory of consumer demand. As expected, the quantity demanded is negatively related to price; the elasticity of demand is less than one. Per capita income has little effect on attendance, but the quality and excitement of play seem to be important to fans. Surprisingly, winning has no effect on attendance. Promotional efforts appear to be effective in generating attendance, but paid advertising seems to be wholly ineffective.The authors received helpful comments on an earlier draft from Al Finegan, Robert Hays, Ira Horowitz, Larry Nelson and an anonymous referee. A less technical report on the subject of this article has been published inBusiness (January–February, 1980) by the same authors.     

Business cycle and wage policy

Summary This article presents a model of the business cycle and economic growth which explains the deviations of strategic macro-economic variables from their equilibrium values. It is assumed that the price mechanism will clear the goods market yearly, such that an equilibrium between effective demand and the profitable production capacity will be attained through the equilibrating price competition of entrepreneurs. However, a yearly labour market equilibrium will not be reached. Imperfect wage competition will only restore equilibrium in the very long run. Through a Koyck lag in the wage-setting function, i.e. between the rise of real labour costs per unit of product and the level of strain between supply and demand on the labour market, a lasting wage-push will generate a cyclical process that in some circumstances may take forty years. For, the lower the short-run elasticity between the real wage increase and the strain variable, the more lasting the cyclical process will be. A forty year cyclical movement shows a remarkable correspondence between the observed data in the 1950's, 1960's, 1970's and 1980's of this century and the simulations of the model.Originally published in Dutch in J.A.H Maks and E. Wester (eds.),Met het oog op de werkelijkheid, Opstellen over economie en beleid voor F. Hartog, H.E. Stenfert Kroese b.v., Leiden, 1983, pp. 191–213.     

Energy conservation — what price a local initiative?

With the collapse of oil prices, shortages and long term increases in energy prices seem far away, and conservation is the last thing on our minds. Thus, national energy supply monopolies encourage the use rather than conservation of energy, whilst the alleged prospect of a long-term increase in electricity demand is used to justify investment in nuclear power. This article examines how decentralisation and a greater local involvement in national energy policy could overcome this contradiction. It also finds that the conservation strategies developed, after the oil crisis of the 1970's, in several other countries have, surprisingly, no British equivalent.     

Environmental consequences of fuel price shocks in China

This study investigates the environmental consequences of fuel price shocks, using a rich dataset from the Chinese megacity of Hangzhou. Our identification strategy is mainly aided by instrumenting fuel price using exogenous global oil prices. We find that a 10% increase in fuel price leads to a 10.29%–11.45% decrease in driving demand, reflected by road congestion index, and a 17.6%–20.27% decrease in industrial activities, measured by electricity consumption. The decreases in driving demand and industrial activities are indeed correlated with air quality improvement and decline in major pollutant concentrations. While the findings shed light on the short-term environmental outcomes of price-based measures, the negative effects of fuel price increases on industrial activities may generate undesirable impacts on macroeconomy in the long-term perspective. Despite ample evidence demonstrating that drivers respond to fuel price changes, considerably fewer studies investigate their environmental and economic consequences. This study addresses this gap in the literature and contributes to a better understanding of the effects of fuel price shocks on air pollution and economic activities.     

Money demand in China and time-varying cointegration

Many studies analyze the money demand using a (fixed coefficient) cointegrating regression model, which may not be appropriate to deal with the money demand of a transition economy like China. This paper investigates this issue using a time-varying cointegration approach based on the quarterly data from 1996 to 2009. We find some interesting results: (i) the estimates of the income elasticities are between 0.60 and 0.75, which are comparable with the previous studies; (ii) the estimated interest rate elasticity supports the argument that the overall effect of the interest rate on the money holding is weak although there are some mild evidences that it has been strengthened in recent years; (iii) the substitution effect of equity asset dominates the wealth effect, especially, during the bullish market period. Our result is robust to the alternative choices of the scale or opportunity cost variables and shows that omission of the stock prices in the money demand function would possibly yield a misspecification problem.     

Substitutions among energy imputs in U.S. manufacturing

Summary and Conclusion With cross-section data on the purchases of four energy inputs by 11 U.S. manufacturing industries, Allen partial cross elasticities of input substitution and own price elasticities of demand were computed. The sample set represents 85 percent of total manufacturing energy demand in 1962. The substitution elasticities between fuel oil and natural gas, fuel oil and purchased electricity, and between natural gas and electricity, were statistically significant for about half of the 11 two-digit SIC industries studied. These elasticities ranged between 12.9 and 1.7 with half of them less than 4.0.Importantly, the elasticity of substitution between coal and the above three energy inputs was significantly different from zero in only three manufacturing industries (comprising some 35 percent of total manufacturing energy demand). Thus it would appear that only three U.S. manufacturing sectors will contribute towards the substitution of domestic for international energy sources. Indirect substitution between energy sources, with the consequent implications for the balance of payments, will primarily have to come from the substitution of electricity (from coal-fired plants) for natural gas (from Canada) and fuel oil (indirectly from the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America).Similar substitution results were found when all 11 industries were aggregated together or divided into large and small energy demand groups. As well, there appear to be no significant differences in overall substitution response between the two categories of large and small energy users. Supporting the substitution results, we found that the own price elasticity of demand for coal to be about –.5 and not different from zero while the price elasticities for natural gas, fuel oil, and purchased electricity were between –.7 and –2.67 (and statistically different from zero).As a general conclsuion, the substitution of domestic coal for other energy inputs will primarily have to come indirectly through greater use of coal to produce electricity which is purchased by the manufacturing sector. The scope for direct substitution of coal for other energy inputs in U.S. manufacturing is limited to only three sectors and cannot be expected to have an exceptionally large impact on mitigating the inflation and blanace of payments implications of the recent increases in the price of imported energy inputs.This work was undertaken at the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Discussions with George Green, A. Ray Grimes, Jr., Michael Mohr, John R. Moroney, Gorti Narasimham, and Benjamin Wolkowitz are acknowledged. These individuals, as well as the B.E.A. and the author's present employer, remain independent from the views expressed in this study.     

A re-examination of the demand for money in Nigeria

Summary and Conclusion This paper reexamines the demand for money in Nigeria and finds the real income and the expected rate of inflation to be important independent variables that explain over 80 percent of the variation in the real cash balance. The study shows that, in view of the low per capita income of Nigerians, permanent income and measure income are largely the same. An important finding of this study is that, because their price level is (in large part) exogenously determined, the monetary authorities in Nigeria should be more desirous of following the constant growth rate rule. A very substantial part of the country's export (that is, oil) is especially prone to inflationary pressures due to the ease with which international inflation can be transmitted. Since the authorities can control money stock, this ‘rule’ is indicated from both the theoretical and the empirical standpoint.     

On the vulnerability of the oil and gas industry to oil price changes

Previous studies of oil-price economic activity relationships are dominated by macro-level examination of price effects. This study examines the effect of shocks in oil price and its volatility on the oil and gas extraction industry using a Vector Auto-Regressive (VAR) approach. The results show that, in the short-run, positive price and volatility shocks lead to significant increases in oil and gas activities. However, in the long-run, the industry behaves much like the rest of the U.S. economy—price and volatility shocks produce small or insignificant effects. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 22 ^nd Annual North American Conference of the U.S.A. Energy Economics/International Association of Energy Economics Conference, Vancouver, British Columbia. The authors acknowledge the editorial assistance of Versa Stickle.     

The asymmetric effects of oil price changes on China’s exports: New evidence from a nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag model

China’s dependence on oil imports has greatly increased in recent years. Due to the rapid expansion of global trade, exporting plays an important role in the Chinese economy. This paper uses monthly data from January 2005 to April 2021 to examine the short- and long-term effects of oil price increases and decreases on China’s exports. Our empirical analyses are based on the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) model, which can effectively capture asymmetric relations. The empirical results provide significant evidence of asymmetry, such that oil price increases have significantly larger effects than oil price decreases in the long term. Interestingly, we find that energy-intensive exports and some specific sectors (e.g., crude fertilizers, petroleum products, and organic chemicals) benefit from oil price increases. We also observe recent declines in the coal and coke sector following positive oil price shocks due to restrictions on coal consumption.     

Is the price elasticity of demand for coal in China increasing?

China's dependence on coal is a major contributor to local and global environmental problems. In this paper we estimate the price elasticity of demand for coal in China using a panel of province-level data for 1998–2012. We find that provincial coal demand has become increasingly price elastic. As of 2012 we estimate that this elasticity was in the range − 0.3 to − 0.7 in point estimate terms when responses over two years are considered. The results imply that China's coal market is becoming more suited to price-based approaches to reducing emissions. The elimination of coal consumption subsidies could reduce national coal use and related emissions by around 2%.     

The impact of world oil price shocks on macroeconomic variables in Vietnam: the transmission through domestic oil price

This study examines the impact of world oil price shocks on macroeconomic variables in Vietnam with a focus on the transmission channel of domestic oil prices. The Structural Vector Autoregression model with two blocks of real economy variables and monetary variables is employed. The world oil price follows an autoregressive process to reflect the exogenous nature of world oil price shocks to the domestic economy. The retail domestic oil price is determined simultaneously by only the world oil price due to the government's control of the domestic oil market. Using monthly data in the period between 2009 and 2021, the study indicates that a positive shock to world oil prices will increase the domestic oil prices significantly, industrial production (slightly and only statistically significant in the third month after), and inflation (significantly in 8 months). Besides, the domestic oil price is not the only transmission channel of world oil price shocks to the economy. This result implies forecasting, assessing, and controlling the impact of the world oil price shock on the economy should focus on both domestic oil prices and other indirect channels.     

Stock price targeting and fiscal deficit in Japan: Why did the fiscal deficit increase during Japan’s lost decades?

The purpose of this paper is to explain why Japan’s fiscal deficit increased so dramatically in the 1990s and the 2000s. We focus on the role of “stock price targeting” to explain why the fiscal expenditure increased so much. After presenting a simple model to describe government behavior with an optimistic view about stock price and output growth, the paper tests whether the model can explain Japan’s fiscal expenditure. The empirical results, using biannual and high-frequency data of the 1990s and the 2000s, show that the stock price targeting can track Japan’s fiscal expenditure reasonably well, especially in the 1990s. They imply that without the stock price targeting, the total amount of biannual fiscal stimulus from 1992 to 2000 would have been lower by 2.5 trillion yen on average.     

Agricultural price policy in Tanzania

This paper examines agricultural price policy implementation and its strategic impact in Tanzania over the period 1969–1980. Trends in producer prices and the rural—urban terms of trade are analysed by constructing weighted price and income indices for major categories of crops marketed through official channels. The results indicate a substantial deterioration of real prices and incomes from crop sales during the 1970s. When taken in conjunction with a concomitant deterioration in the efficiency of agricultural marketing the analysis suggests that price policy has had a major adverse impact both on peasant living standards and on the economic performance of Tanzania since the mid-1960s.     

高油价背景下我国石油期货的发展

随着世界经济的复苏,世界各国对石油的需求旺盛,供给比较紧张等原因,使油价逐步攀升而且居高不下,并有继续攀升的势头。我国是石油消费大国和进口大国,已经开设了燃料油期货市场,但是市场品种单一,仍然面临被动地接受国际油价的局面。在这样的背景下,我国应该大力发展其他的石油期货品种,完善原油、燃料油和成品油价格形成机制,使我国逐步成为影响世界油价的重要因素,同时也为我国石油相关企业提供套期保值的场所。     

The End of Lifetime Employment in Japan?: Evidence from National Surveys and Field Research

Using both quantitative data from national surveys and qualitative data from our recent field research, this paper provides evidence on the recent transformation of Japan's celebrated practice of lifetime employment (or implicit long-term employment contracts for the regular workforce). Overall, contrary to the popular rhetoric of the end of lifetime employment, evidence points to the enduring nature of this practice in Japan. Specifically, we find little evidence for any major decline in the job retention rates of Japanese employees from the period prior to the burst of the bubble economy in the late 1980s to the post-bubble period. In general, our field research corroborates the main finding from the job retention rates by describing vividly that large firms in Japan have been trying to accomplish their restructuring and downsizing targets by relying heavily on transfers of their employees to their subsidiaries and related firms and hiring cuts, thus avoiding layoffs. Last, the burden of downsizing appears to fall disproportionately on young workers and middle-age workers with shorter tenure. J. Japan. Int. Econ., December 2001, 15(4), pp. 489–514. Department of Economics, Colgate University, Hamilton, New York 13346; Center on Japanese Economy and Business, Columbia Business School, New York; and TCER. © 2001 Elsevier Science (USA).Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: J63, J64, J41, O53.     

Income concentration and market demand

We analyze the effects of income concentration and income dispersionon market demand and its elasticity. We show that, followingan increase in income concentration towards the middle (measuredby variations in mean preserving spread), the increase in demandfaced by firms which serve at the margin middle income consumers,is associated with an increase in price elasticity—accordingly,the positive effects of the size of the market becoming widerare amplified by a higher degree of competition. Our resultshold for a large number of possible income distributions.