The Impact of US Uncertainty Shocks on Small Open Economies

In this paper, we investigate the impact of US uncertainty shocks on GDP growth in nine small open economies: Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom. We compare the impact of two types of shocks: i) stock market volatility shocks and ii) policy uncertainty shocks. Using quarterly data from 1986Q1 to 2016Q1, this issue is analysed using Bayesian VAR models. Our results suggest that policy uncertainty seems to matter more than stock market volatility. Stock market volatility shocks appear to robustly have significant effects on Danish GDP growth. Policy uncertainty shocks, on the other hand, reliably lowers GDP growth in all five Nordic countries in a statistically significant manner. Statistically significant effects of policy uncertainty shocks on the Anglo-Saxon countries in our sample are harder to establish and are, in our preferred specification, only found for the United Kingdom.     

A lesson from the four recent large public Japanese FX interventions

A large volatility reflects dispersed opinions among market participants. Even when an FX intervention moves the level of the FX rate in its intending direction, this movement is transient unless the intervention mitigates the volatility and dissolves the dispersion among market participants. I adopt pulse and step functions to examine the short-run dynamic effects of four recent Japanese FX interventions on the level and volatility of the yen/dollar rate. The four interventions are large and public, and these are important factors in the effectiveness of the intervention. I find that the two recent interventions are successful in terms of persistent depreciation and mitigating volatility. The two successful interventions are characterized by their size effect. In turn, although the third intervention caused the yen to depreciate, this is short-lived because of increasing volatility.     

Global commodity prices and global stock market volatility shocks: Effects across countries

We investigate the time-varying dynamics of global stock market volatility, commodity prices, domestic output and consumer prices. We find (i) stock market volatility and commodity price shocks impact each other and the economy in a gradual and endogenous adjustment process, (ii) impact of commodity price shock on global stock market volatility is significant during global financial crises, (iii) effects of global stock market volatility on the US output are amplified by endogenous commodity price responses, (iv) effects of global stock market volatility shocks on the economy are heterogeneous across nations and relatively larger in twelve developed countries, (v) four developing/small economies are more vulnerable to commodity price shocks.     

Who Influences the Asian–Pacific Real Estate Markets: The US,Japan or China?

As rapid economic growth in China has led to significant appreciation of urban real estate market values, this study examines China's influence on Asian–Pacific real estate markets by focusing on their respective market integration with the US, Japan and China during the period January 2005 to December 2017. Market integration is examined by unconditional and time‐varying conditional correlations, nonlinear Granger causality and dynamic connectedness effects. Overall, although the US and Japanese real estate markets have significantly influenced return and volatility in the regional markets, China has emerged as another major regional real estate volatility leader with rising influence over volatility integration, especially during the 2007–2011 crisis period. Financial crises have strengthened China's volatility connectedness effects and market integration with other Asian–Pacific real estate markets. Our results imply that the benefits of regional portfolio diversification may be declining as volatility integration across the Chinese and Asian–Pacific real estate markets becomes stronger. Therefore, diversified global investors should pay greater attention to these real estate markets.     

Onshore spot and offshore forward markets for RMB: Evidence from the “8.11” exchange rate regime reform

This paper investigates the dynamic relationship between the onshore spot market and offshore forward market for Chinese currency around the period of China's “8.11” exchange rate regime reform, one of the most important market-oriented reforms implemented on August 11, 2015. We compare return and volatility spillover effects between the two markets before and after the “8.11” reform. The empirical evidence shows that a remarkable change has occurred in both the return and volatility spillovers. Before the reform, return and volatility spillovers exist from the offshore forward market to the onshore spot market. After the reform, however, we observe an obvious reverse in the direction and an increase in the strength of the return and volatility spillover effects. These findings suggest the existence of cross-market information flows, a change in the direction and a strengthening of the dynamic relationship after the reform. We argue that the “8.11” reform serves as a milestone reflecting long-term underlying forces that increase the relative importance of the onshore market.     

Financial Market Volatility and International Reserve Holding Behaviour: A Case Study for Korea,Indonesia, the Philippines,and Thailand

Abstract

The effects of financial market volatility on the international reserve holding behaviour of four Asian countries that experienced the financial crisis in 1997—Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand are investigated. The financial market volatility is modelled and the effect on reserve dynamics, reserve accumulation, and reserve volatility is estimated. Estimations are taken for two periods—pre- and post-crisis—and the structural break test is performed to examine the change in the effects on reserve holding behaviour. The empirical results, in general, support the evidence for the structural change in the effects on reserve holding behaviour after the crisis. This would be one of the evidences of the precautionary motive for reserve holdings after the crisis.     

Volatility Spillovers between the Equity Market and Foreign Exchange Market in South Africa in the 1995‐2010 Period

This paper attempts to assess the extent of volatility spillovers between the equity market and the foreign exchange market in South Africa. Multistep family of the General Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity models are used for this end, whereby volatility shocks obtained from the mean equation estimation in each market are included in the conditional volatility of the other market, respectively. The paper selects the appropriate volatility models for each market following criteria such as covariance stationarity, persistence in variance and leverage effects. The finding of the paper indicates that there is a unidirectional relationship in terms of volatility spillovers from the equity market to the foreign exchange market. The paper supports the view that the extent of foreign participation in the South African equity market possibly contributes to this phenomenon.     

Foreign Capital Flows,Uncertainties of Exchange Rates and Central Bank Independence: Implications for Emerging Economies

Utilizing time series data for a panel of 22 emerging countries and applying Granger causality tests, this paper extends the relationship between central bank independence (CBI) and uncertainties of inflation by including the phenomena of exchange rates and foreign capital flows. There are two specific objectives of this investigation. The first objective is to see whether uncertainty of inflation induces volatility of exchange rates, and vice versa, under differing degrees of CBI. The second objective is to explore whether the dynamics of the former relationship influence foreign capital flows in turn and, if so, whether the extent of CBI plays any role in shaping that influence. The period of study spans the years 1968 through 2013. Conditional variances for inflation and exchange rates define proxies for uncertainties of inflation and exchange rates in the empirical analysis. Additionally, annual inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI) provide measures for foreign capital flows in the analysis. Results of causality tests for high and low CBI country subgroups show interesting differences. For the high CBI countries, uncertainty of inflation and uncertainty of exchange rates do not share any causal relationship whatsoever between them. However, a weak link runs from FDI to uncertainties of inflation in the long run. This may be indicative of the disciplined monetary policy and tamed inflation in these countries. Contrastingly, for the low CBI countries, there is strong evidence of causal links running from uncertainties of inflation to uncertainties of exchange rates on the one hand and to FDI flows on the other. In addition, there is indication of a bi-directional causal link between FDI flows and exchange rates for these countries.     

The Fed’s reaction to the stock market during the great depression: Fact or artefact?

A notable feature of the 1920s and 1930s is the volatility in several key macroeconomic aggregates, and this feature used to econometrically identify the reaction of the Fed to stock market developments. The volatility of economic activity may have contributed to deepening the divisions among policy-makers about how the Fed ought to respond to stock price developments. Relying on the technique of [Rigobon, R. 2003. Identification through heteroskedasticity. Review of Economics and Statistics 85, 777–792], volatility is used as an instrument to estimate the Fed’s response to the stock market. Other identification assumptions based on structural VARs produce compatible results. Fed behavior appeared to have changed following the stock market crash of 1929. Consistent with the Riefler-Burgess doctrine, interest rates and stock returns are negatively related. I conclude that, prior to the stock market crash of 1929, a form of benign neglect explains Fed behavior. Thereafter, the Fed reacts only slightly more aggressively to stock market developments.     

棉花期权推出对标的期货波动性的影响研究

以棉花期权上市为契机研究棉花期货市场的波动性。基于ARMA（1,1）、GARCH（1,1）和EGARCH（1,1）3个模型,通过引入单虚拟变量、双虚拟变量和交互项虚拟变量深入研究棉花期权推出对棉花期货市场的波动性影响。研究发现,棉花期货收益率序列存在波动集聚性,同时无论是否发生新冠疫情,棉花期权推出不仅会加剧棉花期货收益率的波动性,还降低了棉花期货市场的整体波动性和非对称现象,疫情的发生在一定程度上也对棉花期货市场的波动性产生正向效应。最后,依据实证结论对中国棉花期权市场和期货市场提出相应的建议。     

MACROECONOMIC UNCERTAINTY AND CONDITIONAL STOCK MARKET VOLATILITY IN SOUTH AFRICA*

This paper analyses how systematic risk emanating from the macroeconomy is transmitted into stock market volatility using augmented autoregressive Generalised Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedastic (AR‐GARCH) and vector autoregression (VAR) models. Also examined is whether the relationship between the two is bidirectional. By imposing dummies for the 1997‐1998 Asian and the 2007‐2009 sub‐prime financial crises, the study further analyses whether financial crises affect the relationship between macroeconomic uncertainty and stock market volatility. The findings show that macroeconomic uncertainty significantly influences stock market volatility. Although volatilities in inflation, the gold price and the oil price seem to play a role, it is found that volatility in short‐term interest rates and exchange rates are the most important, suggesting that South African domestic financial markets are increasingly becoming interdependent. Finally, the results show that financial crises increase volatility in the stock market and in most macroeconomic variables, and, by so doing, strengthen the effects of changes in macroeconomic variables on the stock market.     

后金融危机时期中国股市的国际地位——基于非线性视角的股市联动网络分析

后金融危机时期全球股市一体化程度不断提高,全面认识中国股市的国际地位对于揭示国际股市一体化联动中的传导机制,防范和应对国际金融风险冲击具有重要的理论意义和现实价值。文章应用非线性格兰杰因果检验方法和社会网络分析方法,对金砖国家和七国集团股市收益率和波动率的联动关系及其联动网络结构进行分析,揭示出中国在国际股市联动中的地位对传导关系的控制方式,定量分析出事件冲击下中国股市与国际股市之间的交互影响。研究发现：（1）国际股市收益率和波动率联动网络呈现出稳定的非线性联动关系网络结构,受其影响各国股市收益之间存在互惠性,而波动之间则存在传染性;（2）在收益率联动网络中,中国股市的作用和地位已与英国相当,远高于其他金砖国家,正逐渐由"从属地位"转向"中心地位";（3）在波动率联动网络中,中国股市是造成国际股市风险交叉影响的重要"桥梁"。综上而言,当前中国股市表现出"高风险低收益"的市场特征;（4）中国对国际股市的影响具有典型的"地缘特征",将网络中心国家股市的利好传递给地缘临近国家股市;（5）波动率联动网络中初始冲击强度较大的国家,往往是对中国股市持续大规模产生冲击的国家;（6）相比较国际股市调整波动冲击的时间而言,中国股市调整时间较短,这表明后金融危机时代中国致力于股市的一系列改革举措取得了显著成效。     

Exports versus FDI: do firms use FDI as a mechanism to smooth demand volatility?

In this paper, we first develop a simple two-period model of oligopoly to show that, under demand uncertainty, whether a firm chooses to serve foreign markets by exports or via foreign direct investment (FDI) may depend on demand volatility along with other well-known determinants such as size of market demand and trade costs. Although fast transport such as air shipment is an option for exporting firms to smooth volatile demand in foreign markets, market volatility may systematically trigger the firms to undertake FDI. We then use a rich panel of US firms’ sales to 56 countries between 1999 and 2004 to confront this theoretical prediction and show strong evidence in support of the prediction     

印花税政策调整对市场反应影响研究

文章使用中国A股市场的日数据检验了印花税税率的调整对市场流动性、市场的波动和股票异常收益率的影响.实证的结果表明,印花税税率的变化和市场流动性呈反向关系,但并不总是如此.与一般认知不同的是,无论印花税税率的增加还是减少都不会引起市场波动加剧.相应的,股票异常收益率对对印花税税率的变化也并不总是敏感的.基于上述实证结果,文章认为印花税并不是调控证券市场的有效政策工具.     

Twice a day or continuously? Observation frequency and inference on foreign exchange volatility persistence

This paper examines how observation frequency alters inference on cross-locational volatility dependencies in the foreign exchange market. When volatility proxies are based on tick-by-tick exchange rate quotes, this paper finds evidence of statistically significant own-region volatility persistence as well as symmetric interregional dependence. In addition, this paper detects strong day-of-the-week effects, with Mondays displaying the lowest volatility. These results differ from previous studies which based volatility estimates on only two daily observations per region.     

投资者结构与股价波动：基于过度自信和注意力分配的理论分析

本文假定市场上仅存在散户和机构,且他们之间存在过度自信的差异和对多期私有信息注意力分配方式的差异,在此基础上对投资者结构和股价波动的关系进行了理论分析,并进一步研究了投资者结构的长期均衡问题。研究表明,当两种差异同时存在时,第一,市场上现有的投资者结构决定了散户或机构比例的上升是否增加股价波动。如果市场是散户主导的,那么散户比例的上升将加剧股价波动;如果市场是机构主导的,那么在特定情形下,机构比例的上升将加剧股价波动。第二,散户在长期均衡时不仅不会彻底消失,甚至会在特定情形下完全占据市场。     

Exchange Rate Volatility and International Trade

The purpose of this note is to show that a positive effect of exchange rate volatility on export production has a theoretical basis. The key to this claim is that, as the exchange rate volatility increases, so does the value of the real option to export to the world market. Higher volatility increases the potential gains from trade. This may explain part of the mixed empirical findings regarding the effects of exchange rate risk on international trade.     

Production Adjustments for Consumer Durables and the Great Moderation

Explanations for the Great Moderation in GDP volatility have included improved management of inventory schedules, the good luck of smaller economic shocks, and better anti-inflation policy. This article provides direct evidence on the changes in production behavior underlying these explanations within a market model for consumer durable goods. Long-run price and sales elasticities are estimated using VECMs for 1959 through 1983 (period I) and 1984 through 2008 (period II). Significant and more effective adjustments to output growth in response to both market disequilibria and changes in demand occur in period II and contribute to the reduced volatility observed. During that time, 95 percent of market disequilibrium gaps were closed after four quarters, and current output adjusted to accommodate 90 percent of demand changes occurring during the preceding three quarters.     

“中小板”市场“牛市”和“熊市”的波动非对称性研究

运用广义误差分布的EGARCH（1,1）模型,分析中小板市场＂牛市＂和＂熊市＂行情（即样本）的波动非对称性。主要结论有：在牛市、熊市中等量＂利好＂消息与＂利空＂消息对股市产生的冲击是不对称的：在牛市中,＂利好＂消息对股市的影响要比相同力度的＂利空＂消息影响大;在熊市中,＂利空＂消息对股市的影响要比相同力度的＂利好＂消息影响大;中小板市场的波动性较大。     

特质波动、风险溢价与学习效应

本文是一项实证研究,分析中国证券市场中股票特质波动性(Idiosyn-cratic Volatility)的风险溢价问题。我们发现较高波动性的投资组合在下一期收益率反而较低,为了解释这个看起来反常的现象,我们引入投资人逐步了解、发现上市公司盈利能力的学习过程。类似Lucas(1978)的一般均衡定价公式说明,不完全信息和学习过程会导致股票价格出现均值回归的现象(Mean Reversion),并且盈利能力不确定性越高的公司,股价向均值回归的趋势越明显,由此导致下一期收益率的反转。