积极财政政策的可持续性分析

本文分别从当前宏观经济形势、我国政府债务风险和公共部门投资的挤出效应三个方面考察了我国积极财政政策的可持续性。认为我国当前的经济形势下 ,积极财政政策的淡出还为时尚早 ;我国单纯的国债风险并不高 ,但是我国政府的综合债务风险却相当大 ,控制我国综合债务风险的关键是控制存量 ;我国公共部门对民间投资的挤出效应不明显 ,当前民间投资不活跃的主要原因是另一种“挤出效应” ,即对民间投资的歧视和限制 ,要改变这种情况的主要方法是改革     

A Comparative‐Advantage Approach to Government Debt Maturity

We study optimal government debt maturity in a model where investors derive monetary services from holding riskless short‐term securities. In a setting where the government is the only issuer of such riskless paper, it trades off the monetary premium associated with short‐term debt against the refinancing risk implied by the need to roll over its debt more often. We extend the model to allow private financial intermediaries to compete with the government in the provision of short‐term money‐like claims. We argue that, if there are negative externalities associated with private money creation, the government should tilt its issuance more toward short maturities, thereby partially crowding out the private sector's use of short‐term debt.     

Some dynamic theory of macroeconomic policy effects on income and prices under the government budget restraint

Consider a macroeconomic model with constant capacity, an inflation adjustment process depending on excess demand, a government budget restraint, and plausible assumptions. Steady-state equilibrium paths have constant (possibly zero) inflation rates. Stability is assured if the endogenous policy variable is money, government purchase, or the tax rate; if it is government debt instability is assured (contrary to Blinder-Solow). Exogenous increases in money or government purchases raise prices in the short and long run. An open market purchase raises prices in the short run, but if money is endogenous it reduces money and prices in the long run.     

政府债务增加降低了企业杠杆吗?

本文利用2010-2016年中国A股上市非金融企业的面板数据,实证检验了政府债务对企业杠杆的影响。结果表明,随着政府债务的扩张,企业杠杆率有所下降,同时相比于投资者投资组合对企业债券融资的挤出路径,政府部门对企业信贷融资的挤出路径影响更强。进一步研究发现,在不同地区和不同类型企业之间存在异质性,在股票市场发展较不完善的地区、对金融机构贷款依赖较高的地区和金融开放度较低的地区,挤出效应相对较强;在小规模企业、非国有企业和非从事公用事业的企业,挤出效应相对较强。在现阶段发展的背景下,地方政府应合理控制债务规模,在实现稳增长的同时减少对民营企业融资资金的挤占,重点关注国有企业的杠杆问题,发挥市场在资源配置中的作用。     

地方政府债券置换对银行信贷及货币供给的影响

通过构建基于商业银行资产负债结构的地方债置换分析框架,研究表明,地方债置换将通过商业银行资产结构在贷款与债券之间的配置调整影响货币供给,它将使银行可贷资金增加,并导致贷款规模的变化,在贷款创造存款的信用放大机制下,引起货币供应量的变化,进而造成货币政策的扩张(收缩).贷款市场的供求弹性将决定地方债置换的扩张效应或收缩效应.在经济增长放缓、银行为弥补持有地方债收益下降、地方债纳入货币政策工具的抵押品和质押品范围的情况下,地方债置换具有货币政策扩张效应.为减少地方债对金融市场的冲击,央行需密切监测商业银行资金运用情况,提高货币政策操作的针对性,并加强同财政政策的协同配合.     

地方公共债务与资本回报率——来自新口径债务数据和三重机制检验的经验证据

资本回报率对于理解我国经济运行具有重要意义。本文通过匹配2006-2015年地级市层面的新口径债务数据和资本回报率数据,实证检验了地方公共债务扩张对资本回报率的影响效应及其地区异质性表现,并从宏观、中观和微观三个角度开展作用机制分析。研究发现:第一,地方公共债务扩张对我国宏观资本回报率产生了负面影响,此影响在经过一系列稳健性检验后依然存在;第二,地方公共债务的扩张通过降低基础设施投资效率、提高房地产业投资占比和挤出企业投资产生影响;第三,上述负面影响在非城市群、非大中城市和土地融资依赖度更高的城市表现更为突出。以上结论为深化地方政府投融资体制改革提供了政策参考,未来应注重债务资金的绩效管理和使用效率,促进经济高质量发展。     

FISCAL DEFICITS AND MACROECONOMIC PERFORMANCE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Although fiscal adjustment was urged on developing countriesduring the 1980s to lead them out of economic malaise, considerableuncertainty remains about the relations between fiscal policyand macroeconomic performance. To illustrate how financial markets,private spending, and the external sector react to fiscal policies,the behavior of holdings of money and public debt, private consumptionand investment, the trade balance, and the real exchange rateis modeled for a sample of ten developing countries. The studiesfind strong evidence that over the medium term, money financingof the deficit leads to higher inflation, while debt financingleads to higher real interest rates or increased repressionof financial markets, with the fiscal gains coming at increasinglyunfavorable terms. Consumers respond differently to conventionaltaxes, unconventional taxes (through inflation or interest andcredit controls), and debt financing, in ways that make fiscaladjustment the most effective means of increasing national saving.Private investment—but not private consumption—issensitive to the real interest rate, which rises under domesticborrowing to finance the deficit. Contrary to the popular presumption,in some countries private investment increases when public investmentdecreases. There is strong evidence that fiscal deficits spillover into external deficits, leading to appreciation of thereal exchange rate. Fiscal deficits and growth are self-reinforcing:good fiscal management preserves access to foreign lending andavoids the crowding out of private investment, while growthstabilizes the budget and improves the fiscal position. Thevirtuous circle of growth and good fiscal management is oneof the strongest arguments for a policy of low and stable fiscaldeficits.      

Why does capital structure choice vary with macroeconomic conditions?

We develop a computable general equilibrium model explaining financing over the business cycle. To avert agency conflicts, managers must hold a high percentage of their firm's equity. During contractions, firms substitute debt for equity in order to maintain managerial equity shares. During expansions, risk-sharing improves, with increases in managerial wealth facilitating substitution of equity for debt. In calibrated simulations, (counter) cyclical variation in leverage is only exhibited by less constrained firms. All firms exhibit financial accelerator effects. However, the effect is decreasing in financial flexibility. The model's predictions regarding financing and investment are consistent with empirical evidence.     

债务置换改善了地方政府债务可持续性吗？

2015年后实施的债务置换对地方政府债务可持续性的影响值得关注。为此,将债务置换作为准自然实验,以2008—2020年285个城市为样本,检验债务置换对债务可持续性的影响。结果发现：债务置换对隐性债务和经济增长产生了双重不利影响。其一,债务置换降低债务利息负担,拉长债务期限,虽然缓解了流动性风险,但债务置换助长地方政府道德风险,强化金融机构救助预期,导致隐性债务继续增加,总体上不利于债务可持续性。其二,债务置换产生明显挤出效应,也降低了地方政府债务支出效率,损害了经济增长,同样不利于债务可持续性。鉴于此,应重点防范债务置换过程中产生的负面作用,以提高地方政府债务治理的有效性。     

Demand and supply functions for money in Canada: Some further evidence

The demand and supply functions for money in Canada are estimated in a simultaneous-equation model format in which the supply of money is considered endogenous. The results indicate that the important determinants of the demand for money are income, short-term interest rate and lagged real cash balance variables. Wealth is an unimportant explanatory variable in money demand thus rejecting the hypothesis that an increase in outside wealth increases the demand for money. The monetary base and cash reserve ratio are important explanatory variables in the money supply function and play a direct role in monetary control.     

Factors affecting monetary policy in an era of inflation

A money supply-reaction function is developed and estimated within the context of an IS-LM framework to test the responsiveness of the Federal Reserve to the government budget restraint and certain parameters of the model. The results reveal that a large portion of the recent expansion of the monetary base may be attributed to increases in government debt and provide an essential first step in quantifying the inflationary impact of deficits. The monetary base is also expanded in response to increases in inflationary expectations and previous increases in the monetary base, but is not statistically correlated to changes in the unemployment rate or potential national income, or to rises in interest rates caused by sources other than higher inflationary expectations, previous monetary policy, or the Treasury borrowing requirement.     

Money as stock

The fiscal theory determines the price level from the value of nominal government debt as a claim to government primary surpluses, just as private stock is valued as a claim to corporate profits. Valuation equations are not constraints, so this theory does not mistreat the government's intertemporal budget constraint. I anchor the analysis in a simple cash in advance model. When money demand falls to zero, I show that the price level can still be determined by the government debt valuation equation.     

On the joint determination of fiscal and monetary policy

The conduct of fiscal and monetary policy absent commitment depends on the interaction between the objective of smoothing distortions intertemporally and a time-consistency problem. When net nominal government obligations are positive, both fiscal and monetary policies are distortionary and the choice of debt depends on how the anticipated response in future monetary policy affects the current demand for money and bonds. There exists a unique steady state with positive net nominal government obligations, which is stable and time-consistent. For any initial level of debt, the welfare loss due to lack of commitment is small.     

The zero-leverage phenomenon: A bivariate probit with partial observability approach

The empirical literature on zero leverage investigates why some firms are debt-free using standard logit and probit specifications. However, such models are not suitable to provide a direct answer to the main research question that arises in this context: is zero leverage a financial decision of the firm or an imposition raised by creditors? This paper examines the factors that affect the demand for debt and the supply of debt using bivariate probit models with partial observability in the sense of Poirier (1980), providing empirical evidence on the zero-leverage phenomenon for European listed firms during the period 2001-2016. We find that some variables influence in opposite directions debt demand and supply, or affect significantly only of them. In particular, firms’ profitability affects negatively debt demand but positively debt supply; asset tangibility increases the willingness of creditors to grant debt but does not influence debt demand; and the recent European crises reduced the propensity of firms to resort to debt but did not affect debt supply. We also find that firms in countries with common law systems, market-based financial systems and stronger protection to investors’ and creditors’ rights are more prone to have zero leverage due to both demand and supply effects.     

The impact of government deficits on money growth in developing countries

This paper investigates the relationship between government budget deficits and money growth in the developing countries for which reliabile data exist. It is sometimes suggested that it is more likely that money growth follows debt growth in developing countries, due to the embryonic state of capital markets and because the central bank generally comes under direct control of the minister of finance. Our results provide only mixed support for this contention, however. In the majority of countries in our sample there is no evidence that government deficits affect money growth. For high-inflation years there seems to be more support for a relationship between deficits and money growth.     

Revisiting the supply side effects of government spending

We revisit the macroeconomic effects of government consumption in the neoclassical growth model when agents face uninsured idiosyncratic investment risk. Under complete markets, a permanent increase in government consumption has no long-run effect on interest rates and capital intensity, while it increases work hours due to the negative wealth effect. These results are upset once we allow for incomplete markets. The same negative wealth effect now causes a reduction in risk taking and the demand for investment. This leads to a lower risk-free rate and, under certain conditions, also to a lower capital-labor ratio and lower productivity.     

Wealth Distribution, Inflation Tax, and Societal Benefits of Illiquid Bonds

Illiquid nominal government bonds are shown to have two opposing effects on welfare. First, the relatively poor choose to top-up money balances for future consumption by purchasing nominal bonds at a discount. The wealth distribution becomes more centered with a smaller consumption deviation from the first best. Second, the higher inflation tax on monetary wealth to finance interest payments makes money less valuable, so that the quantity of output produced in exchange for money decreases. The trade-off between the welfare-enhancing effect on wealth distribution and the distortionary effect on output implies the socially optimal discount rate and liquidity.     

Rational expectations forecasts from nonrational models

This paper puts forward a method of policy simulation with an existing macroeconometric model under the maintained assumption that individuals form their expectations rationally. This new simulation technique grows out of Lucas' criticism that standard econometric policy evaluation permits policy rules to change but doesn't allow expectations mechanisms to respond as economic theory predicts they will. The technique is applied to versions of the St. Louis Federal Reserve model and the Federal Reserve-MIT-Penn (FMP) model to simulate the effects of different constant money growth policies. The results of these simulations indicate that the problem identified by Lucas may be of great quantitative importance in the econometric analysis of policy alternatives.     

Perverse liquidity effect of monetary policy: some evidence for India

The liquidity effect of money supply increases, as policy-oriented measures, would generally lead to a decline in interest rates. This is the direct effect. However, such money supply increases lead to a sum of the direct effect plus the positive indirect price and income effects. In sum, the net effect may be positive leading to a net increase and not a decrease in the interest rate. The regular money demand function is suitably modified to capture the structural changes of the Indian economy to verify the net effect of monetary policy-induced money supply movements. The empirical evidence indicates the presence of a perverse liquidity effect.     

Funding advantage and market discipline in the Canadian banking sector

We employ a comprehensive data set and a variety of methods to provide evidence on the magnitude of large banks’ funding advantage in Canada in addition to the extent to which market discipline exists across different securities issued by the Canadian banks. The banking sector in Canada provides a unique setting in which to examine market discipline along with the prospects of proposed reforms because Canada has no history of government bailouts, and an implicit government guarantee has been in effect consistently since the 1920s. We find that large banks have a funding advantage over small banks after controlling for bank-specific and market risk factors. Large banks on average pay 80 basis points and 70 basis points less, respectively, on their deposits and subordinated debt. Working with hand-collected market data on debt issues by large banks, we also find that market discipline exists for subordinated debt and not for senior debt.