Stock Prices, Output and the Monetary Regime

Should monetary policy react to stock prices? The answer depends on whether stock prices are good predictors of future economic activity. Using long annual time-series data for the G-7 countries, data going back over 150 years for some countries, we find that stock prices do not systematically predict output growth regardless of the monetary regime in effect. We also find no evidence of a nonlinear relationship between stock prices and output except during the gold standard, when stock price booms and busts had some predictive power for output growth volatility.     

Inflation and economic growth: A dynamic panel threshold analysis for Asian economies

This paper investigates the existence of a threshold level for inflation and how any such level affects the growth of Asian economies. We use a dynamic panel threshold growth regression, which allows for fixed effects and endogeneity. We observe a nonlinear relationship between inflation and economic growth for 32 Asian countries over the period 1980–2009. We detect an inflation threshold of approximately 5.43%, at a 1% level of significance. We find that inflation hurts growth when it exceeds 5.43% but has no effect below this level. Different estimation methods determine that the effect of inflation on growth is robust. Our findings may be useful to central banks as a guide for inflation targeting.     

Robust determinants of growth in Asian developing economies: A Bayesian panel data model averaging approach

This paper investigates the determinants of growth in the Asian developing economies. We use Bayesian model averaging (BMA) in the context of a dynamic panel data growth regression to overcome the uncertainty over the choice of control variables. In addition, we use a Bayesian algorithm to analyze a large number of competing models. Among the explanatory variables, we include a nonlinear function of inflation that allows for threshold effects. We use an unbalanced panel data set of 27 Asian developing countries over the period 1980–2009. Our empirical evidence on the determinants of growth suggests that an economy's investment ratio is positively correlated to growth, whereas government consumption expenditure and terms of trade are negatively correlated. We also find evidence of a nonlinear relationship between inflation and economic growth, that is, inflation impedes economic growth when it exceeds 5.43% but does not have any significant effect on growth below that level.     

Forecasting China's economic growth and inflation

Although macroeconomic forecasting forms an integral part of the policymaking process, there has been a serious lack of rigorous and systematic research in the evaluation of out-of-sample model-based forecasts of China's real GDP growth and CPI inflation. This paper fills this research gap by providing a replicable forecasting model that beats a host of other competing models when measured by root mean square errors, especially over long-run forecast horizons. The model is shown to be capable of predicting turning points and to be usable for policy analysis under different scenarios. We find that M2 supply, rather than interest rates, is a key variable for forecasting macroeconomic variables. Annual GDP growth for the next five years is predicted to be close to the 6.5% official target and a future GDP growth path is predicted to be of L-shape rather than U-shape.     

The Macro Forecasting Record of the Indonesian Financial Authorities, 2004–15

A precondition for financial authorities’ macroeconomic effectiveness is a capacity to foresee economic conditions with reasonable accuracy. This article analyses the performance of Bank Indonesia (the central bank) and Indonesia’s Ministry of Finance in forecasting real GDP growth and consumer inflation over the last decade or so. It compares the quality of their forecasts with those of international institutions, aligning the timing of these forecasts to maximise comparability. Overall, the Indonesian authorities—especially the Ministry of Finance, in its revised central government budget (APBN-P)—perform respectably against their international comparators and there is no statistically significant bias in any of the forecasts. Still, there are mild indications of an optimistic bias in forecasts of inflation and growth, and all institutions tend to miss growth slowdowns. The results raise doubts about the value of fiscal policy for near-term macro stabilisation in Indonesia. Likewise, a wide range of uncertainty in forecasting inflation complicates the use of monetary policy for inflation targeting, at least one year ahead.     

The fundamental determinants of financial integration in the European Union

The Fundamental Determinants of Financial Integration in the European Union. — This paper focuses on the fundamental determinants of the degree of financial integration in the European Union over the period 1974–1993. Using closed interest rate differentials to measure the intensity of capital controls and applying a pooled cross-section time-series approach, the authors find realized inflation, government instability and gross fixed capital formation to have a strong and significantly positive effect on the intensity of capital export controls. In addition, they expect the influence of economic and financial market structure on closed interest rate differentials to increase in the future.     

对当前我国宏观经济形势的判断及预测

通过对2000年以来我国的经济周期、投资周期、消费周期、信用周期、价格周期和对全球经济周期的分析,本文对当前中国宏观经济形势的判断和预测是:当前中国经济正处在经济周期的高位,投资要求拉动作用在减弱,产能释放所引起的生产过剩风险在增大,有可能导致经济从繁荣走向衰退;受供给面影响,通货膨胀仍会持续,但不表明经济出现过热。2008年中国经济仍将维持10.5%以上的增长速度,通货膨胀率在5%～6%之间。     

Can systemic risk measures predict economic shocks? Evidence from China

In this paper, we investigate how the systemic risk affects macroeconomic activity in China and examines the forecasting power of 12 different measures of systemic risk. Quantile regression is employed to capture the nonlinear relationship between the systemic risk and the distribution of future macroeconomic shocks. We find that the systemic risk skews the distribution of future shocks, which cannot be identified in the central tendency analysis within the traditional linear regression. In particular, when the systemic risk builds up, the risk of severe economic downturns increases while the risk of moderate economic downturns barely changes. When comparing the forecasting power of different systemic risk measures, we use both a fixed rolling window and a time-varying method to make the result robust. We find that, of the 12 widely used measures, 8 demonstrate significant predictability for subsequent shocks to economic growth in China and can thus serve as early warning signals.     

Reactions to Shocks and Monetary Policy Regimes: Inflation Targeting Versus Flexible Currency Board in Sub‐Saharan Africa

The paper examines the monetary policy actions through which central banks in sub‐Saharan Africa have tried to eliminate the negative impacts of the shocks facing their economies. We compare two different monetary policy regimes: a currency board regime (in the CFA zone) and an inflation targeting policy regime (Ghana and South Africa) when central banks respond to demand, supply, and fiscal shocks. We extend the usual forecasting and policy analysis system models to replicate the economic features of these economies during the period 2002–12 and to evaluate the impact of several policies in response to these shocks. We find that both policies are inappropriate in helping the economies escape from the effects of negative demand shocks, both are essential when negative shocks to primary balance occur, while inflation targeting dominates the currency board regime as a strategy to cope with positive shocks to inflation.     

Aid and economic growth in LDCs: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

This paper uses a disaggregated cross-national time-series aid data and a Least Squares Dummy Variables (LSDV) model to investigate the effects of aid on economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. We find that, contrary to what some critics of aid argue, aid has a small but positive and significant effect on economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. A simultaneous equation specification of the model shows that aid affects economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa directly and indirectly through increased domestic savings and investment.     

An evaluation of Chinese macroeconomic forecasts

This article evaluates the quality of professional macroeconomic forecasts in China for the years 1995–2009. Using a large panel of forecasts on four macroeconomic variables (GDP, inflation, consumption and investment), we reject the hypothesis of unbiasedness, and find that forecasters have been, on average, overly pessimistic. The source of the bias lies primarily in forecasters' slow adjustment to structural shocks to the level of economic growth. We also reject the hypothesis that forecasters use information efficiently, and find that a large number of forecasters overreact to economic news. Finally, we document large differences of forecast accuracy across both forecasters and variables.     

Does rapid economic growth enhance democratization? Time-series evidence from high performing Asian economies

We examine the long-run relationship between economic growth and democratization for the high performing Asian economies using a time-series technique called the autoregressive distributive lag bounds test. For all eight of such economies, we do not find a statistically significant long-run relationship running from growth to democratization. Instead, we find a statistically significant long-run relationship running from democratization to growth, which can be either positive or negative. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, our results suggest that rapid economic growth in the high performing Asian economies appears to have little effect on democratization in the long run.     

汇率制度选择和宏观经济绩效——基于面板数据的分析:1990～2005

学界曾普遍达成共识,对熨平资本市场波动而言,固定汇率制度表现更优;而浮动汇率制度更有利于商品市场层面的波动调整。然而在亚洲、俄罗斯、巴西及阿根廷经历金融危机后,对不同汇率制度属性的研究重新兴起。伴随着30多年的对外开放,我国汇率制度实质上经历了4个阶段的演变。基于国内外学者的相关研究,作者分别应用面板数据分析和Probit模型对各种汇率制度的表现和我国政府的汇率选择行为展开实证研究。我们认为,对人民币汇率制度选择的研究首先应建立在深入考察中国宏观经济现实的基础之上,中国的汇率制度改革应与宏观经济运行的基本面相契合。     

China's ‘New Normal’: Is the growth slowdown demand- or supply-driven?

China's ‘New Normal’ has been much discussed in recent years. An important aspect of the New Normal is the growth slowdown from levels of around 10% per annum to a more modest 6 or 7%. Not surprisingly, there has been widespread discussion of whether the slowdown is permanent or not and, in either case, what the sources of the slowdown are. However, much of this discussion has been based on informal analysis of the data rather than formal econometric results. We make a move in the direction of formal empirical analysis of this issue by estimating and simulating a vector autoregressive (VAR) model which distinguishes between demand, supply and foreign shocks as possible drivers of changes in economic growth. We analyse both two-variable (growth and inflation) and three-variable (foreign growth, domestic growth and inflation) VAR models and identify demand, supply and foreign shocks, using a modification of the Blanchard-Quah identification procedure. In the two-variable model we identify two shocks (demand and supply) and find that the slowdown since the GFC has been mainly supply-driven. This conclusion is not changed when a foreign growth variable is added to the model and a foreign shock is allowed for – we find that demand continues to be of relatively little importance, that the foreign shock also makes little contribution to explaining the long-run growth decline in China which continues to be driven by long-term supply factors. This conclusion is robust to a number of alternative formulations of the model. Thus, the growth slowdown may, indeed, be characterised as the ‘New Normal’.     

Nowcasting South African gross domestic product using a suite of statistical models

Given lags in the release of data, a central bank must ‘nowcast’ current gross domestic product (GDP) using available quarterly or higher frequency data to understand the current state of economic activity. This paper uses various statistical modelling techniques to draw on a large number of series to nowcast South African GDP. We also show that GDP volatility has increased markedly over the last 5 years, making GDP forecasting more difficult. We show that all the models developed, as well as the Reserve Bank's official forecasts, have tended to overestimate GDP growth over this period. However, several of the statistical nowcasting models we present in this paper provide competitive nowcasts relative to the official Reserve Bank and market analysts' nowcasts.     

外汇储备激增的后果及对策

近年来,我国外汇储备增长过快,外汇储备规模已经位居世界第一。庞大的外汇储备在体现我国经济实力的同时,也给我国经济发展带来了诸多负面影响。本文正是对我国外汇储备持续过快增长的经济后果进行研究。研究发现,外汇储备激增会带来储备的持有成本过高、加大人民币升值压力、引发通货膨胀和降低货币政策有效性等负面影响。为了解决我国外汇储备持续过快增长的问题,本文提出了调整外汇储备的结构、改变原有盲目鼓励出口和招商引资的政策、进一步完善我国外汇管理体制和建立新的外汇管理机构等对策。     

Inflation expectations and the recovery from the Great Depression in Germany

A regime shift toward increased inflation expectations is credited with jump-starting the recovery from the Great Depression in the United States. What role did inflation expectations play in Germany that experienced a similarly successful economic upturn in the 1930s? We study inflation expectations in the German recovery across several methods: we conduct a narrative study of media sources; we estimate inflation expectations from a factor-augmented vector autoregression model, real interest rate forecasts, and quantitative news series. Consistently across these approaches, we do not find a shift to increased expected inflation. This recovery was different, and its causes lie elsewhere.     

FORECASTING SOUTH AFRICAN INFLATION

This paper looks at what variables are useful for forecasting inflation starting in 1990. I show that the output gap, a measure of real economic conditions, does seem to provide useful information for forecasting inflation. This is good news for the Reserve Bank, since the primary way that the Reserve Bank tries to affect future inflation is through real economic conditions. In addition, short‐term interest rates and import price inflation also seem to provide useful information. The most accurate of these forecasts suggests a root mean square forecast error of 1–2 per cent for 1‐year ahead inflation, which is within the Reserve Bank's current target range.     

Determinants of economic growth in China: Private enterprise,education, and openness

This essay investigates the source of cross-provincial variations of economic growth in China. A statistical analysis of data on 29 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions from 1978 through 1989 confirms the findings in the literature of empirical studies of economic growth based upon cross-country empirical analyses, and uncovers some characteristics unique to China. We find that private and semi-private enterprises, higher education and international trade all lead to an increase in economic growth in China. We also find that high fertility, high inflation, and the presence of state-owned enterprises (SOE) reduce growth rates among the provinces. Finally, our evidence indicates that the convergence hypothesis holds in China.     

Productivity and convergence in India: A state-level analysis

Total factor productivity plays an important role in the growth of the Indian economy. Using state-level data from 1993 to 2005 that were recently made available, we find widespread regional variation in productivity changes. In the years immediately following economic liberalization, productivity growth improved technical efficiency; however, in subsequent years, productivity growth was propelled by technological progress. We find a tendency toward convergence with regard to productivity growth among states; however, the states that were technically efficient when the economic reforms were instituted remained innovative in later years.