Defending against speculative attacks – It is risky,but it can pay off

While currency crises are typically considered to be painful and costly events, a closer look reveals that economic developments after a speculative attack differ considerably. Monetary authorities can play a central role in determining the economic course and costs of currency crises. They have to decide whether to defend or not to defend the domestic currency giving rise to three different types of crises: (i) an immediate depreciation if the central bank does not intervene and either (ii) a successful defense or (iii) an unsuccessful defense in the case of an intervention. We find that a central bank has two options to mitigate the costs of speculative attacks, namely an immediate depreciation and a successful defense. If a central bank intervenes she might be able to stabilize the exchange rate only temporarily and risks to ultimately fail facing the worst of the three scenarios with the highest economic costs.     

The timing of exchange rate collapse

Recent episodes of exchange rate collapse have renewed interest in models of speculative attacks. These episodes have been considered by some observers to be inconsistent with “fundamentals” models of attack since there was no prolonged period of policy misalignment and declining reserves, as required by such models. This paper develops a fundamentals model in which collapse is instantaneous at the time of unexpected policy change and/or a change in the expectations of future policy, even for a reserve abundant country.     

Economic costs of alternative monetary policy responses to speculative currency attacks

The outcome of a speculative attack on the foreign exchange rate can be classified into three cases: (i) immediate depreciation of the nominal exchange rate, (ii) successful defense, or (iii) failed defense. This paper explores which of these outcomes yields the lowest cost in terms of output and unemployment in the short and medium run. Ex-ante the outcome of a speculative attack is uncertain, therefore the appropriate response of monetary authorities to a speculative attack depends on the cost of an immediate depreciation compared with that of the expected outcome of a currency defense. Our empirical analysis focuses on a sample of 73 emerging and developing countries over the 1960–2011 period. Our results indicate that an immediate depreciation is the policy response that is associated with a lower expected output loss and unemployment in the short run and it tends to be expansionary in the medium run. A defense, if successful, entails insignificant costs in the short run but, unlike an immediate depreciation, a successful defense is not expansionary in the medium run. If a defense fails, large output losses and an increase in unemployment ensue, at least in the short run.     

Valuation impact of currency crises: Evidence from the ADR market

This study analyzes American depository receipts (ADR) performance surrounding the outbreak of major currency crises during the past decade. By employing event-study methodologies and multifactor pricing models, we find that the outbreak of a currency crisis is accompanied by a negatively significant abnormal return for the corresponding ADRs, even after controlling for variations in exchange rates. We also find significant upward shifts in the exchange rate exposure of ADRs when the home currency is switched from a “pegging” to a “floating” exchange rate regime. In addition, ADR-originating firms with larger sizes, greater proportions of U.S. market activities, and greater market liquidity have relatively less negative abnormal returns (ARs) and less significant upward shifts in currency exposure, implying that such firms are relatively better hedged against currency crises.     

最优货币区理论视角下外贸失衡和汇率失衡的地区异质性研究

把我国的外贸失衡和汇率失衡看作是全国性失衡是不恰当的,基于最优货币区理论研究视角,本文认为我国外贸失衡主要是指东部地区的外贸失衡,我国汇率被低估主要是指东部地区的汇率被低估,而中西部地区并不存在外贸失衡和汇率被低估的现象。因此,要调节我国汇率和外贸的区域性失衡,依靠人民币升值虽然会减少东部的汇率和贸易失衡,但会增加中部和西部的汇率和外贸失衡,而实施地区差异化的外贸政策、产业政策和财政税收政策是解决我国汇率和外贸的区域性失衡的可行办法。     

Foreign exchange exposure of “domestic” corporations

Unlike prior studies on foreign exchange risk that have focused on multinational companies, this paper documents that domestic companies face significant foreign exchange exposure. Indeed, we document that on average domestic company foreign exchange exposure is not significantly different from the exposures faced by multinational firms. As expected, the number of domestic firms with significant foreign exchange exposure increases with the exposure estimation horizon. More interestingly, the level of domestic firm exposure is significantly negatively related to firm size and asset turnover, and positively related to the market to book ratio and financial leverage. Our results have important implications for managers, policy makers, and accounting standards.     

Price adjustment and exchange rate pass-through

This paper develops a simple theoretical model that can be used to account for the determinants of exchange rate pass-through to consumer prices. While recent evidence has found low estimates of pass-through in many countries, there is little consensus on an explanation for this. Our paper argues that sticky prices represent a key determinant of exchange rate pass-through. We make this argument in two stages. First, holding the frequency of price change constant, we show that our model calibrated to data from low-inflation countries can reproduce the estimates of very low pass-through for these countries. The principal determinant of low pass-through in this case is the slow adjustment of prices. We then extend the model to allow the frequency of price change to be endogenous. Calibrating to a wider set of countries, including both low-inflation and high-inflation countries, we show that our model implies that exchange rate pass-through is increasing in average inflation, but at a declining rate. Performing the identical exercise on the data, we find a striking correspondence between the predictions of the model and those of the data.     

中越边境地区本外币兑换市场建设的思考

近年来,公安部进一步加大对广西中越边境地区＂地摊银行＂的打击力度,使＂地摊银行＂为核心的中越本外币结算体系受到影响,因此规范和促进中越边境本外币兑换市场发展就显得尤为重要。本文在深入分析目前中越边境人民币与越南盾民间兑换市场现状以及存在问题基础上,提出以个人本外币兑换特许业务方式带动边境地区本外币兑换市场发展的基本思路,并就越南盾与人民币买卖、越南盾调剂市场的设立等方面进行制度安排,旨在解决长期困扰中越边境金融秩序的＂地摊银行＂问题,实现边境金融市场良性、持续和健康发展。     

人民币预期汇率变动与虚假贸易——基于套汇视角的分析

虚假贸易对国内经济秩序造成不良影响,受到了密切关注。本文基于2010—2012年中国大陆到香港的月度出口数据,实证检验了人民币汇率出现单边预期以及资本管制的大背景下,企业出于套汇动机而进行的虚假贸易行为。本文发现远期汇率升值显著促进了产品出口额增加,并且这一现象对于高价值重量比的产品更加明显。异质性分析表明虚假贸易行为更倾向于出现在加工贸易占比较高的行业。2012年汇率改革增大了人民币汇率的波动幅度,增加了企业跨境套利的成本,汇改之后企业的虚假贸易行为得到明显抑制。此外,远期汇率升值同时提高了虚假出口占总出口的比重。本文从一个新的视角研究了我国的虚假贸易问题,并对打击虚假贸易活动提出相关建议。     

中俄两国实现本币结算的影响分析

2010年3月,全国＂两会＂期间公布的＂十二五＂规划纲要明确提出了＂十二五＂期间重点推进长吉图经济区经济发展的要求。长吉图地区毗邻俄罗斯,中国的市场、人力和技术优势与俄罗斯的资源优势相结合,使得两国经济具有很强的互补性,因此,中俄贸易将成为推动长吉图地区发展的重要动力。2010年11月23日,中俄两国总理宣布,双方决定使用本国货币实现双边贸易结算,在这一背景下本文探讨了如何改变两国本币结算额偏低现状、促进两国贸易发展,以及本币结算对两国的影响,并提出了相应建议。     

Sustainability of macroeconomic policies in selected MENA countries: Post financial and debt crises

In the wake of the recent financial and debt crises, the conduct of macroeconomic policies in the emerging MENA economies has recently become critical in determining those countries future economic situation, due to the accumulation since the early 1990s of a sizable level of external debt, and the pursuit by some countries of a fixed exchange rate regime. Using time series econometric models, this study assesses the sustainability of macroeconomic policies in a selected sample of 4 MENA countries. The empirical results point to sustainable fiscal and exchange rate policies in Tunisia and Morocco, and unsustainable external debt and exchange rate policies in Egypt and Jordan. While Egypt has recently moved to a flexible exchange rate regime, if Jordan still opts for maintaining a fixed exchange rate arrangement, it will have to implement crisis-prevention measures, namely by exercising fiscal discipline, and managing properly its external debt and foreign reserves.     

外汇储备币种结构理论的研究评述及展望

我国的外汇储备主要以美元为核心,随着近年来美元的不断贬值,我国的外汇储备迅速缩水,因此,加强币种结构管理成为了当前我国外汇储备管理中的最重要一环。本文首先系统地介绍了关于外汇储备币种结构选择的三大理论：资产组合理论、海勒——奈特模型和杜利模型。然后总结了基于以上理论,国内外学者对外汇储备币种结构进行的研究,并指出了现有理论的不足。最后,对今后的研究方向进行了展望。     

The impacts of Hong Kong’s Currency Board reforms on the interbank market

Among the economies with a Currency Board System (CBS), Hong Kong (HK) is probably the one with the largest and most developed financial sector, as well as the highest capital mobility. Hence, studying HK’s CBS is not only crucial to HK, but also important for the understanding of the modern CBS. This paper outlines the major monetary reforms in HK since the late 1980s. The impacts of these reforms and the 1997–1998 Asian Financial Crisis are then examined empirically. We focus on the differentials between the US and HK interbank interest rates. We assume the conditional-mean equation follows an autoregressive process and the conditional-variance equation follows a generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity process. This model captures the time-varying level and volatility of the differential. In light of the empirical results we provide an assessment of the reforms in HK.     

财政政策与经常项目赤字关系研究

经常项目赤字是货币危机或金融危机的主要原因之一。财政政策作为政府调控经常的一个重要政策工具，对经常项目有显著影响。本文从理论和实践上对财政政策与经常项目赤字之间的关系进行了深入研究。并且分析了当前我国所执行的扩张性的财政政策对我国经常项目的平衡可能产生的不利影响。最后对改善我国经常项目提出了一些财政对策。     

After the tide: Commodity currencies and global trade

The decade prior to the Great Recession saw a boom in global trade and rising transportation costs. High-yielding commodity exporters׳ currencies appreciated, boosting carry trade profits. The Global Recession sharply reversed these trends. We interpret these facts with a two-country general equilibrium model that features specialization in production and endogenous fluctuations in trade costs. Slow adjustment in the shipping sector generates boom–bust cycles in freight rates and, as a consequence, in currency risk premia. We validate these predictions using global shipping data. Our calibrated model explains about 57% of the narrowing of interest rate differentials post-crisis.     

Are global shocks leading indicators of currency crisis in Viet Nam?

This paper aims to identify leading indicators of a currency crisis in Viet Nam based on an early warning system for the period 1996–February 2016. This paper found that global financial shocks (e.g., regional and global financial crisis, unexpected changes in monetary policy of largest economies such as the United States and the People’s Republic of China), and domestic credit growth rate are leading indicators of a currency crisis in Viet Nam in all three models. Deficits in trade balance, international reserves, and overvaluation of the dong are also good indicators. In addition, a model in which a currency crisis or turbulence in the foreign exchange market is defined based on the exchange market pressure and parallel market premium, with window length of 2 months, outperformed for predicting a currency crisis in Viet Nam. Empirical results suggested that probability of predicting a true currency crisis was 77.5%.     

Exchange rate regimes and FDI in developing countries: A propensity score matching approach

Theory suggests that regimes of relatively fixed exchange rates encourage inward foreign direct investment (FDI) relative to regimes of more flexible exchange rates. We use propensity score matching (PSM) to investigate the relationship between the exchange rate regimes of 70 developing countries and FDI into such countries using de facto regime classifications. We include a large number of variables in the logit equation that estimates the propensity score, the probability of regime choice. We also use general-to-specific modeling to get alternative, parsimonious versions. Based on four matching procedures, the average treatment effects suggest, with overall modest statistical significance, that relatively fixed de facto regimes do encourage FDI compared with relatively floating regimes. In addition, the estimated effects are sometimes economically large.     

Convertibility risk: the precautionary demand for foreign currency in a crisis

This paper presents theoretical work linking money demand to the perceptions of households about the risk that domestic currency may become inconvertible or that it may be devalued. An empirical investigation of the size of this effect is carried out using monthly data for Korea to estimate an augmented demand-for-money equation. It is found that the fear of inconvertibility arising from the 1997 Korean currency crisis may have caused broad money demand to fall by 4–5% points,equivalent to the loss of reserves of $6–7.5 billion (or about 30% of reserves as measured at end-November 1997). This is a revised version of IMF Working paper WP/2001/210; it was written while Professor Black was Senior Policy Advisor at the IMF Institute and Christofides and Mourmouras were staff members in the IMF’s Policy Development and Review Department. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the IMF, its Executive Board, or its management. For useful comments and suggestions we thank an anonymous referee, Tim Lane, Ydahlia Metzgen, Roberto Perelli, Tony Richards, Christian Mulder, Steve Russell, as well as seminar participants at the IMF Institute, the IMF’s Asia and Pacific Department, Federal Reserve Board, and Bank of Indonesia. We would also like to note similar (unpublished) empirical results using our approach by Dr. Rino Effendi for Indonesia and Angana Banerji for Russia     

Inflation dynamics and nominal adjustment in the Baltic States

The paper seeks to explain the inflationary dynamics in the Baltic countries since the mid-1990s. Single-equation estimations generally yield poor results, while panel data estimations provide statistically and economically satisfactory findings. The main result is that the observed gradual disinflation can to a large extent be explained by adjustment to international prices. Stringent fixed exchange rate systems have exerted downward pressure on inflation both directly and via expectations to future inflation. Measures of excess capacity in the labour market have no effect on inflation, while industrial output gaps have some explanatory power. Real oil price shocks have an immediate but short-lived impact on inflation.     

A Markov switching analysis of contagion in the EMS

This paper applies the multivariate version of the Forbes and Rigobon (2002) contagion test, as proposed by Dungey et al. (2005a), to detect contagion effects in the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) of the European Monetary System (EMS). Crisis and non-crisis observations are determined endogenously via a Markov-switching vector autoregression (MSVAR). We show that the MSVAR is suitable for this purpose, as it does particularly well in identifying the 11 realignments of the ERM. We examine whether Denmark’s rejection of the Maastricht Treaty and Italy’s competitiveness problems affected other EMS participants and find evidence for contagion.