Business Cycle Asymmetries and Nonlinearity in UAE Macroeconomic Time Series

This study investigates the dynamic behaviour of macroeconomic time series variables of the United Arab Emirates. We first examined whether there are non‐Gaussian characteristics associated with the macroeconomic variables of the United Arab Emirates. Through application of the BDS nonlinearity test, our results indicated that there is a substantial nonlinear dependence in the data set for all the variables. We also assessed the asymmetric behaviour of these variables by exploring whether they exhibit two particular forms of asymmetry, which are deepness and steepness asymmetries. These results have shown that there is no empirical evidence of business cycle asymmetry in all the variables at any conventional level of significance in the sample period. Also, through application of further robust testing, our findings indicate the presence of pro‐cyclical asymmetry in some of the variables and at the same time indicate the presence of asymmetries in the volatility.     

Testing For and Dating Common Breaks in Multivariate Time Series

This paper develops methods for constructing asymptotically valid confidence intervals for the date of a single break in multivariate time series, including I(0) , I(1) , and deterministically trending regressors. Although the width of the asymptotic confidence interval does not decrease as the sample size increases, it is inversely related to the number of series which have a common break date, so there are substantial gains to multivariate inference about break dates. These methods are applied to two empirical examples: the mean growth rate of output in three European countries, and the mean growth rate of U.S. consumption, investment, and output.     

Political Instability and Economic Growth: UK Time Series Evidence

This paper tests for the influence of political instability on UK economic growth between 1961 and 1997. We construct six variables that quantify political instability and examine the effect on growth. The results suggest that there is a strong link. GARCH‐M models reveal negative effects of instability on growth and positive effects on growth uncertainty. Uncertainty in itself does not affect growth.     

中国宏观经济时序的平稳性再考察——内生突变与平滑转换

对宏观变量是由确定性趋势所主导还是由随机趋势所主导的区分涉及预测精度以及潜在数据生成过程的认知理念等问题,本文意在指出若将结构变化包括在内单位根观念的认知需要扭转。具体地,文章用傅里叶级数拟合经济时序,与先前研究不同的是在处理突变方式上把对突变位置和突变方式的估计转化为恰当频率的选择问题。对中国15个代表性宏观时序的考察表明,视大多宏观变量为平滑转换的趋势平稳过程更为合适。     

Unit and Fractional Roots at the Long Run and the Seasonal Frequencies in Macroeconomic Time Series

In this article, we show that macroeconomic time series may contain unit and fractional roots at both, at zero and at zero and at the seasonal frequencies. The importance of the root at the long run or zero frequency requires in many cases to consider this root at both, separately in an independent polynomial, and also included in the seasonal one. Several Monte Carlo experiments are conducted to examine cases when the root at the zero frequency is not appropriately considered. An empirical application based on the tests of Robinson, Peter M. “Efficient Tests of Nonstationary Hypotheses,” Journal of the American Statistical Association, 89, 1994, pp. 1420–37 is also carried out at the end of the article.The author gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Government of Navarra (“Ayudas de Formación e Investigación y Desarrollo”).     

Testing Growth Convergence with Time Series Data— a non-parametric approach

A non-parametric time series testing is suggested to analyse the convergence of international output per-capita gaps. Non-parametric tests are based on signs and ranks of time series properties of output differences. The methods are applied to logs of USA percapita income differences for 16 OECD countries from 1900-97. In contrast to the results obtained by Bernard & Durlauf (1995) for the period 1900-87, convergence of output gaps was evident for the majority of countries. However, the trends in 1970-97 and 1987-97 are noticeably more complicated than the homogeneous convergence found in the pre-1970 period. The results indicate that widening USA gaps are now more likely to emerge than steady-state or narrowing gaps.     

The Importance of Time‐Series Extrapolation for Macroeconomic Expectations

This article presents a simple experiment on how laypeople form macroeconomic expectations. Subjects have to forecast inflation and gross domestic product growth. By varying the information provided in different treatments, we can assess the importance of historical time‐series information vs. information acquired outside the experimental setting such as knowledge of expert forecasts. It turns out that the availability of historical data has a dominant impact on expectations and wipes out the influence of outside‐lab information completely. Consequently, backward‐looking behavior can be identified unambiguously as a decisive factor in expectation formation.     

利率冲击、资本流动与经济波动——基于非对称性视角的分析

本文回顾了过去十几年美国利率调整与中国相关宏观经济变量的关系,发现美国的加息和减息政策对中国资本流动规模产生了明显的非对称性影响。本文运用一个包含名义价格黏性和抵押担保约束两类摩擦的小国DSGE模型来深入分析外国利率冲击的传导和作用机制,并利用抵押担保条件的偶然紧约束特性来解释利率冲击所造成的宏观经济非对称性,然后使用粒子滤波方法进一步验证、测算了偶然紧约束所造成的非对称资本流动规模。研究表明,外国利率的上升和下降将分别导致企业家部门抵押担保约束处于收紧与松弛的不同状态,并通过金融摩擦机制造成本国非对称的资本流动;运用实际数据与反事实估计,本文发现中国宏观经济存在非常明显的非对称现象,在2011年间偶然紧的抵押担保约束导致每季度资本净流入的规模减少了接近5000亿元人民币。     

Time-Frequency Analysis for Nonstationary Time Series

Non-stationary time series are a frequently observed phenomenon in several applied fields, particularly physics, engineering and economics. The conventional way of analysing such series has been via stationarity inducing filters. This can interfere with the intrinsic features of the series and induce distortions in the spectrum. To avert this possibility, it might be a better alternative on occasions to proceed directly with the series via the so-called time-varying spectrum. This article outlines the circumstances under which such an approach is possible, drawing attention to the practical applicability of these methods. Several methods are discussed and their relative advantages and drawbacks delineated.

     

Testing for rational expectations in the UK National Lottery

The concept of rational expectations has typically been assumed, without testing, in the analysis of consumer demand and market efficiency in betting markets, including betting on lottery games. Lottery games offer an excellent opportunity to test how participants process the information that is available to them. Using the UK National Lottery as our particular case, we find that participants, in general, efficiently process available information. Specifically, they act as if they can, on average, forecast the level of sales for a given drawing.     

Time Deformation in UK Consumers' Expenditure

Cook, Holly and Turner recently developed a hypothesis of a positive relationship between the durability of consumers' expenditure and the asymmetric behaviour it exhibits. Supportive evidence was found by applying Sichel's tests of business cycle asymmetry to the component series of UK consumers' expenditure, which represent goods of differing durability. In this paper the relationship is re‐examined using the original data, by implementing Stock's diagnostic tests of time deformation. The results provide further support for the durability–asymmetry hypothesis.     

Testing for Seasonal Stability in Unemployment Series: International Evidence

Recently, it has been shown that seasonal and business cycles are related and a similar economic mechanism is at work in producing both types of cycles (Miron 1996). Thus, an analysis of seasonal fluctuations sheds light on the nature of the business cycle. This paper uses the classical test developed by Hylleberg et al. and the LM-type tests proposed by Canova and Hansen (1995) to investigate seasonal behavior in the unemployment series of Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, the US and a number of OECD countries. The main findings are that the Australian, Austrian and Canadian series are non-stationary at all seasonal frequencies, French, Japan, the NZ and the UK series are stationary at all seasonal frequencies and the USA series is stationary only at the annual frequency. The test results for other series are mixed, suggesting that further analysis is required to reach a definite conclusion. The series, except for France, Japan, New Zealand and the UK, appear to possess unstable seasonal patterns, indicating changing business cycle conditions.     

中国宏观经济和金融总量结构变化及因果关系研究

宏观经济和金融总量是否平稳是研究总量动态特征以及总量之间关系的前提。本文在考虑经济中结构变化的基础上对中国宏观经济和金融总量的时序列是具有单位根的非平稳还是分段趋势平稳进行了研究,结果发现在检验的10个总量中,有6个,即实际GDP、人均实际GDP、就业、实际银行信贷、实际储蓄负债和实际固定投资等总量的时序列是围绕着1个或2个结构断点的分段趋势平稳。分段趋势平稳的结论对于政策主导下的长期经济发展战略和短期经济稳定措施是否有效,以及总量之间关系的研究具有重要的启示。在单位根检验结果的基础上,本文还对消除趋势后的分段趋势平稳总量之间的因果关系进行了分析。     

Macroeconomic impacts of fiscal policy shocks in the UK: A DSGE analysis

This paper develops and estimates a new-Keynesian dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model for the analysis of fiscal policy in the UK. We find that government consumption and investment yield the highest GDP multipliers in the short-run, whereas capital income tax and public investment have dominating effect on GDP in the long-run. When nominal interest rate is at the zero lower bound, consumption taxes and public consumption and investment are found to be the most effective fiscal instruments throughout the analysed horizon, and capital and labour income taxes are established to be the least effective. The paper also shows that the effectiveness of fiscal policy decreases in a small open-economy scenario and that nominal rigidities improve effectiveness of public spending and consumption taxes, whereas decrease that of income taxes.     

Some Basic Issues in Time Series Modelling

Journal of Quantitative Economics - The notion of individual freedom has been around in economics for a long time. The formal analysis of individual freedom in welfare economics, however, is of...     

Visualising Time: A Compendium of Time Series Plots

Graphs are important for highlighting relationships within a data series or across several series. Modern computer software has provided flexibility in the construction of graphic displays that would have been impossible with the tools that were available to researchers only a few decades ago. This article illustrates a variety of different graphical presentations for time ordered or time series data that can now be constructed. These include time series plots, bar charts, range plots, radar charts, scatter plots, heat maps and seasonality plots. For each graph type presented, we discuss the best practice for their construction.     

A Macroeconomic Stabilization Game: Design,Development, and Testing

The author describes a computer game involving macroeconomic stabilization policy. Students are asked to take the part of government in manipulating tax rates, expenditures, monetary policy in an attempt to influence employment and inflation in an open economy.     

Time to default in the UK mortgage market

This paper employs duration analysis to investigate the timing of default in the UK mortgage market. Our analysis is performed on an ex ante basis, in that our explanatory variables are available to mortgage lenders when the loan is first made. We estimate both standard Weibull distributions and generalizations of the Weibull that permit non-monotonic hazard functions. The models fit the data well, suggesting that we have captured the major sources of variation in duration. We find that ‘cash flow’ variables, such as salary and interest rate paid, play the largest role. Surprisingly, loan-to-value ratios are either insignificant or influence default times in a counter-intuitive direction.