Behavior of output during currency crises

This paper documents the behavior of output and its association with other macroeconomic variables in 195 episodes of currency crises in developing countries during 1970-2000. We find that about 60% of the crises are contractionary, while the rest are expansionary. Crises are one and a half times more likely to be contractionary in emerging markets than in other developing economies. The number of contractionary crises or their severity does not increase in the 1990s. Economies which experience capital inflows in the years prior to the crisis or an increase in external debt burden during the crisis are more likely to slow down during crises, while those with restrictions on capital flows prior to the crisis or are more open to international trade are less likely to do so. The results are robust to different ways of measuring changes in output during crises.     

人力资本流动对FDI技术溢出效应的影响——基于吸收能力的实证研究

人力资本流动对增强东道国自身技术吸收能力具有重要意义。本文选取来华留学生数与留学回国人数以及外资就业率作为人力资本流动的代理指标,使用数据包络分析方法（DEA）来测算技术进步,就人力资本流动对FDI技术吸收能力的影响进行了实证分析,并得出结论：FDI和人力资本流动相结合与技术进步存在正相关关系．但正效应并不显著。因此,我国应当提高人力资本流动质量,提升其总体水平,为FDI技术溢出创造优越的人才环境。     

What drives financial crises in emerging markets?

The study examines the causes of financial crises in 31 emerging market countries during 1980–2001. It estimates a probit model using 23 macroeconomic and financial sector variables. Traditional variables such as unemployment and inflation, as well as several indicators of indebtedness such as private sector liabilities and the foreign liabilities of banks explain currency crises rather well, and it appears currency crises occur in tandem with banking crises. Indeed, in emerging market countries the vulnerability to crisis is exacerbated by situations involving large liabilities that permit sudden capital outflows. Increases in indebtedness followed the liberalization of capital flows and domestic financial sectors.     

Capital flows to Asia and Latin America: Does institutional quality matter?

Using a sample of 28 emerging market economies from Asia and Latin America spanning 1990–2013, we show that the marginal effect of capital flows on growth is positive and contingent on the threshold level of institutional quality (IQ). The conditional effect of capital flows holds for both the income per capita growth and total factor productivity (TFP) growth. We also determine the different threshold levels of IQ at which the marginal effect of capital flows is positive. The overall level of IQ in the Asian countries is superior to the Latin American countries and requires a lower threshold level to exert any positive effect. While the same conditional effect of IQ holds in Latin America for TFP growth, this effect is reversed in Asia. For very high levels of IQ (91st percentile), the marginal effect of capital flows on TFP growth in Asia is almost negligible. The marginal effects also vary based on the composition of capital flows in each region.     

Capital controls,capital flows and external crises: evidence from India

Despite the widespread use of capital controls, India has experienced several balance of payments crises. This paper examines the solvency and sustainability of India's external imbalances and analyses the optimality of its capital flows. We use two approaches: an intertemporal model of the current account that allows for capital controls, and a composite model of macroeconomic indicators that yields probabilities of future balance of payments crises. The results indicate that India's intertemporal budget constraint is satisfied and that the path of its current account imbalances is sustainable, with some support for the optimality (given capital controls) of its external borrowing.     

Capital flow waves: Surges,stops, flight,and retrenchment

This paper analyzes waves in international capital flows. We develop a new methodology for identifying episodes of extreme capital flow movements using data that differentiates activity by foreigners and domestics. We identify episodes of “surges” and “stops” (sharp increases and decreases, respectively, of gross inflows) and “flight” and “retrenchment” (sharp increases and decreases, respectively, of gross outflows). Our approach yields fundamentally different results than the previous literature that used measures of net flows. Global factors, especially global risk, are significantly associated with extreme capital flow episodes. Contagion, whether through trade, banking, or geography, is also associated with stop and retrenchment episodes. Domestic macroeconomic characteristics are generally less important, and we find little association between capital controls and the probability of having surges or stops driven by foreign capital flows. The results provide insights for different theoretical approaches explaining crises and capital flow volatility.     

Is foreign direct investment a safer form of financing?

It has been common to attribute financial crises to short-term capital inflows, while foreign direct investment (FDI) is seen as a safer form of finance. The relationship between crises and the composition of capital flows is particularly relevant at present because the flow of capital to Latin America is becoming increasingly dominated by FDI. This paper asks whether the composition of capital inflows and of the stock of foreign liabilities is relevant for financial crises, be it their frequency, depth, or length. It explores the possible role of FDI as a benign form of external liability relative to other classes of liabilities, reviewing both analytical and empirical arguments.     

Global capital flows and development: A Survey

Abstract

From a development perspective, capital flows can both provide significant benefits and entail significant costs. Consequently, the development impacts of capital flows do not readily lend themselves to simple generalizations. This survey considers the development benefits and costs of four kinds of capital flows: foreign direct investment, equity portfolio investment, bond finance, and commercial bank lending. The survey suggests that the development impacts of these flows are conditional on both their specific characteristics and the larger policy environments in which they take place. It claims short-term superiority for foreign direct investment and equity portfolio investment over bond finance and commercial bank lending, and offers a set of policy recommendations to make capital flows more development-friendly.     

Capital Flows and Economic Growth in Ghana

ABSTRACT

The study examines the differential effects of capital flows on economic growth in Ghana over the period 1970–2014 using autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL). Breakpoint unit root tests are employed to cater for structural change and breaks in time series. Afterwards, these break dates are fed into the ADRL model as dummy variables to allow for the computation of a more robust cointegrating vector. The findings indicate that in both the short and long run capital flows (i.e. FDI, aid, and external debt) have negative effects on economic growth. However, remittances exhibit positive insignificant elasticity in all the regressions. Further, the empirical results show that while the impact of trade, gross capital formation and population growth on growth are mixed, that of inflation is negative. The results of the study are consistent with the idea that the impact of capital flows in Africa has been exaggerated.     

Off the cliff and back? Credit conditions and international trade during the global financial crisis

We study the collapse of international trade flows during the global financial crisis using detailed data on monthly US imports. We show that credit conditions were an important channel through which the crisis affected trade volumes, by exploiting the variation in the cost of capital across countries and over time, as well as the variation in financial vulnerability across sectors. Countries with higher interbank rates and thus tighter credit markets exported less to the US during the peak of the crisis. This effect was especially pronounced in sectors that require extensive external financing, have limited access to trade credit, or have few collateralizable assets. Exports of financially vulnerable industries were thus more sensitive to the cost of external capital than exports of less vulnerable industries, and this sensitivity rose during the financial crisis. The quantitative implications of our estimates for trade volumes highlight the large real effects of financial crises and the potential gains from policy intervention.     

Globalization,regionalization and convergence in East Asia

This research paper reports the result of an investigation into the pattern of income convergence in East Asia since 1970 and the proximate role of increased regionalization and inter-regional globalization in generating regional convergence or divergence. Specifically, we apply sigma and log t convergence tests for income convergence in the East Asian region and an augmented autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model to analyze the relationship between regional income dispersion and intra- and extra-regional flows of goods, capital and technology. Regardless of the measure of per capita income, the sigma convergence tests fail to find any evidence of intra-regional convergence. The log t convergence tests do not indicate overall convergence either, but, indicate the existence of convergence clubs within the region. The regression analysis suggests that intra-regional flows of capital and technology and extra- regional FDI flows unambiguously engender convergence while intra-regional trade flows and extra-regional exports have divergence effects.     

跨境资本流动的最新风险与趋势解析及对我国的启示

本文在简要概述近年来跨境资本流动重要特征的基础上,着重解析了后危机时代主导资本流向的核心要素,详细分析了跨境资本流动的影响传导机制及可能引发的风险。本文认为,为促进跨境资本的有序流动,中国一方面应加强对跨境资本过度流动的监管,建立健全跨境资本流动风险预警机制,另一方面更应加快主动的政策调整,处理好保持经济平稳较快发展、调整经济结构和管理通胀预期的关系,稳步、主动推进人民币区域化、国际化的发展进程。     

The Political Economy of Basle II: The Costs for Poor Countries

The financial crises of the 1990s triggered many changes to the design of the international financial system. We use the formulation of the new Basle capital accord for banks (B‐II) to illustrate that, while much affected, developing countries have had very little influence on this so‐called new international financial architecture. We argue that B‐II has been formulated largely to serve the interests of powerful market players, with developing countries being left out. At the same time, we demonstrate that B‐II is likely to raise the costs and reduce the supply of external financing for developing countries in particular. Furthermore, and importantly, B‐II may well increase the pro‐cyclicality of external financing, an unfortunate outcome given that developing countries already face much volatility in terms of capital flows. Overall, while B‐II may indeed compensate for a range of weaknesses of Basle I, the exclusionary policy process and costs which B‐II imposes on developing countries require a re‐think of the way in which crucial elements of financial governance, such as the Basle capital accords, are developed and implemented.     

Rhetorics of saving–investment correlations and the international mobility of capital: A survey

This study surveys the literature on saving–investment (SI) correlations and international mobility of capital (IMC) generated over more than three decades since the 1980s. Several studies have shown the presence of paradoxically high SI correlations for the developed countries with observed high IMC, and low SI correlations for the developing countries with observed low IMC. The studies accounting for structural breaks in model parameters provide dominant support for the decrease in SI correlations and increase in IMC after the switch from fixed to flexible exchange rate regime and the removal of policy restrictions on capital flows. The intertemporal optimisation approach to current account and the open-economy growth and dynamic stochastic general equilibrium models mainly provide theoretical predictions and suggest that it is possible to find high SI correlations in the wake of high IMC. The increases in international capital flows have been the natural corollary of the growth of international trade in goods and services and increases in foreign direct investment flows. It is these factors, rather than international trade in capital market securities (bonds and equities) driven by the diversification benefits of financial portfolios per se, that have been the key levers of international financial flows.     

Leaders and followers: emerging market fund behavior during tranquil and turbulent times

Recent episodes of capital market volatility and contagion have brought up many questions about the behavior of international investors. We address some of these questions, exploring the behavior of different types of emerging market equity funds with monthly data on individual country holdings. Consistent with the notion that fund behavior can largely be traced to redemptions by individual investors, we find that open-end funds withdraw more from vulnerable countries around crises than their closed-end counterparts. We show that open-end funds’ flows Granger-cause closed-end funds investments, possibly because the closed-end funds are forced to follow their more fickle open-end counterparts. Single-country fund flows precede those of global funds, suggesting an informational advantage of the former. The evidence does not support the notion that small funds are at a disadvantage in gathering country information.     

The fear of globalizing capital markets

It is generally accepted that free flow of goods benefits both economies without serious risks. The situation with the free flow of capital is different. Many policy makers and economists are skeptical not only about the benefits of free flow of capital, but also see uncontrolled capital flows as risky and destabilizing. Other economists, however, firmly believe that free capital flows will lead to a more efficient allocation of resources and greater economic growth. Nevertheless, the debate has little empirical evidence to rely on. We hope to fill that gap in this paper. We study the benefits and risks associated with capital flows by examining the experience of emerging economies around the time that foreign investment in stock markets was allowed. We investigate the impact of capital flows on stock returns, stock market efficiency, inflation, and exchange rates. We also examine the effect on different kinds of volatility that might arise as a consequence of capital flows: volatility of stock returns, volatility of inflation rates, and volatility of exchange rates. We find no evidence of an increase in inflation or an appreciation of exchange rates. Stock returns reflect a lower cost of capital after liberalization. There is no increase in stock market volatility and the volatility of inflation and exchange rates actually decreases. Stock markets become more efficient as determined by testing the random walk hypothesis.     

The empirics of banking regulation

This paper empirically assesses whether banking regulation is effective at preventing banking crises. We use a monthly index of banking system fragility, which captures almost every source of risk in the banking system, to estimate the effect of regulatory measures (entry restriction, reserve requirement, deposit insurance, and capital adequacy requirement) on banking stability in the context of a Markov-switching model. Our methodology is less prone to selection and simultaneity bias which are common in this type of study. We apply this method to the Indonesian banking system, which has been subject to several regulatory changes over the last couple of decades, and at the same time, has experienced a severe systemic crisis. We draw the following findings from this research: (i) entry restriction reduces crisis duration as well as the probability of such an occurrence; (ii) larger reserve requirements reduce crisis duration, but increase banking instability; (iii) deposit insurance increases banking system stability and reduces crisis duration; (vi) capital adequacy requirement improves stability and reduces the expected duration of banking crises. Finally, we find that previous studies present a negative simultaneity bias for deposit insurance and a negative selection bias for capital adequacy requirement. We can infer from these findings that any relevant assessment of the impact of a regulation, which has been introduced during the recent period of banking instability, should account for simultaneity.     

Revisiting the Bright and Dark Sides of Capital Flows in Business Groups

Prior studies report that the business group structure and the associated intra-group capital flows are prone to conflicts of interest between controlling shareholders and minority investors. Yet business group is a prevalent and stable structure around the globe, particularly where capital markets are underdeveloped. Using data from China, this paper empirically studies the trade-off between the negative and positive roles played by intra-group capital flows and tests the efficiency implications of such trade-off. We find that from the perspective of the whole group, intra-group capital flows are most efficient when the groups are least subject to conflicts of interest between controlling shareholders and minority shareholders and when they face strong external financing constraints.     

The Aftermath of a Currency Collapse: How Different are Emerging Markets?

In currency crises, unlike in orderly devaluations, the financial markets dominate events. Previous research has shown that the output effects of a crisis tend to be worse in emerging markets, and the current account adjustment greater. This paper examines the evolution of a wider range of macroeconomic variables from two years before a currency collapse to two years afterwards. On the basis of twelve recent episodes, it is shown that currency collapses (crises followed by depreciations) have had a much greater adverse impact in emerging markets (defined as relatively high‐income developing countries exposed to international capital markets) than in developed countries. There is greater nominal and real depreciation, a substantial inflation shock, a much bigger output effect, and far greater import compression, whilst inflows of portfolio capital virtually cease. These differences are statistically significant. Nevertheless there is wide variation n the post‐collapse experience of the six emerging markets studied (Mexico, Thailand, Korea, Indonesia, Russia and Brazil). Although all six experienced a sudden stop or even a reversal of capital flows and very sharp nominal depreciations, inflation remained low in Thailand, Korea and Brazil, and output losses were comparatively small in Russia and Brazil. Previous studies of individual crises suggest that important factors are the state of the banking system and its vulnerability to currency movements, the ability of the authorities to establish a credible macroeconomic policy after the collapse, and whether the crisis triggers significant political instability.     

论利率与储蓄率对国际短期资本流动的影响

影响短期资本流动的因素很多,文章主要从利率与储蓄率的角度,对影响国际短期资本流动的因素进行分析,并在此基础上研究利率与储蓄率的正比例关系及其对国际短期资本流动的交互影响。