Saving,investment, growth and the cost of financial repression

This paper presents a quantitative estimate of the cost of financial repression in developing countries. Here, financial repression is interpreted as the technique of holding institutional interest rates (particularly deposit rates of interest) below their market equilibrium levels. For a sample of developing countries, saving is found to be affected positively by the real deposit rate of interest, as is real money demand, where money is defined broadly to include savings and time deposits. Under disequilibrium interest rate conditions, higher saving which raises real money demand increases pari passu the real supply of credit. Credit availability is an important determinant not only of new investment but also of capacity utilization of the entire capital stock. Hence, the growth rate is itself affected positively by the real deposit rate of interest through two channels – first, the volume of saving and investment and, second, capacity utilization of the entire capital stock, i.e. the measured incremental capital/output ratio. Estimates of saving and growth functions lead to the conclusion that the cost of financial repression appears to be around half a percetage point in economic growth foregone for every one percentage point by which the real deposit rate of interest is set below its market equilibrium rate.     

Real interest rates and the cost of capital

The real interest rate and the equity risk premium are criticaleconomic parameters that influence a wide range of economicdecisions. This paper considers the problems involved in estimatingexpected real interest rates and the equity risk premium, andhence the overall cost of capital. Using UK data, it suggestsreasons why estimates based on historical returns may be misleading,and discusses alternative approaches to estimating the costof capital.     

固定汇率下资本账户开放对经济的影响——基于修正的Mundell模型的动态分析

本文拓展了蒙代尔(1960)的模型,并用该模型分析了固定汇率体系下资本账户开放对实际汇率和利率的影响,以及资本完全流动时经济的动态稳定性。本文的主要发现是,随着资本账户的开放,资本流动性的加强将会引起实际汇率和利率相对于初始状态的调整。而且,随着资本账户的放开,国内货币政策越来越受制于外部因素。模型的另一个发现是,当资本完全流动时,固定汇率体系呈现一种稳定的稳态。     

Estimation of the production function with the variable utilization of capital assets in the Russian economy

The paper considers the problem of estimating aggregate production functions taking into account the variable utilization rate of the capital assets that act as an unobservable variable for the macro and meso levels. The proposed approach is based on the microeconomic foundations of the producer’s behavior with the appropriate modification of the problem on optimizing the volumes of production inputs and outputs. Parameter estimates have been given for the Cobb–Douglas-type production function and the performance of the utilization rate of the capital assets in Russian economy over 2002–2014. The high statistical dependence of the performance of investment in fixed capital on changes in the utilization rate of the capital assets has been revealed.     

Capital utilization in Japan's lost decade: A neoclassical interpretation

This paper attempts to reconcile the controversy regarding Japan's total factor productivity during its slump in the 1990s by clarifying the role of capital utilization. Hayashi and Prescott (2002) emphasized that the decline in the exogenous total factor productivity growth rate was the main cause. However, some empirical studies have also pointed out that the fall in capital utilization rates accounted for a large part of the decline in the total factor productivity growth rate. In this study we incorporate variable capital utilization into a neoclassical growth model, calculate total factor productivity taking into account capital utilization, and simulate the aggregate output and capital-output ratio. We found that although our total factor productivity growth rate in the 1990s is consistent with empirical studies, our simulation can explain the observed data. This result indicates the importance of capital utilization rates as a source of propagation during Japan's depression.     

影响中国国际资本流动的因素分析

本文结合中国资本流动的特点,加入证券市场价格及房地产价格水平两个变量实证分析了1982～2004年对我国国际资本流动的影响。结果表明对中国资本流动影响最显著的因素依次为利率、汇率、房地产价格指数和证券市场价格。     

Reexamination of Real Business Cycles in a Small Open Economy

Standard dynamic small open economy models have predicted a counterfactual perfectly positive correlation between output and hours worked over the business cycle. In addition, this class of models exhibits a weak internal propagation mechanism. To address these anomalies, this paper incorporates intertemporally non‐separable labor supply and variable capital utilization into the canonical Mendoza (1991) model with adjustment costs of net investment. Our analysis shows that a dynamic, technology shock–driven small open economy model with internal habit formation in labor hours and endogenous capital utilization is able to account for the main real business cycle regularities of Canada after 1981.     

Financing of land purchase by small‐scale farmers

Binswanger attributes the problem facing poor people in financing land purchase to the inclusion of a real capital gains component in the price of land. This article attributes it largely to a cash flow problem which arises from positive inflation rates. The Ricardian rent return to land in South African agriculture is estimated at between 4 and 5 per cent while the Land Bank's interest rate is 15 per cent. Interest payments on a bond can therefore not be met from rents to land alone. If, as an extreme situation, the expected inflation rate were zero, farmers might have been able to borrow funds at 4 to 5 per cent. To bring debt servicing in line with projected cash flows in the real situation, mortgage interest rates could be subsidised; or, in an alternative affirmative action, the state could contribute towards the purchase price of land. These alternatives are discussed.     

Een onderzoek naar de invloed van monetaire factoren op het reële groeiproces in enkele traditionele theorieën van economische groei (III)

Summary This is the third of three successive papers on the problem of to what extent monetary phenomena influence the real variables in a process of economic growth. In the first paper the conditions under which money is neutral was examined. The second was devoted to the impact of money in a neo-classical growth model. In the present paper the real neo-keynesian growth model of Harrod is taken as a starting-point. This is a special case of the neo-classical model, for the introduction of a constant rate of interest in a neoclassical production structure yields a constant capital-labor ratio as a result. According to the Harrod model, capital scarcity or capital abundance will generally prevail. Stable growth is a mere accident. Subsequently, the assumption of a constant rate of interest is relaxed. The rate is now assumed to be dependent on the national product and the money supply. This makes the model more flexible. Control of the growth rate of the money supply is then an instrument in the hands of the monetary authorities for the purpose of preventing situations of capital scarcity or abundance. In the case of capital scarcity, the growth rate of the money supply has to be raised. Paradoxically enough, the result of this will be that the rate of interest rises. In a situation of capital abundance the opposite is true. A steady and stable growth path is possible, because the monetary authorities are in a position to let the rate of interest take a value at which full employment prevails.      

利率水平、股票指数与资本的国际流动——理论模型与实证检验

传统的蒙代尔-弗莱明模型是以利率作为影响资本在国与国之间流动的主要因素甚至唯一因素为假定前提的,但这一假定具有越来越明显的局限性。在现代经济社会,金融资产的价格波动很多情况下成为影响资本国际流动的最主要因素。证券市场和房地产市场的价格走势又往往是与利率反方向变动的。本文据此论证了负斜率的BP曲线,从而拓展和丰富了蒙代尔-弗莱明模型的形态。然后以两组共计28个国家或地区的经济数据对其进行了实证检验。     

Maintenance expenditures and indeterminacy under increasing returns to scale

This paper develops a one-sector real business cycle model in which competitive firms allocate resources for the production of goods, investment in new capital and maintenance of existing capital. Firms also choose the utilization rate of existing capital. A higher utilization rate leads to faster capital depreciation, and an increase in maintenance activity has the opposite effect. We show that as the equilibrium ratio of maintenance expenditures to GDP rises, the required degree of increasing returns for local indeterminacy declines over a wide range of parameter combinations. When the model is calibrated to match empirical evidence on the relative size of maintenance and repair activity, we find that local indeterminacy (and belief-driven fluctuations) can occur with a mild and empirically-plausible degree of increasing returns: approximately 1.08.     

Growth models and analysis of development

This paper deals with remnants of neoclassical elements in Keynesian and post- Keynesian throught, and attempts to demonstrate that the elimination of these elements from our modes of thinking would not impoverish economic analysis as a means of solving real problems.In the Keynesian analysis the causation from investment to savings is exhibited in terms of income determination. When put in terms of a capital theory model, the vector of savings is represented in two ways: firstly, real savings, and secondly, counterpart real savings. The former coincides with the investment vector and the latter with the vector of consumption goods foregone for diverting resources towards equipment making. Thus the Keynesian causation in capital theory terms makes the concept of national savings as an independent variable redundant.The Robinsonian causation in a golden age with full employment and its reversal of direction in a steady state with non-employment are then considered. But in each of these, variables like rate of savings and output-capital ratio are found to be dormat variables. They are termed as null variables which, being of no account in both full-employment and unemployment situations, could, without loss, be deleted from the repertory of analytical tools. The Harrod formula of warranted rate of growth, when put in causal form, thus becomes a redundant portion of economics of growth. The real determinants of the growth rate and real wage rate on which the analysis of growth or of development should be based, are also depicted.     

中国上市公司的债务融资分析——基于理论与实证的视角

本文在实证上，通过模型筛选．采用固定影响变截距计量模型，考察了上市公司债务融资的影响因素。在实证得出的时期影响基础上，本文进一步从理论上构建了上市公司债务融资与资金成本的财务动态稳定性分析框架，发现在一定的条件下，当公司销售增长率大于资金成本率时，存在鞍点路径保证公司债务水平和资金成本率趋于某一水平，从而使公司财务保持稳定状态。基于以上实证与理论研究，本文最后得出若干结论。     

Government budget deficits,nominal andex ante real long-term interest rates in the U.K., 1960:1–1990:2

This paper explores the impact of government budget deficits on the U.K. nominal and ex ante real long-term interest rates over the period from 1960:1 to 1990:2 utilizing an open and closed economy IS-LM model. An open economy IS-LM model indicates that nominal and ex ante real long-term interest rates are affected by the expected rate of inflation, the real money stock, the real government budget deficit, the real government spending, and the real balance of trade.The evidence presented suggests that increases in the U.K. budget deficits do contribute significantly to increases in nominal and ex ante real long-term interest rates. This implies that rising nominal and ex ante real long-term interest rates, as a result of high government budget deficits, would crowd out private investment and deter capital formation and long-term economic growth.     

Budget deficits and real interest rates: Updated empirical evidence on causality

Using error-correction model (ECM) estimation, the paper empirically examines the causality relationship between the federal government budget deficit and the ex ante real interest rate yield on high grade long term tax free municipal bonds in the U.S. To clarify this deficit or interest rate relationship, the budget deficit is measured by the primary budget deficit, which excludes net interest payments by the Treasury. In a model that includes federal personal income tax rates and net international capital flows, as well as money supply growth, the ECM estimates strongly suggest a bi-directional relationship between the primary budget deficit and the ex ante real interest rate yield. Budget deficits apparently do matter! William Simon's concerns were justified.The author is indebted to P. A. V. B. Swamy for ideas and helpful suggestions and Will Perry for data assembly and processing.     

The demand for money in a small open economy: The case of Switzerland

The paper uses cointegration analysis to investigate the demand for money in Switzerland in the context of an open economy. It considers the general process of financial asset substitution and tests for the relevance of an exchange rate and a foreign interest rate variable in a conventional money demand equation. The results show that the variables entering into the demand for either monetary base or narrow money equation may not form a cointegrated system unless the exchange rate or foreign interest rate variable is included. This provides support to both the currency substitution and capital mobility hypotheses.     

金融摩擦下利率市场化改革对经济增长的影响研究

当前我国正面临经济增长放缓、流动性趋紧、利率居高不下的复杂局面,如何推进利率市场化改革以维护金融稳定、促进经济增长是重要的课题。文章构建包含金融摩擦因素的经济增长模型,并选用1980—2013年的数据进行实证检验。研究认为,利率变化对储蓄的影响是正向的,对投资的影响在2000年前后由正转负,与经济增长长期负相关,随着利率市场化改革的深入,利率的经济增长弹性呈增大趋势。未来利率市场化改革的重点,在短期应稳健审慎推进存款利率上限放开,在长期应优化金融市场结构畅通利率微观传导机制。     

Consumer confidence and economic stagnation in Japan

This paper examines whether self-fulfilling expectations could have been the cause of the economic stagnation experienced by Japan in the 1990s. A real business cycle model with indeterminacy of equilibria and variable capital utilization is used to simulate the economy of Japan. Driven solely by expectation shocks, the model can replicate the economic bubble that occurred in the late 1980s and the prolonged slowdown that occurred in the 1990s. These results suggest that expectations should not be excluded as a possible source of Japan's recent economic difficulties.     

An Empirical Analysis on Capital Flows: The Case of Korea and Mexico

This paper discusses causes of capital flows in Korea and Mexico. Both countries received substantial amounts of foreign capital in the late 1980s and early 1990s. International capital helped these countries achieve a higher standard of living and faster economic growth. However, undesirable macroeconomic effects such as appreciation of real exchange rate and widening current account deficits usually accompany foreign capital inflows. The vector autoregressive (VAR) method is applied to investigate the underlying shocks causing the capital inflows. The main findings are that the U.S. business cycle and shocks to foreign interest rates account for more than 50% of capital inflows to both countries in the past two decades.     

Development Paradox of FDI in China

According to the arising problems of foreign investment utilization, this paper analyzes the anbalanced market competition, absence of core technology, increasing implicit cost, growing dependency on foreign capital and impact of potential monopoly. At last the conclusion is that China should take constantly improvement of foreign investment utilization quality and positive expanding foreign capital utilization scale as its main goal of foreign capital policy within the mid and long-term period.