The national segmentation of euro area bank balance sheets during the financial crisis

This paper analyses bank balance sheet data in conjunction with macroeconomic and other financial variables. Our aim is to understand the nature of the instability in financial intermediation in the euro area during the recent financial crises. We define “large changes” as significant departures in the actual evolution of balance sheet variables during the crisis from their historical association with the business and financial cycles. In the course of the global 2008–2009 financial crisis, such “large changes” were features of the behaviour of cross-border inter-bank flows, both within the euro area and between the euro area and the rest of the world. By contrast, retail assets and liabilities, as well as inter-bank flows among banks of the same country, did not significantly deviate from historical regularities. Since the euro area sovereign crisis of 2011–2012, “large changes” have been more pervasive. In particular, a significant home bias in the sovereign bond market has emerged.     

The role of financial frictions during the crisis: An estimated DSGE model

After the recent banking crisis in 2008, financial market conditions have turned out to be a relevant factor for economic fluctuations. This paper provides a quantitative assessment of the impact of financial frictions on the U.S. business cycle. The analysis compares the original Smets and Wouters model (2003, 2007) with an alternative version augmented with the financial accelerator mechanism á la Bernanke, Gertler and Gilchrist (1996, 1999). Both versions are estimated using Bayesian techniques over a sample extended to 2012. The analysis supports the role of financial channels, namely the financial accelerator mechanism, in transmitting dysfunctions from financial markets to the real economy.The Smets and Wouters model, augmented with the financial accelerator mechanism, is suitable to capture much of the historical developments in U.S. financial markets that led to the financial crisis. The model can account for the output contraction in 2008, as well as the widening in corporate spreads, and supports the argument that financial conditions have amplified the U.S. business cycle and the intensity of the recession.     

危机与重塑：1997～2010金融体系国际竞争力

在经济规模增长和经济实力增强的同时,中国开始寻求在国际金融体系中更大的话语权。本文利用国际管理发展学院（IMD）公布的1997年至2010年国际竞争力数据,对全球主要经济体十余年来金融体系国际竞争力的动态变化,特别是2008年金融危机带来的竞争力衰退展开分析。研究表明,中国金融体系国际竞争力处于全球中等水平,在2006～2007年达到最好状态,随后受金融危机影响出现衰退,但情况好于发达国家,近10余年来金融体系硬实力较软实力有更大的提升。中国金融体系未来发展仍需在竞争软实力上着力,以金融创新推动竞争力提升     

THE POST‐ASIAN CRISIS DROP IN INVESTMENT: THE CASES OF INDONESIA,KOREA, MALAYSIA,AND THAILAND

This study analyzes drops in East Asian investment and their determinants after the 1997–1998 Asian financial crisis. We first employ a random level‐shift autoregressive model to quantify the shift in investment ratios of four Asian economies hit by the 1997–1998 Asian financial crisis: Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, and Thailand. We trace the major historical shifts in the levels of investment ratios and we find that the cumulated downward shifts in investment ratios during 1997–1998 for Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, and Thailand are 6, 5, 14, and 14 percentage points, respectively. The investment ratios of most countries experienced several rebounds between 1999 and 2001, but the rebounds were too small to bring investment ratios back to their pre‐1990 levels. Having identified the episodes of investment shifts, the Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA) and several robust tests are employed to investigate the determinants of those level shifts in investment ratios. We find that real per capita gross domestic product growth and banking crises are the two most important factors contributing to shifts in the investment levels of these four crisis‐hit Asian economies. The results are useful in understanding the causes and remedies of global imbalances. (JEL C11, E22, F32, O53)     

金融危机:演进历史与西方理论

国际金融危机的频繁发生对全球金融体系的稳定和世界经济增长构成了巨大的威胁,这引起了众多经济学家的关注。本文采用历史考察的方法,对20世纪30年代以来所发生的主要金融危机与已形成的代表性的金融危机理论进行系统总结,并提出了新一代金融危机理论可能的发展方向。     

What do capital inflows do? Dissecting the transmission mechanism for Thailand, 1980–1996

This paper examines the effects of private financial (non-FDI) capital inflows in Thailand in the pre-crisis period (1980:I–1996:IV). Private capital inflows are found to be associated with higher asset prices, lower lending rates, surges in bank lending and domestic spending driven by higher investment, higher output, modest inflation, and modest real exchange rate appreciation. Inflows are also associated with a greater vulnerability to a liquidity crisis, but not with greater external solvency risk. Current account deficits are temporary, thus sustainable, as exports catch up with higher imports within two years. Consequently, the Thai crisis appears to be more of a liquidity crisis than an external solvency crisis.     

Empirical Indicators of Currency Crises in East Asia

The paper is concerned with identifying useful indicators of the probability of currency crises in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea and Thailand over a period of 22 years, where a currency crisis is defined as a large and infrequent devaluation of a local currency. The leading crisis indicators include international and domestic factors; but they are dominated by the leading indicators from the financial sector, such as the ratio of short-term debt to foreign reserves, the ratio of M2 to foreign reserves, and the indicator representing a regional contagion effect. This result is interpreted as pointing to external illiquidity together with adverse shifts in the market sentiment as the likely catalyst for the 1997–98 East Asia crisis.     

Nonperforming Loans and Purchase of Loans by Public Asset Management Companies in Malaysia and Thailand

This paper explores the factors which eliminated the nonperforming loan (NPL) problem in Malaysia and Thailand following the 1997 Asian financial crisis. The number of NPL, which expanded in the aftermath of the crisis, has since declined in most South‐East Asian countries. Although previous studies have explored the causes of the increase in NPL numbers, few have analysed the factors that contributed to the reduction in their number in Asia. In Malaysia and Thailand, authorities put in place several measures to manage NPL. As a vehicle to acquire NPL from banks, Malaysia established the Pengurusan Danaharta Nasional Berhad (Danaharta) in 1998, while Thailand established the Thai Asset Management Corporation (TAMC) in 2001. We analyse whether the characteristic features of banks, improvements in macroeconomic conditions, and facilities for purchasing loans caused a reduction in the number of NPL in Malaysia and Thailand. The results suggest that selling loans to a public asset management company was effective in reducing the number of NPL in Thailand. While macroeconomic conditions influenced the decline in NPL ratios in Thailand, in Malaysia, well performing commercial banks and large commercial and investment banks generally had smaller NPL ratios throughout and following the crisis.     

Real interest rate linkages in the Pacific-Basin region

This paper examines the linkage of real interest rates of a group of Pacific-Basin countries with a focus on East Asia. We consider monthly real interest rates of US, Japan, Korea, Singapore, and Thailand from 1980 to 2006. The impulse response analysis and half-life estimation are conducted in a multivariate setting, adopting the bias-corrected bootstrap as a means of statistical inference. It is found that the degree of capital market integration has increased after the Asian financial crisis in 1997. The overall evidence suggests that the crisis has substantially changed the nature of the short run interactions among the real interest rates. Before the crisis, both the US and Japanese capital markets dominated the region. After the crisis, the dominance of the Japanese market has completely disappeared, while the US market remains as a sole dominant player and the Korean market has become more influential.     

Structural change and international stock market interdependence: Evidence from Asian emerging markets

This study investigates the evolving pattern of the interdependence among selected Asian emerging markets and three major stock markets (Japan, UK and US). Using rolling cointegration methods and the recently developed algorithms of inductive causation, we found that time-varying cointegration relationships exist among these stock markets. The results indicate that the wave of financial liberalization policies in the early 1990s led to a significant increase in market linkages which was later weakened during the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Furthermore, the data indicate that Japan and the US have the greatest influence on the emerging markets while the influence of Singapore and Thailand has increased since the Asian financial crisis.     

历史视角中的美国和世界的危机

新古典宏观经济学和数理金融学都没能预期到2008年的这场危机，也没能解释为何这场危机是如此严重。这是因为他们只考虑纯粹的市场经济，完全不考虑制度，也缺乏分析当代经济的历史视角和结构变迁的视角。这就为政治经济学的分析留下了空间。分析从福特制结束以来的社会-政治联盟的变迁开始，转向以金融体制、金融自由化和全球化为基础的市场，赋予国际金融家以前所未有的权力，并导致了当前的经济和金融危机。控制金融部门要求当权者强有力的行动，以及公民的社会运动施压。金融再调节基本等同于民族国家与国际金融资本的博弈。     

The effectiveness of capital controls: evidence from Colombia and Thailand

In the run up to the financial crisis of 2007–2009 many developing nations were subject to massive inflows of capital, capital that their financial systems found difficult to absorb. One of a number of policy options to respond to such inflows is unremunerated reserve requirements (URR). Two countries, Colombia and Thailand, deployed URR in the second half of the decade. This paper analyses the effectiveness of the URR in those two instances. We find that URRs were modestly successful in Colombia and Thailand. In Colombia, the controls were able stem an asset bubble in the stock market. In Thailand, the URR reduced the overall volume of flows, and the announcement of the URR caused a sharp drop in asset prices. However, some of the other goals of capital controls were not fulfilled. The results in this paper demonstrate that there is still a role for capital controls in the twenty-first century, but such controls should be more sophisticated than in years past.     

Dynamic linkages between exchange rates and stock prices: Evidence from East Asian markets

This study examines dynamic linkages between exchange rates and stock prices for seven East Asian countries, including Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand, for the period January 1988 to October 1998. Our empirical results show a significant causal relation from exchange rates to stock prices for Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, and Thailand before the 1997 Asian financial crisis. We also find a causal relation from the equity market to the foreign exchange market for Hong Kong, Korea, and Singapore. Further, while no country shows a significant causality from stock prices to exchange rates during the Asian crisis, a causal relation from exchange rates to stock prices is found for all countries except Malaysia. Our findings are robust with respect to various testing methods used, including Granger causality tests, a variance decomposition analysis, and an impulse response analysis. Our findings also indicate that the linkages vary across economies with respect to exchange rate regimes, the trade size, the degree of capital control, and the size of equity market.     

CAN INVESTMENT IN INTANGIBLES EXPLAIN THE SWEDISH PRODUCTIVITY BOOM IN THE 1990s?

In the early 1990s the Swedish economy experienced a severe economic and financial crisis which resulted in a substantial GDP decrease. Even though the crisis was not a complete surprise for many economists, almost no one expected that the Swedish economy would be prospering with booming productivity growth only a few years later. Economists have presented three explanations for the fast recovery and productivity growth in 1995–2006: market reforms, crisis recovery, and the impact of ICT. This paper offers an alternative view, emphasizing instead firms' substantial investment in intangible assets such as R&D, design, and advertising. Based on the growth accounting framework, intangible capital accounted for more than 30 percent of the labor productivity growth in the Swedish business sector from 1995 to 2006. Thus, Swedish TFP growth, one of the highest among OECD countries, is reduced substantially when investment in intangibles is included in the growth accounting analysis.     

金融危机下的世界建筑业与中国之应对

建筑业是世界各国的支柱产业之一,但金融危机已经给世界金融、经济乃至各国经济发展模式造成了严重冲击,各国建筑业也受到了极大影响。文章首先回顾了危机以来全球建筑业逐渐衰落的现状及其对中国建筑业的影响,然后着重分析了中国建筑业在应对危机中的举措及取得的相关成绩,指出中国建筑业在危机中表现的问题,并提出了中国建筑业可持续发展的对策建议。     

Ten Years After the Financial Crisis in Thailand: What Has Been Learned or Not Learned?

The 1997 financial crisis provided many lessons about the weaknesses of Thailand's economic and financial system before the crisis, weaknesses that eventually led to the crisis. Since then, these lessons have led to many economic and financial reforms. This paper reviews the lessons and reforms that have been carried out. These include improvements to the data system needed for adequate macroeconomic monitoring, changes to the macroeconomic management framework and monetary policy regime, and various aspects of financial sector reforms. This paper also indicates the lessons that might not yet have been sufficiently learned and new risks to future economic stability. These include political interference in financial institutions, leading to inappropriate or excessive lending, and lack of transparency in fiscal liabilities that could mislead macroeconomic management.     

危机损失、经济复苏与金融结构比较——什么样的金融体系更能摆脱危机

本文从比较分析视角出发,研究在应对金融危机的过程中,不同的金融结构对经济增长的作用。我们利用57个国家从1960到2009年的面板数据检验了金融结构、金融发展水平与经济增长之间的相互联系。研究结果表明,只有当金融发展水平较高的经济体选择市场导向的金融结构时,才能降低金融危机的损失,提高经济复苏速度,而金融发展水平较低的经济体的最佳选择则是银行导向的金融结构。最后,本文结合中国的现实情况提出了相关的政策建议。     

Speculator-triggered crisis and interventions

This paper adds a speculator and an authority to a benchmark global game model to investigate how the speculator endangers a business or an economy, and what the authority can do about it. It is found that the existence of a speculator increases the financial system’s vulnerability by serving as a coordinating device for the investors and thus triggering the crisis. We then compare three different intervention policies imposed by the authority aiming to counteract this effect: deterring the speculator, rewarding holding investors, and eliminating the preemption motives among investors. We argue that the first method may not work because of the multiplicity problem; the second one is useless when a crisis is about to happen; the last tool works given enough effort. We also include a discussion of different intervention polices employed by governments during the 1997 Asian financial crisis to illustrate the theoretical results.     

Contagion, Monsoons, and Domestic Turmoil in Indonesia's Currency Crisis

The paper investigates whether Indonesia's recent currency crisis was due to domestic fundamentals, common external shocks ("monsoons"), or contagion from neighboring countries. Markov switching models attribute speculative pressure on Indonesia's currency to domestic political and financial factors and contagion from speculative pressures in Thailand and Korea. In particular, the results from a time-varying transition probability Markov switching model (which overcomes some drawbacks of previous methods) show that inclusion of exchange rate pressures from Thailand and Korea in the transition probabilities improves the conditional probabilities of crisis in Indonesia. The paper also finds evidence of contagion in the stock market.