Twin Banking and Currency Crises and Monetary Policy

Currency crises are found to be strongly associated with banking crises. This paper constructs a twin banking and currency crisis model by introducing the banking sector into the currency crisis model and examining the case in which the exchange rate risk is located in the banking system. The model shows that an unanticipated shock caused by the shift of investors’ expectations and/or a negative productivity shock can trigger a twin banking and currency crisis. To achieve both financial stability and economic stability, the central bank uses multiple monetary policy instruments. In contrast to the conventional policy recommendation in response to a currency crisis, i.e., interest rate hike, we find that when the exchange rate risk is located in the banking sector, the monetary policy option to prevent a twin crisis is to lower the policy interest rate and the reserve requirement ratio and raise the interest rate on reserves. Our results show that the location of the exchange rate risk matters for the choice of an appropriate monetary policy response during a crisis.     

Self-Fulfilling Currency Crises with Borrowing Constraints and Domestic Currency Debt

This paper presents a model of self-fulfilling currency crises in economies that do not suffer from domestic liability dollarization but whose international borrowing is subject to a collateral constraint. The model shows that when the collateral is a non-traded asset the expectation of a real exchange rate depreciation may trigger the constraint and cause a crisis in which the capital outflow and the real depreciation reinforce each other. Since in the model debt is denominated in domestic currency this paper highlights that borrowing constraints can cause self-fulfilling currency crises even in the absence of foreign-currency debt.     

Currency Crises and the Term Structure of Interest Rates

The currency crisis literature has identified two possible types of crisis: fundamentals based crises and self-fulfilling crises. A fundamentals based crisis arises when some state variable, such as foreign exchange reserves, reaches a critical level and triggers the abandonment of the fixed rate. A self-fulfilling crisis is triggered by an autonomous change in the beliefs of speculators. This paper demonstrates how these two types of crises generate different behaviour in the term structure in the period before the crisis. JEL Classification Numbers: E43, F31     

The Researches of Financial Innovation and Banking Fragility

Western developed countries have experienced a tide of financial innovation since the 1960s. Modern banking system has changed substantially as an avalanche of new financial instruments, new financial services, new financing manners and new financial derivative products. And now, the global financial system is facing an unprecedented situation of financial innovation. Nowadays, financial innovation can open up the space of banking subsistence and development, but at the same time, it will increase the risk of banks and then affect the banking fragility.     

Exchange-Rate Coordination for Surmounting the East Asian Currency Crises

This paper investigates the long-run pattern of private saving in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. These countries have not only maintained saving levels that are currently among the highest in the world, but have also experienced a sustained increase in their rate of private saving over the past twenty years. Using a cointegration approach, this paper empirically examines the economic determinants underlying the saving trends in this group and the extent to which these countries share a common experience with respect to the factors accounting for their strong saving performance. The findings suggest that demographic shifts and, to a somewhat lesser extent, rising per capita incomes have been important factors underlying regional saving trends, with broadly similar long-run impacts across countries. Limited evidence to support a significant and common relation between compulsory and total saving in Singapore and Malaysia is also found.     

Financial Globalization and Banking Crises in Emerging Markets

Bank crises in emerging economies have been a feature of the recent global crisis, and their incidence has increased in the post-Bretton Woods era. This paper investigates the impact of financial globalization on the incidence of systemic bank crises in 20 emerging markets over the years 1976–2002 using measures of de facto and de jure financial openness. An increase in foreign debt liabilities contributes to an increase in the incidence of crises, but foreign direct investment and portfolio equity liabilities have the opposite effect. A more liberal de jure capital regime lowers the incidence of banking crises, while a regime of fixed exchange rates increases their frequency. The results of the econometric analysis is consistent with the experience of East European and central Asian emerging markets, which attracted a relatively large proportion of capital flows in the form of debt in recent years and have been particularly hard hit by the global financial crisis.     

外债与双重危机

本文的目的在于提出一个解释双重危机的模型,以协助厘清短期外债、经济基要、市场信心等关键元素在双重危机中所扮演的相对角色.研究结果显示,当外债额度超出某一容忍尺度与外债结构过度偏向短期时,都会导致经济体急剧呈现出易于导向危机的脆弱性,一旦经济成长率低于某一临界值,将使危机的发生几率急速攀升,呈现非线性的恶化,加上投机性狙击及市场信心溃散,形成一连串的恶性循环,而央行在有限的外汇储备下,很难遏止双重危机的发生.     

Financial and Political Institutional Problems as Instigators of Banking Crises

The question of why some countries suffer from crises, while others escape them, is challenging. Empirical evidence in the literature suggests that countries with stronger financial institutions are more able to withstand crises. This study empirically investigates whether the probability of crisis depends on the political institutional structure. More specifically, we question whether the failure to democratize polity successfully creates an environment for financial institutional weaknesses, which have the potential to lead to banking crises. It is found that the effectiveness of the prudent supervision of the financial sector in lowering the probability of banking crises is more pronounced in more democratized countries and when the political framework is more institutionalized.     

Early Warning Systems for Currency Crises with Real-Time Data

Open Economies Review - This paper investigates the performance of early warning systems for currency crises in real-time, using forecasts of indicators that are available at the moment predictions...     

金融地应多种所有制共同发展

我国现在的银行结构是不合理的 对于金融业应当是国有经济为主导,多种所有制共同发展的意见,我已经提过多次了.但是,民间金融业长期以来实际上是个禁区.直到2002年1月,国务院办公厅转发国家计委关于<"十五"期间加快发展服务业若干政策的意见>中,才明确提出:"在国有经济比重较高的对外贸易、公用事业、金融、保险等行业要逐步放宽对非国有经济的准入限制和扩大开放."这才对中国金融业要对内开放提供了政策基础.但现在还未落实.     

货币危机对国际贸易的影响

本文在一般均衡框架下分析货币贬值对国际贸易的影响。与传统理论的预测不同,在一般均衡框架下,预期中的货币贬值对进出口只有短期影响,而意外的大幅度货币贬值会产生持久性冲击。通过应用引力方程对世界五十二个主要经济体1980～1998年间双边贸易额分析,我们发现,实证结果为理论预测提供了较好的支持。     

Extreme Bounds Analysis in Early Warning Systems for Currency Crises

Open Economies Review - Selecting early warning indicators to predict currency crises is not straightforward, because there are several mechanisms that lead up to currency crises and these...     

Competition and Efficiency in the Banking Sector in South Africa

Abstract: We analyse the evolution of competition and efficiency of the banking sector in South Africa using firm‐level data for the period 1999–2008. We adopt a three‐step estimation approach. First, we measure efficiency using the data envelopment analysis (DEA) methodology. Second, we use the Panzar–Rosse approach to derive the H‐statistic for competitive conditions in banking. In the third stage, we take into account the role of managerial ability in competition by re‐estimating the Panzar–Rosse model, with the DEA efficiency scores as an explanatory variable. Overall, the results show that although average efficiency was trending upwards over the period, the number of efficient banks was falling. Also, it is found that for the period 1999–2008, the structure of the South African banking industry was characterized by monopolistic competition. This result may reflect domination by five large banks, which together account for over 85 per cent of total banking assets.     

Central Bank Balance Sheets and the Transmission of Financial Crises

Central banks usually “park” their foreign exchange reserves in safe or highly liquid foreign assets. The paper illustrates that when central banks invest instead in risky foreign assets, then domestic banking crises can cause a crisis in the market for the foreign asset and vice versa. The paper takes its motivation from Asian central banks’ recent appetite for US government agency-debt securities such as those issued by Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac.     

货币危机预警指标体系的构建及实证分析

本文首先阐述了建立货币危机预警指标体系的必要性与可行性;然后对国外货币危机预警研究进行了简单的介绍,并根据已有的研究成果以及指导原则构建了一套包括十个指标的预警指标体系;最后,利用这套预警指标体系对1997年的东亚7国以及1994年的墨西哥进行了实证分析,结果表明这套预警指标体系具有较好的预警能力。     

High‐Frequency Contagion of Currency Crises in Asia*

Using daily data from the Asian currency crisis, the present paper examines high‐frequency contagion effects among six Asian countries. The ‘origin’ (of exchange rate depreciation, or decline in stock prices) and the ‘affected’ (currencies, or stock prices) in the daily spillover relationship were defined and identified. Indonesia is found to be the main origin country, affecting exchange rates of other countries. Contrary to conventional wisdom, evidence of high‐frequency crisis spillover from the Thai exchange rate to other currencies was weak at best. There exists a high‐frequency contagion in stock markets among East Asian countries. Contagion coefficients are positively correlated with trade indices, indicating that investors lower their financial assessment of a country that has trade linkage to a crisis origin country within days, if not hours, of a shock.     

Competitiveness and Efficiency of the Banking Sector and Economic Growth in Egypt

Abstract: This paper investigates the impact of financial reforms on competitiveness and production efficiency of the banking sector, as well as the short‐term and long‐term impact on economic growth, in Egypt during 1992–2007. The results suggest that the reforms have a positive and significant effect on competitiveness and production efficiency. Also, the evidence shows that state‐owned banks are generally less competitive than private banks and foreign banks are less competitive than domestic banks. The average x‐inefficiency of Egyptian banks is around 30 per cent, which is comparable to those reported for other African countries. Finally, there is evidence to suggest a significant relationship between financial bank productive efficiency and economic growth in the short run but not in the long run. Overall, the results support the argument for continuing the financial sector reform programme in Egypt.     

货币国际化的政治逻辑——美元危机与德国马克的崛起

作者在文章中回答的一个核心问题是,德国马克如何从一个战败国的弱势货币迅速崛起成为世界第二大储备货币?主流经济学界对德国马克实现国际化的独特动力和机制缺乏相应的解释力,而政治经济学更为强调货币国际化进程是对国家间财富分配格局的重建,认为其根本动力是各个国家特别是大国之间对国际货币权力的竞争、限制和占有,国家间的政治性制度安排是实现货币国际化的有效手段。政治经济学的解释视角比较符合德国马克崛起的经验事实。作者认为,美元的过度特权对欧洲特别是对德国造成的沉重压力和负担是马克国际化的直接推动力,20世纪60-70年代的历次美元危机以及美国过于自负的对外货币政策所引发的全球大通胀为马克国际化打开了机会窗口,德国抓住这一时机在美元体系之外建立了马克主导下的欧洲货币体系,为德国马克的国际化的推进提供了制度保障和政治合法性。马克国际化导致的结果就是,美元的流通域逐渐被侵蚀和挤压,随着欧元的正式流通,美元势力最终被驱逐出欧洲大陆。德国货币马克包裹在欧元的外衣之下让德国获得了更大的国际货币权力。