Financial Development,Interest Rate Liberalization,and Macroeconomic Volatility

This article examines the relationship between financial development, interest rate liberalization, and macroeconomic volatility in fifty-six emerging and developed economies over the period 1980–2009. We find that financial development plays a significant role in dampening the volatility of macroeconomic growth rate, but up to a limit. The more the interest rate is liberalized, the more likely that financial development can stabilize the economy. Particularly, interest rate liberalization has a more positive influence on emerging and developing countries. Financial development and interest rate liberalization can also alleviate the influence of external shocks. They mutually enhance their functions as economic stabilizers.     

The determinants of private capital flow volatility in Sub-Saharan African countries

The study investigates the underlying factors of patterns of volatility for FDI, portfolio equity and cross-border bank lending inflows for sub-Saharan African countries using a panel framework with data from 1990 to 2011. No other study has focussed exclusively on sub-Saharan Africa when investigating the determinants of private capital flow volatility. This study is further unique in that it employs clearly-delineated cross-border bank lending data from the Bank of International Settlements’ (BIS) Locational Banking Statistics that has not been used by similar prior studies. The findings of the study are as follows: (1) global liquidity lowers FDI volatility while private sector credit increases volatility; (2) global liquidity increases portfolio equity volatility with growth and the quality of macroeconomic policies found to be important pull factors in lowering volatility; and (3) the quality of macroeconomic policies and trade openness are important pull factors in lowering cross-border bank lending volatility while financial openness increases volatility.     

Uncertainty and international debt maturity

This paper shows that high macroeconomic volatility, lax rule of law, and inefficient bureaucracy in foreign countries contributes to a tilt toward short-term maturity of international debt. The results are important as short-term debt has been linked to several financial crises in recent years. The paper explores factors that contribute to short-term lending. The results are obtained using data on international lending by three groups of U.S. banks: large, medium-sized, and small. The effect of uncertainty on debt maturity is particularly strong in emerging economies and for smaller banks.     

International linkages and macroeconomic news effects on interest rate volatility — Australia and the US

We examine international linkages between daily time series of US and Australian 3-month treasury bills and 10-year government bonds from 1987–1995, paying particular attention to the effects of macroeconomic announcements in both countries. The two countries' interest rate data are modeled by a bivariate exponential generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (EGARCH) formulation. The results suggest that market participants believed the Reserve Bank of Australia targeted the consumer price index (CPI), while the Federal Reserve targeted economic activity. Monetary policy announcements had significant effects on interest rates, as well as on their volatility in the short term. US macroeconomic activity announcements significantly moved Australian interest rates, particularly at the short end. Australian interest rates moved significantly in response to the previous day's US interest rate shocks. The conditional volatility of the Australian interest rate changes was also significantly influenced by lagged US interest rate shocks, as well as by surprises in US macroeconomic announcements. Some macroeconomic news announcements raised conditional volatilities, while others reduced them. Overall, there was a remarkable and complex array of linkages between the two countries.     

Macroeconomic risks and REITs returns: A comparative analysis

We study the relationship between the excess returns of REITs and volatilities of macroeconomic factors in developing markets (Bulgaria and South Africa) and a ‘benchmark’ developed market (USA). As expected, our results generally indicate that conditional volatilities of macroeconomic risks, extracted through the GARCH (1,1) process, are time-varying. GARCH coefficients are largely significant for excess returns and retained principal components implying conditional time-varying volatility. We use the GMM to examine the linkage between volatilities of macroeconomic variables and REITs returns. The general result here is that macroeconomic risk cannot explain excess returns on REITs. However, we document a positive relationship between variability in REITs returns and the real economy for the US. US REITs portfolio managers and investors should be wary of fluctuations in these variables as they may accentuate volatility in REITs returns.     

Growth and volatility

Growth and volatility correlate negatively across countries, but positively across sectors. Analytically, whether or not sectoral growth and volatility are correlated positively is irrelevant in the aggregate. Cross-country estimates identify the detrimental effects of macroeconomic volatility on growth, but they cannot be used to dismiss theories implying a positive growth-volatility coefficient, which appear to hold in sectoral data. In particular, volatile sectors command high investment rates, as they would in a mean-variance framework.     

Macroeconomic volatility and external imbalances

Does macroeconomic volatility/uncertainty affects accumulation of net foreign assets? In OECD economies over the period 1970–2012, changes in country specific aggregate volatility are, after controlling for a wide array of factors, significantly positively associated with net foreign asset position. A standard open economy model with time varying macroeconomic uncertainty can quantitatively account for this relationship. The key mechanism is precautionary motive: more uncertainty induces residents to save more, and higher savings are in part channeled into foreign assets. Data and theory suggest that volatility is an important determinant of the medium/long run evolution of external imbalances in developed countries.     

The Stochastic Volatility of Short-Term Interest Rates: Some International Evidence

This paper estimates a stochastic volatility model of short-term riskless interest rate dynamics. Estimated interest rate dynamics are broadly similar across a number of countries and reliable evidence of stochastic volatility is found throughout. In contrast to stock returns, interest rate volatility exhibits faster mean-reverting behavior and innovations in interest rate volatility are negligibly correlated with innovations in interest rates. The less persistent behavior of interest rate volatility reflects the fact that interest rate dynamics are impacted by transient economic shocks such as central bank announcements and other macroeconomic news.     

The euro exchange rate during the European sovereign debt crisis – Dancing to its own tune?

This paper studies the determinants of the euro exchange rate volatility during the European sovereign debt crisis, allowing a role for macroeconomic fundamentals, policy actions and the public debate by policy makers. It finds that the euro exchange rate mainly danced to its own tune, with a particularly low explanatory power for macroeconomic fundamentals. The findings of the paper also suggest that financial markets might have been less reactive to the public debate by policy makers than previously feared. Still, there are instances where exchange rate volatility increased in response to news, such as on days when several politicians from AAA-rated countries went public with negative statements, suggesting that communication by policy makers at times of crisis should be cautious about triggering undesirable financial market reactions.     

Macroeconomic fundamentals, price discovery, and volatility dynamics in emerging bond markets

This study characterizes volatility dynamics in external emerging bond markets and examines how prices and volatility respond to macroeconomic news. As in mature bond markets, surprises about macroeconomic conditions in emerging markets are found to affect both conditional returns and volatility of external bonds, with the effects on volatility being more pronounced and longer lasting than those on prices. Yet the process of information absorption tends to be more drawn-out than in mature bond markets. Global and regional macroeconomic news is at least as important as local news for both price and volatility dynamics.     

金融危机与经济波动特征事实:中美两国比较

本文对金融危机前后(2006~2009年)中美两国经济指标的波动性和协动性进行系统比较,发现两国的宏观经济波动特征有显著差异。这种差异有些属于金融危机期间的非常规现象,有些与中国特殊的调控措施、经济发展模式有关。就上述差异的理解对于分析宏观经济形势、制定宏观调控政策都是非常有帮助的。     

储蓄-投资相关性及影响因素的国际研究──基于发展中国家的面板协整分析

储蓄与投资是经济增长的两个基本要素,它们之间的相关关系一直都是现代宏观经济理论研究的核心问题,对此,本文结合最新发展的面板单位根检验及面板协整检验等方法,对中国、巴拉圭等24个发展中国家进行跨国比较,分别从总体样本和单位样本的角度对储蓄-投资的相关关系进行研究,并在此基础上对两者关系形成的各种影响因素进行综合检验。研究结果表明,在本文研究的样本国家及时期内,储蓄与投资在总体上呈现出显著的相关关系,而且与发达国家相比,发展中国家具有相对较小的储蓄-投资相关系数。与此同时,本文研究发现,储蓄-投资相关系数与总抚养比率、经济增长显著相关,而国家规模、贸易开放程度等并非储蓄-投资相关系数大小的决定性因素。     

Flexibility of Adjustment to Shocks: Economic Growth and Volatility of Middle-Income Countries Before and After the Global Financial Crisis of 2008

Our analysis shows that the associations of growth level, growth volatility, shocks, institutions, and macroeconomic fundamentals have changed in important ways after the 2008 global financial crisis. Economic growth across countries has become more dependent on external factors, including global growth, global oil prices, and global financial volatility. After accounting for the effects global shocks, we find that several factors facilitate adjustment to shocks in middle-income countries. Educational attainment, share of manufacturing output in gross domestic product, and exchange rate stability increase the level of economic growth; although, exchange rate flexibility, education attainment, and lack of political polarization reduce the volatility of economic growth.     

Macroeconomic fundamentals,jump dynamics and expected volatility

In this paper, we develop a new volatility model capturing the effects of macroeconomic variables and jump dynamics on the stock volatility. The proposed GARCH-Jump-MIDAS model is applied to the S&P 500 index. Our in-sample results indicate that macroeconomic activities have important impacts on aggregate market volatility. Out-of-sample evidence suggests that our model with macroeconomic variables significantly outperform a wide range of competitors including the original GARCH(1,1), GARCH-MIDAS and GJR-A-MIDAS models. The volatility timing results also show that the information from jumps and macroeconomic activity is helpful for improving the portfolio performance.     

The anticipated and concurring effects of the EMU: exchange rate volatility, institutions and growth

Reduced exchange rate volatility and higher and less heterogeneous quality of institutional rules and macroeconomic policies are two of the main (anticipated and concurring) effects expected from a currency union.In this paper, we measure the magnitude of these two effects for the Eurozone countries looking at real effective exchange rates (REER) and at different indicators of quality of institutional rules and macroeconomic policies (QIRMP). We find that the first effect is much stronger than the second when we compare relative changes for Eurozone countries and the rest of the world in the relevant period.We further evaluate the impact of both effects on economic growth on a larger sample of countries. Our findings show that both have significant impact on levels (more robust) and on rates of growth (weaker) of per capita GDP.     

Exploring international differences in inflation dynamics

Standard closed-economy DSGE models have difficulty replicating the persistence of inflation. We use a multicountry dataset to establish some empirical regularities on persistence and volatility of aggregate consumer prices for 135 countries since 1993. We find both persistence and volatility to be low (high) in developed (developing) countries relative to the full sample average. This pattern is also observed in low (high) inflation countries. We then employ a two-country DSGE framework to investigate the extent to which structural open economy features, such as incomplete exchange rate pass-through, the existence of nontraded goods, and international financial market incompleteness, can help in replicating the persistence and volatility of consumer prices. Our simulation results indicate that the model can replicate the degree of inflation persistence seen in the data for both developed and developing countries, but cannot generate the low levels of volatility observed in developed economies.     

Nominal exchange rate volatility,relative price volatility,and the real exchange rate

We model real exchange rate, nominal exchange rate, and relative price volatility using real and nominal factors. We analyze these volatility measures across developing and industrialized countries. We find that the inclusion of nominal factors achieves a sizable reduction in the real exchange rate volatility spread between developing and industrialized countries. In addition, we find that nominal factors matter to real exchange rate volatility in the short run and the long run, and that for developing countries, a higher share of real exchange rate volatility stems from relative price volatility.     

Exchange rate volatility response to macroeconomic news during the global financial crisis

We investigate the volatility reaction to macroeconomic news in major currency markets during the recent global financial crisis. We first present an alternative method for determining the changes in economic states by endogenously estimating crisis thresholds. Second, we assess which macroeconomic indicator gave the earliest warning signal for the upcoming contraction. Third, we investigate whether there is a systematic change in the volatility reaction of exchange rates to news during the crisis period. We find that the estimated logistic transition function based on the housing starts data exhibits the earliest warning signal compared to other indicators. Our results suggest that although volatility response to most news indicators is larger in expansion, currency market reaction to new home sales and Fed funds rate news is larger in the crisis period. We attribute this finding to the context-specific relevance of the housing and credit sectors in the evolution of the global financial crisis.     

Distribution forecast targeting in an open-economy,macroeconomic volatility and financial implications

In an open-economy faced with parameter uncertainty, this paper uses distribution forecasts to investigate the impact of alternative inflation targeting policies on macroeconomic volatility and their potential implications on financial stability. Theoretically, Domestic Inflation Targeting (DIT) leads to less volatility than Consumer Price Index Inflation Targeting (CPIIT) for several macroeconomic variables and, in particular, for the interest rate. Empirically, a positive relationship between interest rate volatility and financial instability emerges for the US, UK and Sweden since the early 1990s. Bridging theory and empirical evidence, we conclude that the choice of the inflation targeting regime has an important impact on macroeconomic volatility and potential implications for financial stability.     

THE RELEVANCE FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN MACROECONOMIC THEORY

This article reviews recent developments in macroeconomic theoryand considers their relevance for developing countries. Particularemphasis is given to the rational expectations revolution. Thearticle asks whether government policies are systematic andsuggests the need to study the expectations on which governmentsbase their decisions. Also discussed are the neo-Ricardian theorem,the implications of real wage rigidity and of supply side modelswith sectoral income effects, and recent models involving largegroup interaction.