Panel data, cointegration, causality and Wagner's law: Empirical evidence from Chinese provinces

This paper tests Wagner's law of increasing state activity using panels of Chinese provinces. The paper's main methodological contribution is in that we employ for the first time in the literature on Wagner's law a panel unit root, panel cointegration and Granger causality testing approach. Overall, we find mixed evidence in support of Wagner's law for China's central and western provinces, but no support for Wagner's law for the full panel of provinces or for the panel of China's eastern provinces.     

中国对外贸易与城镇失业关系的实证分析

本文利用1978～2005年的年度数据,采用协整分析技术、误差修正模型和多变量Granger因果关系检验方法,检验了我国出口、进口、城镇失业人口之间的关系。实证分析结果表明,出口、进口、城镇失业人口之间存在唯一的协整关系;同时存在两个方向的Granger因果关系:进口增长是出口增长的原因;进口增长是城镇失业增加的原因,我国在制订贸易政策与就业政策时须注意三者的协调,以促进经济的增长。     

Untangling the web of causalities among four disaggregate government expenditures,government revenue and output in Taiwan

Using Taiwan data, this empirical study delves into the causal links among four disaggregate real government expenditures, real government revenue and real output. The results substantiate that there is (i) neutrality between real government revenue and real government expenditure on economic development; (ii) unidirectional causality from real government revenue to real government expenditures on national defence, on general administration and on education, science and culture, confirming the tax-and-spend hypothesis; (iii) neutrality between output and the four disaggregate government expenditures; and (iv) unidirectional causality from real output to real government revenue. Several implications emerge from our empirical results.     

FDI, exports, and GDP in East and Southeast Asia—Panel data versus time-series causality analyses

Using time-series and panel data from 1986 to 2004, this paper examines the Granger causality relations between GDP, exports, and FDI among China, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand, the eight rapidly developing East and Southeast Asian economies. After reviewing the current literature and testing the properties of individual time-series data, we estimate the VAR of the three variables to find various Granger causal relations for each of the eight economies. We found each country has different causality relations and does not yield general rules. We then construct the panel data of the three variables for the eight economies as a group and then use the fixed effects and random effects approaches to estimate the panel data VAR equations for Granger causality tests. The panel data causality results reveal that FDI has unidirectional effects on GDP directly and also indirectly through exports, and there also exists bidirectional causality between exports and GDP for the group. Our results indicate that the panel data causality analysis has superior results over the time-series causality analysis. Economic and policy implications of our analyses are then explored in the conclusions.     

Valuing school quality, better transport, and lower crime: evidence from house prices

Housing prices within urban areas exhibit highly localized variationthat cannot be explained solely by differences in the physicalattributes of dwellings. We consider the role of local amenitiesand disamenities in generating price variation within urbanareas, focusing on three highly policy-relevant urban issues–transportaccessibility, school quality, and crime. Our survey of therecent empirical literature highlights what is known and whatis not known on these issues, and considers the relevance andreliability of this evidence for policy design and evaluation.Although there are serious empirical challenges, we argue thatresearch on housing values based on careful research designscan offer credible estimates of the social value of place-specificattributes and amenities.     

Purchasing power parity: Granger causality tests for the yen–dollar exchange rate

The paper analyses the causality between the Japanese prices and the yen–dollar exchange rate. It explains the long-term appreciation trend of the Japanese yen and why the Japanese yen proved strong even during the economic slump of the 1990s. The paper suggests that the appreciation of the Japanese yen forced the Japanese enterprises into price reductions and productivity increases, which put a floor under the high level of the yen and, thus, initiated rounds of appreciation. This corresponds to the conjecture of a vicious (virtuous) circle of appreciation and price adaptation. Further, there is evidence that the yen-appreciation has been accommodated by the Bank of Japan’s monetary policy. This corresponds to the conjecture that the recent Japanese deflation is imposed from outside via the exchange rate.     

Asymmetric behavior of unemployment rates: Evidence from the quantile covariate unit root test

Mixed results for unemployment dynamics are reported in many studies using linear or non-linear unit root tests. A possible explanation is that the literature focuses on the average behavior of unemployment and assumes that the speed of adjustment towards its long-run equilibrium is constant, regardless of the magnitudes and signs of shocks. This paper seeks to re-examine the dynamics of the unemployment rates in terms of shocks for 12 OECD countries. A newly developed quantile unit root test by Galvao (2009) is applied to show potential asymmetric responses of unemployment to shocks over various quantiles, depending on the size and sign of the shocks that hit the unemployment rate. Our results suggest that generally, the unemployment rates are not only stationary but also exhibit obvious asymmetric behavior, in the sense that in the lower quantiles, negative shocks with large absolute value tend to induce faster speed of adjustment towards the long-run equilibrium, while in the upper quantiles, large positive shocks do not, and hysteresis exists. These findings can explain why unemployment rates display the behavior of fast rises and slow falls.     

地区差距、产业聚集与经济增长:理论及来自广东省的证据

中国经济的高速增长和地区差距的不断拉大已经成为不可回避的现实问题。从现有文献看,以新古典框架来解释地区差距及其原因是目前我国学者采用的主要理论和方法。本文以新经济地理学理论为主要框架,从产业聚集与扩散的变化来研究由此而导致的经济增长效率的不同和地区差距的变化;并以广东省为案例,运用具体指标和Granger因果检验技术,从经验上证实了核心区域的产业聚集对整个广东省经济增长的拉动效应要明显强于边缘区域,同时也导致了地区差距的扩大。     

FDI、经济增长与工业污染——基于安徽省1993—2012年数据的EKC检验

基于协整理论、格兰杰因果检验和EKC假说,考察了安徽省利用FDI发展经济背后的环境风险。研究结果显示：FDI和工业废气、工业固体废物均存在协整和因果关系,但无论在长期还是短期,FDI对工业废水排放的影响都不明显,这很大程度上取决于FDI在安徽省的行业分布状况。此外,样本期间安徽省不存在严格的“倒U”型EKC,工业废气和工业固体废物仍随着经济增长而不断增加,工业废水减排的管制效果明显,其与经济增长的关系呈“U＋倒U”型,而外资的流入则进一步加大了安徽省跨越EKC顶点的难度。     

New evidence on subjective well-being and the definition of unemployment in South Africa

Access to new nationally representative, individual-level panel data from South Africa has allowed for the revalidation of Kingdon and Knight's discussion on the definition of unemployment. This paper investigates subjective well-being as a measure of comparison between labour-market statuses. It finds that on the grounds of subjective well-being the non-searching unemployed (or ‘discouraged’) are significantly worse-off than the not economically active. Moreover, evidence suggests that, with regard to the relationship between life satisfaction and labour-market status, the non-searching unemployed consistently are the worst-off. This is especially true of both the young and senior non-searching unemployed; however, the findings are largely driven by the African subsample. This paper does not advocate for a change in the official definition of unemployment but does advocate for the inclusion and recognition of the non-searching unemployed in policy relating to labour and development in South Africa.     

我国产业结构与科技人才培养结构:1978-2005年的实证研究

文章从产业结构对科技人才培养结构影响的理论分析入手,针对两者之间的关系,首先采用格兰杰(Granger)因果关系检验方法,得出我国产业结构是科技人才培养结构的原因,而科技人才培养结构不是产业结构的原因;然后通过拓展的Dickey-Fuller检验,利用协整检验技术,说明我国的产业结构和科技人才培养结构之间不存在长期稳定的关系.     

Public expenditure and revenue in China,1990-2009

This study examines the long-ran equilibrium relationship between government expenditure and government revenue in China from 1990 to2009, using co-integration techniques. Meanwhile, it examines the direction of causality relationship between the variables through Granger causalitytest. Empirical findings show that there is a long run equilibrium relationship between govenunent exponditure and revenue. Granger causality test indi-cate there is no hi-directional causal relationship between the two variables.     

河南省金融支持、技术创新与产业结构变迁研究

河南经济发展进入加快产业转型的新阶段,如何有效利用金融发展和技术创新提升产业层次是值得研究的话题。利用河南省1987-2018年的相关数据,从金融效率、金融规模、金融结构以及技术投入和产出等角度,利用VAR模型和VEC模型,考察了金融支持和技术创新对产业结构变迁的影响。结果表明,促进金融创新,有效地将存款转换为贷款,提高短期贷款对长期贷款的比重,将有利于提高第三产业比重,从而促进产业升级。提高直接融资比重则有利于技术创新,利用技术创新能够推动产业结构合理化和高级化。     

山东省能源经济环境系统预测与动态分析

文章分别选取GDP、能源生产总量与消费总量、CO2排放量作为经济、能源和环境子系统指标,利用1995-2012年的数据构建了山东省能源经济环境系统向量自回归(VAR)模型,对1997-2015年系统状况进行动态预测,并运用Granger检验、脉冲响应函数和方差分解对其进行动态分析。结果表明:到2015年,山东省GDP、能源生产总量与消费总量、CO2排放量仍将保持较快的增长;长期来看,经济增长与碳排放存在双向Granger因果关系,从经济增长到能源消费、能源生产和能源消费到碳排放均具有单向Granger因果关系;短期内,能源生产、能源消费与经济增长之间相互促进,经济增长促进碳排放,而能源生产、能源消费和碳排放之间具有一定的相互影响。山东省应适当放缓GDP增速,并优化经济结构;发展低碳能源,优化能源消费结构;继续强化实施碳减排政策。     

Population Ageing and Saving Rates in China,Japan and Korea: A Panel Granger Causality Analysis

Abstract

The world is ageing fast and East Asia is not an exception. Among the three major East Asian countries, Japan features the eldest society in the world, while China and Korea also witness a dramatic demographic transformation. One important impact of population ageing is on saving rates. In this paper we seek to investigate the causal relationship between demographics and savings in those three countries by employing a panel of data-set and innovative econometric technique – panel Granger causality test. On balance there is evidence supporting the argument that a growing younger population causes an increase in national saving, albeit not necessarily in household saving. The results are robust against different estimation procedures and parameters.     

The growth,poverty and inequality nexus in South Africa: Cointegration and causality analysis

This study empirically established the long-run relationship and causality effects that exist between growth, poverty and inequality. The analysis was carried out on a panel of nine South African provinces from 1995 to 2012. To capture poverty and inequality in a broader context, two measures of poverty (income and non-income) and three measures of inequality (income, education and land) were adopted for the study. The results confirm that there is a long-run relationship between growth, poverty and inequality. Notable results from the causality tests suggest that growth does not promote equal distribution of income in society but as income distribution begins to equalise, economic growth rises. This is regarded as growth–inequality disconnect. The unidirectional causality, which runs from income poverty to income inequality, suggests that a rising level of income poverty will lead to falling income inequality in the society; likewise, income inequality increases as non-income poverty declines.     

重庆市财政科技投入与技术创新关系的实证研究

文章利用协整分析和Granger因果检验对1997-2012年重庆市财政科技投入与技术创新的关系进行实证检验,结果发现:尽管重庆市财政科技投入与技术创新各自都不具备平稳性,但它们之间具备长期均衡的协整关系。短期看,技术创新不是财政科技投入的Granger原因,财政科技投入是技术创新的Granger原因,两者之间的协整关系中,财政科技投入明显处于主导地位;长期关系中两者互为Granger原因。     

The dynamic linkages between current account deficit and budget balance deficit in the South Asian region

The issue of twin imbalances is at the forefront of fiscal policy concerns in the South Asian region, fuelled by an ever-going budget deficit and current account deficit over the last five decades. A standard approach is to assume a model in which budget balance influences the current account. We relax this assumption by using a panel data vector autoregression model comprising five South Asian countries. The results show that both budget deficit and current account deficit are mutually causative, which contrasts the unidirectional causality running from fiscal deficit to current account deficit found in prior studies. Further, this bi-causality relationship is also demonstrated in the impulse response analyses. Budget balance in South Asian economies responds positively to a one standard deviation positive shock in the current account balance. Likewise, external balance increases to a one standard deviation positive shock in internal balance. Higher fiscal debt impedes economic growth, which in turn impacts negatively on the budget balance. Our findings lead us to reject 'fiscal policy only' recommendations to address the twin deficits.