The real exchange rate and economic development

Recent empirical studies have found a robust correlation between competitive exchange rates and economic growth in developing economies. This paper presents (i) a formal model to help explain these findings and (ii) econometric evidence on the relation between investment and the real exchange rate. The model emphasizes the existence of (hidden) unemployment as a source of endogenous growth, even under constant returns to scale. Growth promoting policies, however, affect the external balance, and two instruments are needed in order to achieve targets for both the growth rate and the trade balance. The real exchange rate can serve as one of those instruments. The implications of the model for the relation between real exchange rates and the rate of capital accumulation find support in our econometric analysis.     

The macroeconomic determinants of academic salaries in Australia

Nominal and real salaries at Australian universities are significantly affected by the behaviour of inflation and unemployment. Australian academics are not fully compensated for inflation. High unemployment has a marked negative effect on real salaries. Predicted changes in real salaries for various combinations of inflation and unemployment, calculated from the econometric model, yield pessimistic conclusions about the future outlook for real academic salaries.     

The financial accelerator and the real economy: A small macroeconometric model for Norway with financial frictions

This paper studies the salient features of a core macro econometric model that allows for self-reinforcing co-movements between credit, asset prices and real economic activity. In contrast to the economic literature that cultivates highly stylized model representations aimed at illustrating the workings and the implications of such a feature, the model of this paper integrates two mutually reinforcing financial accelerator mechanisms within the framework of a fully-fledged core macroeconomic model. The impulse responses of such a model is in line with the ones typical of SVAR/DSGE models, though the amplitude of shocks is in most cases stronger than the ones pertaining to these kinds of models. This is due to the workings of the financial accelerators that contribute to magnify the effects of shocks to the economy. A forecast comparison undertaken between our model and an alternative macro econometric model without a financial block, suggests that financial feedback mechanisms may be forecast improving.     

Productivity Trends and the Sterling Real Exchange Rates*

This paper provides favorable econometric evidence for a productivity‐based model of the pound/euro real exchange rate. We find that a 1% increase in UK productivity is consistent with a 3.5% real depreciation of sterling. Likewise, a 1% increase in euro area productivity is compatible with a 5.16% real appreciation of sterling. The asymmetric response of UK and foreign productivity shocks corresponds well with our model if UK labor supply is more elastic than euro area labor supply. Estimates of equilibrium exchange rates suggest that sterling was not overvalued at its 2004Q3 level vis‐à‐vis the euro.     

日本对华直接投资决定因素的实证研究

运用计量模型,以1986-2007年的统计数据为基础,选取中国国内生产总值、中日双边贸易量、人民币实际汇率和中日两国实际工资差异为解释变量,针对日本对华直接投资进行实证分析,结果显示:国内生产总值、中日双边贸易量和实际汇率与日本对华直接投资正相关,实际工资差异与之负相关,且各变量均影响显著.     

The effect of natural gas discoveries in Israel on the strength of its currency

In light of the natural gas discoveries in the Mediterranean Sea and their impact on the Israeli economy, I must assess the change in the exchange rate and its impact on the foreign exchange market. There are numerous positive social impacts resulting from the gas discoveries including optimising Israel's energy security and its move to cleaner energy. However, not all of the consequences of discovering natural resources may be positive. One possibly negative outcome could be the well-known phenomenon called the “Dutch disease” in which the discovery of a natural resource can cause a country's currency to spike. To investigate whether the strengthening of the Israeli currency in recent years is a symptom of the “Dutch disease” I used daily and intraday event study methodology to explore the changes in the real exchange rate of the Israeli shekel and the US dollar between 2008 and 2017, according to announcements related to the gas discoveries published during this period. In addition, I examined whether an increase in the real exchange rate was a result of the publication of announcements about natural gas harming the manufacturing and industrial sectors. I found that announcements related to gas discoveries did affect the real exchange rate and caused an appreciation of the Israeli shekel. Investors could analyse the announcements and achieve an abnormal return in the foreign exchange market. In addition, investors' expectations of an appreciation in the real exchange rate causes damage to various manufacturing and industrial sectors.     

人民币实际汇率与中国两部门生产率差异的关系——基于巴拉萨—萨缪尔森效应的实证分析

长期实际汇率主要取决于经济的供给面,即生产率的变化,这一思想体现在巴拉萨—萨缪尔森效应的模型中。文章从巴拉萨—萨缪尔森效应的理论出发选择合适的计量模型,然后以制造业和服务业分别表示贸易品部门和非贸易品部门,通过差分回归模型和协整检验来分析人民币实际汇率与中国两部门间生产率差异之间的关系,回归结果符合巴拉萨—萨缪尔森效应的结论。在1980~2004年间,人民币实际汇率的变动趋势与中国两部门间的生产率差异变化趋势基本相符:非贸易品部门生产率提高幅度大时,人民币趋向于贬值;而贸易品部门生产率提高幅度大时,人民币实际汇率趋向于升值。     

CONTAGIOUS POLICIES: AN ANALYSIS OF SPATIAL INTERACTIONS AMONG COUNTRIES' CAPITAL ACCOUNT POLICIES

Countries' capital account policies might be contagious in the sense that domestic policies are driven by other countries' policies. A model of strategic interactions is developed to show that countries' best response to policy changes elsewhere consists in imitating this policy. Using a spatial econometric model, the hypothesis of policy interactions is tested in a large panel data set. The evidence shows that capital account policies are contemporaneously correlated across countries. Concerning fundamentals, the move to a fixed exchange rate regime and an increase in real world interest rates are correlated with the imposition of capital account restrictions.     

The empirical significance of the real balance effect

This paper investigates the empirical significance of the real-balance effect (RBE) via a small scale econometric model with real balances included in both the investment and the consumption functions. Both the method of analysis and the results differ from previous work on the RBE which investigated its impact on consumption alone. The main conclusion is that the RBE may have a significantly stronger stabilizing effect than previous empirical work would suggest. The results also suggest that policy-induced wealth effects may play a significant role in monetary policy.     

Unemployment and econometric learning

We apply well-known results of the econometric learning literature to the Mortensen and Pissarides real business cycle model. Agents can always learn the unique rational expectations equilibrium (REE), for all possible well-defined sets of parameter values, by using the minimum-state-variable solution to the model and decreasing gain learning. From this perspective the assumption of rational expectations in the model could be seen as reasonable. But using a parametrisation with UK data, simulations show that the speed of convergence to the REE is slow. This type of learning dampens the cyclical response of unemployment to small structural shocks.     

Ghana and the international cocoa market, 1956–1969 : A simulation model

This paper investigates the impact of the international cocoa market on Ghana between 1956 and 1969 by constructing and estimating an econometric model and simulating the effects of fluctuations in selected cocoa variables on her export revenue. In particular, it assesses repercussions of changes in the real incomes of major cocoa-consuming countries, of changes in the rest of the world's cocoa output, and of changes in the real price paid to Ghanaian cocoa farmers. Our results emphasize the vulnerability of Ghana to shocks emanating from the international economy, and the importance of dynamic lagged adjustment in the cocoa market.     

Plucking models of business cycle fluctuations: Evidence from the G-7 countries

Friedman's `plucking' model, in which output cannot exceed a ceiling level but is occasionally plucked downward by recessions, is tested using Kim and Nelson's formal econometric specification on output data from the G-7 countries. Considerable support for the model is obtained, leading us to conclude that during normal periods, output seems to be driven mostly by permanent shocks, but during recessions and high-growth recoveries, transitory shocks dominate. During these periods macroeconomic models that emphasise demand-oriented shocks, rather than real business cycle type models, may thus be more appropriate. First Version Received: September 2000/Final Version Received: May 2001     

The risk of falling house prices in Italy

This paper shows that Italian house market is less exposed to price shocks than the American one. Variations in the house price index in real terms have been studied along with the affordability ratio and the relation between house prices and rent levels for the period 1995–2004 in Italian provinces. Comparison with US data reveals greater overpricing in the US during the expansion phase (2000–2004). Although a speculative bubble in all US metropolitan areas considered does not emerge, US financial and economic structural factors make the US real estate sector more exposed to price shocks. To test the compatibility of Italian house prices with fundamentals an econometric model is designed to analyze the provincial house prices from 1995 to 2003.     

Population Ageing and House Prices in Australia

This article assesses the effect of population ageing on housing consumption and house prices. Using two approaches, this article finds that the ageing of the population may cause average real house prices to be between 3 and 27 per cent lower than they otherwise would be over the period 2008–2050. The first approach is an econometric estimation of house prices for Australia over the period 1980–2008. The second approach is a simulation of a life cycle‐optimising model with representative overlapping generations.     

The London Business School econometric model of the UK

This paper describes the London Business School econometric model — the first fully computerized model of the UK — which has been used for regular public forecasting since 1966. The model, estimated on quarterly data, is organized around the income expenditure accounts with a fully integrated flow of funds sector which ensures consistency between portfolio decisions and income, savings and investment decisions. Aggregate demand is built up from its individual components so that demand influences are important for the short- and medium-term behaviour of the model. But there are important supply-side effects which work through the real exchange rate and real wages. Monetary conditions have a powerfull effect on the model through the exchange rate, personal sector wealth and interest rates. Wages and employment are determined in a labour market in which employment decisions depend on the level of demand and real wages while real wages depend on the level of unemployment, real benefits and direct and indirect taxes as well as underlying trends in productivity. Asset prices move in any period to clear both the spot and the future market in assets so that current asset prices in the equity, gilt-edged and foreign exchange markets reflect all current information about the expected state of the economy. In contrast, goods prices adjust sluggishly. The combination of continuously clearing asset markets and sluggish wages and prices gives the model many of the theoretical characteristics associated with the open-economy models of Dornbusch and Buiter and Miller.     

计量经济学应用研究的可信性革命

可信性是计量经济学应用研究的重要问题,其核心在于实现经济理论、统计学、数学在实证研究中的科学结合。本文基于国际计量经济学界对可信性问题的三次大讨论取得的重要进展,厘清了计量经济学探索客观经济世界过程的本质特征;进而针对应用研究中存在的滥用和错用现象,从计量经济模型的随机性设定、经济变量之间的因果关系识别以及模型的统计适切性评价等三个方面阐述计量经济学应用研究的可靠性来源。我国计量经济学的应用研究面临进一步提高可信性的重要问题,需要全面吸收和借鉴国际计量经济学界对于可信性问题的成果,改变研究模式和教学模式。     

盈余管理的计量模型研究综述

目前存在三类盈余管理计量模型：(1)总应计利润模型；(2)具体应计利润模型；(3)盈余及应计利润分布模型。本文对这三类模型进行了分析和研究,指出当前的盈余管理计量模型还存在许多问题,尤其是在研究处于转轨经济时期的中国盈余管理问题时。同时,提出发展一种更有效的计量盈余管理模型仍然是业界重要的工作。     

Real exchange rate and exchange rate policy in Hungary

Five real exchange rate indicators are computed to assess the international competitiveness of Hungarian industry. These indicators are explained in econometric equations by employment, unemployment, productivity, interest spread and real producer wage. Causality tests reveal that external performance has an impact on real exchange rates, and contributes to explaining real exchange rates. There is very limited scope for policy intervention to constrain the negative effects of capital inflows without incurring other costs.     

Aggregravity: estimating gravity models from aggregate data

This article considers alternative methods to estimate econometric models based on bilateral data when only aggregate information on the dependent variable is available. Such methods can be used to obtain an indication of the sign and magnitude of bilateral model parameters and, more importantly, to decompose aggregate into bilateral data, which can then be used as proxy variables in further empirical analyses. We perform a Monte Carlo study and carry out a simple real world application using intra-EU trade and capital flows, showing that the methods considered work reasonably well and are worthwhile being considered in the absence of bilateral data.     

MOSES: Model for studying the economy of Sweden

MOSES is an aggregate econometric model for Sweden, estimated on quarterly data, and intended for policy simulations and short-term forecasting. After a presentation of qualitative model properties, the econometric methodology is summarized. The model properties, within sample simulations, and forecast evaluations are presented. We also address methodology and practical issues relating to building and maintaining a macro model of this type. The detailed econometric equations are reported in Appendix A.“I think it should be generally agreed that a model that does not generate many properties of actual data cannot be claimed to have any ‘policy implications’…”Clive.W. J. Granger (1992, p. 4).