An Analysis of the Structure of Interest Rates in Taiwan: An Application of the Vector ARIMA Model

The structure of interest rates in Taiwan is analysed through the vector ARIMA approach using monthly and quarterly data from 1978 to 1989. These rates are the regulated bank interest rate and unregulated money market interest rates in the formal financial market and the kerb rate in the informal market. The results show that the adjustments in the bank interest rate follow that of the money market interest rate. Furthermore, the time lag has been shortened from one quarter in the early stages of interest rate liberalization in Taiwan to only one month in the later stages. Increases in the money market interest rate might be followed by an increase in the kerb market interest rate because of partial market segmentation. In periods when there is excess supply of funds in the banking sector, an increase in the bank rate might be followed by a decrease of the kerb rate. The interest rates structure of Taiwan is relevant to developing countries which have an informal financial sector.     

Family structure and home ownership: Evidence from China

This paper studies how individuals, particularly low-income individuals, have financed housing purchases since the housing market was privatized in urban China in the 1990s. To the surprise of many policy makers and economists, more than 80% of the households in urban China owned private housing by the end of 2010. In contrast to most developed countries, we find that male siblings are important borrowing resources to purchase housing. Conditional on the number of siblings, having more brothers instead of sisters increases the probability of owning housing among male individuals born during the baby boom (1949–1978) in urban China. However, there is no such brother effect for females. The brother effect is stronger for males with low income or low levels of education and is also stronger when brothers are wealthier. Our results are robust to different model specifications. Our results suggest that females are likely to be excluded from family-based informal financial market for housing purchase among baby boom generations in China.     

Loan interest rate pass-through and changes after the financial crisis: Japan’s evidence

We estimate interest rate pass-through in the loan market using an individual bank-based panel dataset from Japan. Previous studies using data from European countries have presented a number of common findings, including that banks with a high proportion of relationship lending tend to set lower pass-through. In this respect, we have obtained similar results using a dataset for Japan going back to the early 2000s. We further examine the influence of borrowing firms’ balance sheet characteristics on loan interest rate pass-through, and find that these additional factors are also important determinants for pass-through dispersion. However, after the recent global financial crisis, even banks with a high proportion of relationship lending have largely lowered loan interest rates by raising pass-through, and pass-through has not necessarily been determined in accordance with borrowing firms’ balance sheet characteristics. These results differ from those of recent studies on European countries. Possible background factors explaining this change are that (i) pressure to lower loan interest rates has risen due to extensive monetary easing and greater lending competition among banks, while Japan’s banking system as a whole has maintained its resilience in the post-crisis period; (ii) demand for bank loans has increased substantially due to disruptions in the market for alternative funding sources, such as commercial paper and corporate bonds; and (iii) public measures to increase bank loans have been broadly introduced in Japan.     

Financial Factors,Openness and the Natural Interest Rate in China

China's financial market has undergone significant changes since financial deleveraging commenced and regulatory supervision was tightened in 2017. Intensifying China–US trade tensions have further increased the uncertainties of external environments. In this article, we use a Bayesian approach instead of the standard maximum likelihood estimation in the Laubach–Williams model to estimate the natural interest rate by considering financial factors and open conditions, and analyze the relationships among the natural interest rate, economic activities and monetary policies. We find that technological and demographic factors are the main drivers of natural interest rates, while financial factors and open conditions also play important roles. In particular, shocks in the financial markets and the external economic environment in recent years are important reasons for the decline of China's natural interest rate. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen research on the estimation of the natural interest rate to ensure China's transformation into more price‐based monetary policy and high‐quality development.     

Formal and informal rural credit in the Mekong River Delta of Vietnam: Interaction and accessibility

This paper examines the factors influencing rural households’ access to credit in the Vietnamese market. Analysis confirms an interaction effect between informal and formal credit sectors in which informal credit positively influences accessibility to microcredit programs. Ignoring this interaction effect may lead to microcredit providers making loan decisions that are less than optimal. In the formal credit sector, the lowest income group faces more credit rationing than other groups, despite the fact that microcredit programs are designed to target households at the bottom of the income pyramid. Results demonstrate that land holding status, informal interest, and informal loan duration are important factors influencing access to informal credit. Factors influencing microcredit accessibility include local government employee status, credit group membership, a “poor” certificate, educational attainment, working skills and village road access. To reduce reliance on informal credit and improve microcredit accessibility, rural households should actively participate in a microcredit group.     

社会网络与城镇居民的正规和非正规借贷:来自国家统计局城调队样本的证据

基于来自国家统计局的16个省市2006-2014年的城镇住户面板数据,本文研究社会网络对城镇家庭的正规借款和非正规借款是否都具有因果效应。在利用工具变量解决了社会网络的内生性问题后,本文的研究结果显示:社会网络对家庭借款之和、正规借款和非正规借款均具有显著的正向影响;此外,与正规借款相比,社会网络对非正规借款的影响更大。本文的实证结果表明,社会网络能够发挥社会担保作用并增加家庭的借款金额,这一结果有助于我们理解社会网络作为一种非正规制度在发展中国家城市信贷市场中的积极作用,同时还意味着中国城镇金融市场有继续完善的空间。     

Lessons for Africa from Indonesia's Experience in Smallscale Entrepreneurial Finance

Abstract: Indonesia has developed some very successful credit schemes for both men and women smallscale entrepreneurs and farmers in rural and urban areas; one is a state-owned commercial bank which reaches out into the poorer areas; one is owned by local governments, but supervised by the state-owned commercial bank; and one is owned and operated by the provincial government. Can the factors which led to their success be transferrable to the African setting ? The authors argue that they can, but that the high population density, the vibrant economy and the relative stability of the price level are important positive factors in Indonesia not found in sub-Saharan Africa. Nevertheless, the paying of a market rate of interest on savings and encouragement of savings, the integration of the credit scheme into the commercial banking system, an interest rate on loans which covers the spread between savings borrowing and costs plus administrative costs, high levels of repayment, untargeted credit, good management, financial viability of each branch unit, and convenience in location are transferrable and should be part of African institutions leading to the smallscale sector.     

从美日经验分析利率市场化对金融运行的影响

美国和日本的利率市场化对金融运行产生不同的影响,其经验教训为我国利率市场化改革提供了借鉴。十二五时期,我国利率市场化进程将加快,放开存贷款利率成为我国利率市场化改革的攻艰任务。在此过程中,需要认真分析和研究利率市场化对经济和金融运行的影响,明确改革重点,完善配套措施,有序向前推进。     

Hot Money Flows,Commodity Price Cycles and Financial Repression in the USA and China： The Consequences of Near-zero US Interest Rates

Under near-zero US interest rates, the international dollar standard malfunctions. Emerging markets with naturally higher interest rates are swamped with hot money inflows. Emerging market central banks intervene to prevent their currencies from rising precipitately. They lose monetary control and domestic prices begin inflating. Primary commodity prices rise worldwide unless interrupted by an international banking crisis＇. This cyclical inflation on the dollar＇s periphery only registers in the US core eonsumer price index with a long lag. The zero interest rate policy also fails to stimulate the US economy as domestic finaneial intermediation by banks and money market mutual funds is repressed. Because China is forced to keep its interest rates below market-clearing levels, it also suffers from finaneial repression, although in a form differing from that in the USA.     

Interest Rate Pass-through in a Dual-track System： Evidence from China

Using the Phillips-Loretan approach, this paper verifies the degree and speed of pass- through and rigidity of different interest rates in China, as well as the response of private loan interest rates to other interest rates during 2002-2012. The results indicate that the long-term pass-through from the interbank offered rates and deposit and loan interest rates to the treasury bond rate is incomplete, but that the long-term pass-through to private loan interest rates is overshooting. The long-term pass-through from the deposit and loan interest rates to the overnight interbank offered rate is incomplete, while that to the interbank offered rates of other maturities is complete. The short-term passthrough and adjustment speed of interest rates exhibit asymmetry. Therefore, before considering a full liberalization of interest rates, it is important to further enhance the competition of the financial system and the function of different interest rate systems, such as the interhank market and bond market.     

城乡统筹发展与普惠金融体系构建

＂十二五＂规划中把城乡结构列为优先解决的结构问题之一,统筹城乡经济发展是解决我国＂三农＂问题的根本途径。而金融作为支持农村经济发展的重要力量不容忽视。本文认为,大力推进普惠金融体系的构建,加大金融强农惠农力度,是提高农民收入,缩小城乡收入差距,统筹城乡发展,实现包容性增长的必要举措。     

Estimates of the fisher effect: A neo-Keynesian approach

Conclusion This paper has presented estimates of a structural model designed to study the processes by which inflationary expectations affect nominal interest rates. The theoretical framework expands upon previous analyses of the effects of expected inflation primarily by analyzing a wider range of resulting substitution effects both among financial assets as a group, and between financial assets and commodities. A possible substitution effect between leisure and both these groupings (commodities and financial assets) was also considered. The empirical work differs from previous studies in that we estimate the effects of inflationary expectations on nominal interest rates within the structure of a complete macroeconomic system rather than using the single-equation approach outlined in section II above. The results provide evidence on the magnitude of the Fisher effect and the market mechanisms which comprise this effect as estimated within the neo-Keynesian system. These market mechanisms were found to consist of direct effects in the long-term bond market and on the aggregate demand for and supply of commodities. The total adjustment consists of changes in all the endogenous variables with the final outcome being an increase in each of the nominal interest rates in the model. The implied increase in nominal interest rates is less than a full-adjustment to the increase in the expected inflation rate, thus for the time period considered here, the estimates imply a fall in the real rate of interest. Prices and nominal income were also found to vary positively with the expected inflation rate. The authors wish to thank an unknown referee of this journal for helpful comments.     

农村非正规金融：发展特点、制度分析及规范

当前我国农村非正规金融的发展具有规模大、利率弹性大、借贷方式不规范等特点。制度分析表明农村非正规金融之所以占据农村金融市场的半壁江山,在于其较低的交易成本、灵活的抵押机制、内生的风险控制机制等制度优势。同时农村非正规金融也有活动范围规模狭小、有一定的蔓延性、缺乏国家政策和法律支持等制度缺陷,需要通过合法化、加强监管、促进农村正规金融与非正规金融的合作等方式加以规范。     

Saving,investment, growth and the cost of financial repression

This paper presents a quantitative estimate of the cost of financial repression in developing countries. Here, financial repression is interpreted as the technique of holding institutional interest rates (particularly deposit rates of interest) below their market equilibrium levels. For a sample of developing countries, saving is found to be affected positively by the real deposit rate of interest, as is real money demand, where money is defined broadly to include savings and time deposits. Under disequilibrium interest rate conditions, higher saving which raises real money demand increases pari passu the real supply of credit. Credit availability is an important determinant not only of new investment but also of capacity utilization of the entire capital stock. Hence, the growth rate is itself affected positively by the real deposit rate of interest through two channels – first, the volume of saving and investment and, second, capacity utilization of the entire capital stock, i.e. the measured incremental capital/output ratio. Estimates of saving and growth functions lead to the conclusion that the cost of financial repression appears to be around half a percetage point in economic growth foregone for every one percentage point by which the real deposit rate of interest is set below its market equilibrium rate.     

我国农户消费行为的经济分析

众所周知,需求是拉动国民经济增长的活跃因素之一,根据凯恩斯的乘数原理,消费支出能带来国民收入和就业机会的成倍增长。中国是一个农业大国,13亿人口中就有9亿多农业人口,扩大需求理所当然要考虑如何开拓农村的消费市场,分析农业人口的消费行为及其影响因素。本文采用SPSS软件来分析影响农户消费行为的几个相关因素,并根据分析的结果提出几点参考性建议。     

金融衍生产品在我国商业银行利率风险管理中的应用

利率市场化以及金融市场的开放,使我国商业银行面临的利率风险大大增加。为了有效地管理与控制利率风险,有必要研究金融衍生产品在利率风险管理中的应用。本文介绍几种金融衍生产品,并分析强化我国商业银行运用金融衍生产品进行利率风险管理的对策。     

土地经营权流转、耕地配置与农民收入增长

文章基于全国8省农户微观调查数据,探讨了中国农村土地流转市场发育在优化耕地资源配置和提高农民收入方面的作用。实证结论表明,现行土地流转起到了改进耕地配置效率的作用,有助于那些具有较高农业生产能力水平但初始土地禀赋有限的农户获得更多的土地。对农户参与土地流转所可能获得收益大小的进一步估计显示,土地流转同时显著提高了农户家庭的收入水平,在平均意义下土地流转能使任意样本农户家庭和已流转土地农户家庭的总收入分别增加19%和26%左右。此外,文章分别从土地转入和土地转出,检验了土地流转增收效应的非对称性特征,发现在土地流转过程中,转入土地农户家庭的收入增长幅度要显著高于转出土地的农户家庭。     

A fisherian analysis of individual retirement accounts

Conclusions This paper has employed a Fisherian analysis of intertemporal choice to evaluate the use of IRA's. The analysis shows that with perfect capital markets assumptions, the presence of IRA's will generate no other effect on savings than would a simple tax rabate. Further, it shows that if the tax revenue loss due to IRA's is not accompanied by an expenditure reduction, but is financed with taxes or borrowing, rational households will still employ IRA's, but their effect on intertemporal choice will be nil. The analysis also shows that IRA's do act as a savings incentive to the extent that there are market imperfections, specifically to the degree that transactions costs are important. However, empirical evidence from the literature does not lend firm support to this possibility. The conclusion is that a market imperfection is not a firm basis on which to construct savings incentives. Finally, one can note that the same analysis applies to any tax-based savings incentive that is designed to operate by lowering the tax on interest income. The reason for this finding is that the provision of tax sheltered interest income, along with the deductibility of interest on borrowing, creates general tax arbitrage opportunities for households and that tax arbitrage opportunities do not, in general, generate greater savings in an intertemporal choice model. It follows that significant restriction or elimination of the deductibility of interest on borrowing is a prerequisite for IRA's and other tax based savings incentives to produce their intended effect.     

Informal employment and its effect on the income distribution in urban China

This paper discusses the issue of informal employment and its effect on the income distribution in China using datasets from the China Urban Labour Surveys of 2005 and 2010. Based on a new definition of informal employment, we estimated the proportion of informal employment relative to total non-agricultural employment in urban China and found it to be 49.7% in 2005 and 40.3% in 2010. Meanwhile, our study illustrated that informal employees' earnings were 67% that of formal employees, and this large earnings gap raised the Gini coefficient to 0.42 in 2005. The Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition result shows that the earnings gap explains more than half of the overall personal income inequality in urban China. These results indicate that informal employment has a significant effect on the income distribution in urban China. Consequently, regulating the labour market, eliminating job discriminations and legislating the informal employment should be considered as alternative means of reducing inequality in China.     

China's Housing Market Imbalance from 2003 to 2016: An Analysis Based on the User Cost Approach

During 2003–2016, China experienced an unprecedented housing market imbalance. The present paper applies the user cost approach to conduct a systematic analysis of this important phenomenon, examines the policy factors behind the persistent housing market imbalance, and explores policy options to correct the housing market imbalance. We found that during most of 2003–2016, the user cost was significantly lower than 2 percent, caused by high income growth, rapid credit expansion and low interest rates, which led to the persistent housing market imbalance. Therefore, the government should control bank credit and introduce property taxes during the possession of houses.