A forecasting model of the Kenyan economy

A demand-oriented macroeconometric model of the Kenyan economy is developed and estimated in line with the cointegration technique. The estimated structure of the model is used to perform policy simulation experiments to determine the sensitivity of key macroeconomic variables to changes in exchange rate, net government current expenditure and nominal interest rate. The results of policy simulation experiments reveal that the exchange rate and fiscal policies are relatively more effective than the monetary policy, i.e. changing the nominal interest rate, in influencing the level of economic activity. The results point to the possibility of devaluation improving the international trade balance.     

A disequilibrium macroeconomic model of the Belgian economy : The Maribel II model of the Planning Bureau

This paper describes the Maribel II model, a model used by the Belgian Planning Bureau for analysing and simulating macroeconomic changes in the Belgian economy. Its main feature is that it is a disequilibrium model (for both the product and the labour market). During the construction of the model considerable attention was given to its theoretical underpinning. The steady state properties show that the mechanisms are mainly classical with a strong dependence on foreign influences. The multiplier analysis confirms the relatively small multipliers in Belgium and also shows the richness that a disequilibrium model provides for analysing particular policies.     

中国宏观经济分析面临新挑战

正如中国经济发展正处于十字路口 ,中国的宏观经济调控面临转型的重要关口一样 ,中国的宏观经济理论也正面临严峻的挑战。本文通过宏观态势分析中两个不同思路即规范性宏观分析思路和宏观问题感受性分析思路的比较 ,发现规范性宏观分析虽然权威和简明 ,但是在诊断中国宏观问题时缺乏准确性 ;宏观问题感受性分析虽然准确全面 ,但是缺乏学术性提炼。中国宏观经济理论为了承担起向宏观调控政策提供思想基础这一基本任务 ,必须寻找宏观经济中真正具有典型化的事实 ,分析这些事实之间的内在联系及其对宏观经济走向的影响 ,进而重新梳理中国宏观经济关系 ,重建中国的宏观经济分析理论体系。     

宏观经济环境对并购活动的影响——基于时间序列数据的经验研究

基于宏观经济动因,研究经济发展水平、利率与股票价格指数对我国总体性并购活动的影响,实证检验结果表明：除利率之外,经济发展水平及股票价格均与总体性并购活动存在长期的均衡关系,并且为总体性并购活动的Granger原因;在短期内,经济发展水平波动与股票价格波动对并购活动波动均存在正向影响,而利率波动对并购活动波动存在负向影响。这说明经济发展水平与股票价格是我国并购浪潮的重要驱动因素。     

Do macroeconomic variables have regime-dependent effects on stock return dynamics? Evidence from the Markov regime switching model

The predictability of stock return dynamics is a topic discussed most frequently in empirical studies; however, no unanimous conclusion has yet been reached due to the ignorance of structural changes in stock price dynamics. This study applies various regime switching GJR-GARCH models to analyze the effects of macroeconomic variables (interest rate, dividend yield, and default premium) on stock return movements (including conditional mean, conditional variance, and transition probabilities) in the U.S. stock market, so as to clearly compare the predictive validity of stable and volatile states, as well as compare the in-sample and out-of-sample portfolio performance of regime switching models. The empirical results show that macro factors can affect the stock return dynamics through two different channels, and that the magnitude of their influences on returns and volatility is not constant. The effects of the three economic variables on returns are not time-invariant, but are closely related to stock market fluctuations, and the strength of predictability in a volatile regime is far greater than that in a stable regime. It is found that interest rate and dividend yield seem to play an important role in predicting conditional variance, and out-of-sample performance is largely eroded when the effects of these two factors on volatility are ignored. In addition, the three macro factors do not play any role in predicting transition probabilities.     

Long-run determinants of pollution: A robustness analysis

This paper examines how robust economic, political, and demographic variables are related to water and air pollution. Employing Bayesian Averaging of Classical Estimates (BACE) for a cross section of 47 countries, 34 variables and 3 proxies for air and water pollution over a period from 1980 to 2000 we confirm the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis and highlight the relevance of variables that are not directly related to production.     

Macroeconomic surprises and short-term behaviour in bond futures

This paper analyses the effect of macroeconomic news on the price of the ten year Treasure bond future. We consider 15 fundamentals and we analyse the effect of their forecasting errors conditional upon their sign and the momentum of the business cycle. To obtain a smooth effect of the news arrival we estimate a Polynomial Distributed Lag model. Using 10 minutes sampled data for 9 years, we conclude that 1) releases affect the bond future for only few hours, 2) their effect depends on the sign of the forecast error, 3) their effect also depends on the business cycle and 4) the timeliness of the releases is significant.     

Envelope and sensitivity analysis ‘in the large’

New results on global sensitivity analysis are derived. Relying on the saddle-point characterization of the Lagrangean, simple yet powerful results are shown to hold under general conditions. A generalized envelope result is obtained. It does not require differentiability assumptions or unique solution, and it holds for discrete changes.     

Aggregation in macroeconomic models: an empirical input–output approach

The aggregation level of industries in the Danish macroeconomic model ADAM is examined using a new indicator of aggregation bias. The indicator is decomposed into contributions from the original industries, thereby clearly identifying the aggregation problems which caused the six industry groups of the older versions of ADAM to be disaggregated into the current 19 groups. An aggregation key minimizing the new bias indicator is found: from the microlevel of 64 industries, 18 ‘optimal’ industry groups are formed through ‘clustering’; these groups are very similar to the current ADAM groups. Altogether, the conclusions based on the new indicator closely resemble those reached through years of practical experience.     

Inflation targeting in Brazil

The purpose of this paper is to examine the Inflation Targeting (IT) framework as it is applied in the case of Brazil since its adoption in June 1999. For this purpose we first summarize the macroeconometric model utilized by the Central Bank of Brazil (BCB) in its pursuit of the IT framework. While the focus of this paper is on Brazil, we also examine the experience of other countries with IT (in particular, the BRIC countries: Brazil, Russia, India, and China), both for comparative purposes and for evidence of the extent of success of this ‘new’ economic policy pursued by other IT countries. In addition, we compare the experience of Brazil with IT and with that of non‐IT countries. In the context of non‐IT countries, we ask the question of whether it makes a difference in the fight against inflation whether a country has adopted IT or not. Finally, we examine some features of the Brazilian experience with IT regime.     

Real estate markets and the macroeconomy: A dynamic coherence framework

This paper analyzes the dynamic interactions between real estate markets, in the US and the UK and their macroeconomic environments. We apply a new approach based on a dynamic coherence function (DCF) to study these interactions bringing together different real estate markets (the securitized market, the commercial market and the residential market). The results suggest that there is a common trend that drives the different real estate markets in the UK and the US, particularly in the long run, since they have a similar shape of the DCF. We also find that, in the US, wealth and housing expenditure channels are very conductive during real estate crises. However, in the UK, only the wealth effect is significant as a transmission channel during real estate market downturns. In addition, real estate markets in the UK and the US react differently to institutional shocks. This brings some insights on the conduct of monetary policy in order to avoid disturbances in real estate markets.     

Is the relationship between gold and the U.S. dollar always negative? The role of macroeconomic uncertainty

The main work of this article is to access the role of macroeconomic uncertainty in effecting the correlation between gold and the dollar. The empirical analysis is divided into two parts. Firstly, we examine the impact of macroeconomic uncertainty on short and long correlation between gold and the dollar. Secondly, we analyse the explanatory power of economic uncertainty for the abnormal market relation between gold and the dollar with a threshold model. In particular, we investigate impacts of economic uncertainty sourced from different economies. The empirical results indicate that economic uncertainty generates direct impacts on the correlation between gold and the dollar. Moreover, our results emphasize that uncertainty sourced from different economies have different impacts on the dynamics between gold and the dollar. This article also presents the relative contribution of gold and the dollar shocks to the likelihood of being in the high-uncertainty regime. These results have implications for risk management, international asset allocation and hedging strategies.     

Macroeconomic performance and convergence in OECD countries

This paper investigates the robustness of the correlation between growth and a set of variables which comprises accumulation rates in human and physical capital and medium term macroeconomic indicators in OECD countries. We include these variables as additional regressors in the standard growth equation that comes from the human capital-augmented Solow model. Our results show that variables related to medium term macroeconomic performance affect both growth and convergence. In some periods these variables even outperform the explanatory power of the conventional growth variables such as the accumulation rates. Our results also suggest that it is difficult to analyse the contribution to growth of any particular macroeconomic indicator in an isolated way. Rather, these effects should be studied in a framework that accounts for the macroeconomic performance of a country.     

宏观经济理论中的金融因素:若干认识误区

本文以主流宏观经济学的若干认识误区为切入点,对宏观经济理论中的金融因素及相关问题进行了初步的理论反思。这一反思主要围绕以下六个基本命题展开:一是金融因素在宏观经济中的影响被严重低估,二是主流货币政策框架的致命缺陷源于其政策视野的短期性,三是货币与信用的创造机制存在着本质差别,四是财政机制与信用机制并非独立,五是金融创新指向信用创造并改变了经济金融环境,六是泡沫问题金融化的本质在于杠杆扩大化。这些命题的共同启示是:宏观经济理论必须在纳入内生性金融因素的基础上予以系统重建。