Does Nuclear Uncertainty Threaten Financial Markets? The Attention Paid to North Korean Nuclear Threats and Its Impact on South Korea's Financial Markets

We explore how investor attention paid to dangerous nuclear tests influences financial market outcomes. To measure the attention paid to North Korean nuclear threats, we introduce a weekly Google search volume index for keywords on North Korean nuclear events. Using a time‐varying structural vector autoregression model with block exogeneity restrictions, we find that investor attention paid to nuclear threats has heterogeneous effects on South Korea's stock prices across industries and over time: attention on only the first nuclear test was negatively related to the stock price index, which vanished thereafter. Moreover, the investor attention paid to the nuclear risk reduced stock prices, especially in the banking industry, during the entire sample period.     

Financial market integration,exchange rate policy,and the dynamics of business and employment in Korea

We study the consequences of different degrees of international financial market integration and exchange rate policies in a calibrated, medium-scale model of the Korean economy. The model features endogenous producer entry into domestic and export markets and search-and-matching frictions in labor markets. This allows us to highlight the consequences of financial integration and the exchange rate regime for the dynamics of business creation and unemployment. We show that, under flexible exchange rates, access to international financial markets increases the volatility of both business creation and the number of exporting plants, but the effects on employment volatility are more modest. Pegging the exchange rate can have unfavorable consequences for the effects of terms of trade appreciation, but more financial integration is beneficial under a peg if the economy is subject to both productivity and terms of trade shocks. The combination of a floating exchange rate and internationally complete markets would be the best scenario for Korea among those we focus on.     

Do US macroeconomic conditions affect Asian stock markets?

The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of US macroeconomic conditions—namely, exchange rate and short-term interest rate—on the stock markets of seven Asian countries (China, India, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and South Korea). We use daily data for the period 2000–2010. We divide the sample into a pre-crisis period (pre-August 2007) and a crisis period (post-August 2007). We find that, in the short-run, the interest rate has a statistically insignificant effect on returns for all countries, except for the Philippines in the crisis period. On the other hand, except for China, regardless of the crisis, depreciation has a statistically significant and negative effect on returns. When the long-run relationship among the variables is considered, for five of the seven countries (India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand), while there is cointegration in the pre-crisis period, in the crisis period there is no such relationship, implying that the financial crisis has actually weakened the link between stock prices and economic fundamentals.     

Interaction between Foreign and Domestic Investors in the Korean Stock and Futures Markets*

The present paper analyzes the behavioral relations of major investor groups in the stabilized Korean stock and futures markets after the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Investor groups cannot be classified as positive or negative feedback traders on market returns when both stock and futures markets are considered, which is inconsistent with the results in Ghysels and Seon (2005). Foreign investors and domestic institutions tend to take opposite positions in both markets. The impact of foreign investors on the basis change is significantly negative in the futures market, whereas domestic institutions have a negative relation in the stock market. This supports the view that selling activity of foreign investors in the futures market pulls the futures price down compared with the index value and, consequently, induces the reverse cash‐and‐carry trade of domestic institutions. This relationship, which negatively influenced the Korean economy during the crisis, as shown in Ghysels and Seon (2005), still exists in the Korean financial markets.     

境内外金融市场联动效应：理论基础与文献综述

狭义金融市场联动效应是指不同金融资产的价格及其收益率和波动率之间的协动关系。本文从理论角度分析了金融市场联动效应的作用机制,对境内外金融市场联动效应方面的研究文献进行了评述,特别是境外上市交易的本土概念外汇、利率、股票衍生品市场与境内对应金融市场之间的联动效应,并据此提出一些政策建议以及未来研究方向建议。     

信息、政策冲击和中国股票、债券及外汇市场一体化——基于AG-DCC模型的金融市场动态相关性分析

本文运用Cappiello et al．（2006）提出的AG—DCC模型对中国金融市场的研究发现,中国股票、债券和外汇市场间存在明显的动态相关性 ,虽然“正向冲击”和“负向冲击”对金融市场波动并不产生明显的非对称效应,但对市场间动态相关性有着显著的影响,而且信息和政策冲击反映在动态相关性的结构变化上。最后,用平均动态相关性作为一体化指标对中国金融市场的考察发现,相对于欧盟市场间,中国股票市场一体化程度相当高,但股票和债券、股票和外汇以及债券和外汇市场间的一体化程度有待提高。     

Estimating time-varying currency betas with contagion: New evidence from developed and emerging financial markets

This paper examines the conditional time-varying currency betas from five developed and six emerging financial markets with contagion and spillover effects. We employ a trivariate asymmetric BEKK-type GARCH-in-Mean (MGARCH-M) approach to estimate the time-varying conditional variance and covariance of returns of stock market index, the world market portfolio and bilateral exchange rate between the US dollar and the local currency. The results show that the world market and currency risks are not only priced in the stock markets, but also time-varying. It is found that currency betas are much more volatile than the world market betas, and currency betas in the emerging markets are more volatile than those in the developed markets. We find empirical evidence of contagion effect and spillovers between stock market and foreign exchange market during the recent global financial crisis, and the effect is stronger in the emerging markets than that in the developed markets. Two applications are provided to illustrate the usefulness of time-varying currency betas.     

Fear of Floating: Korea's Exchange Rate Policy after the Crisis

The purpose of this paper is to explore the question of whether a free floating exchange rate regime is a viable option for Korea. This paper divides the sample period into three subperiods: pre-crisis, crisis, and post-crisis. We then analyze the causal relationships among both levels and volatility of three financial variables: exchange rates, interest rates, and stock prices. By using Granger causality tests and variance decomposition, our empirical results show that causal relations among the three variables are weak during the post-crisis period, and furthermore, shocks in other financial markets do not have a significant contribution to explain the variations of each variable's forecast errors. Based on these empirical findings, we infer that the Korean government, having adopted the de jure freely floating exchange rate regime, is still fearful of floating for various reasons. J. Japan. Int. Econ., June 2001, 15(2), pp. 225–251. Department of Economics, Korea University, Seoul, Korea; Korea Institute for International Economic Policy, Seoul, Korea. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: F3, F4.     

Intradaily Patterns in the Korean Index Futures Market

This paper extends the research on intraday patterns in stock and futures exchanges into the Korean market. Similar patterns to those found previously in the heavily investigated Western markets are observed, despite the differing microstructures, institutional framework and time zones between East and West. In addition, we investigate the effect of the Asian financial crisis on intraday variables. In the Korean market, both volume and volatility were found to be consistently higher at the start of the trading day during the crisis, presumably due to a rapid reaction to overnight news.     

The Effects of Central Banks’ Rate Change Patterns on Financial Market Variables

This study examines whether different patterns of change to the benchmark interest rates of central banks are associated with their contributions to variances in the forecast errors of three financial market variables: the long-term interest rate, the foreign exchange rate, and the stock market index. On average, the central bank’s interest rate accounts for approximately 20% of the variance in each variable. We find that the total range of changes is more important than the frequency of changes. The panel regression shows that the range and frequency of policy rate changes is positively associated with the volatility of long-term interest rates but no association with the volatility of stock prices and exchange rates. These results suggest that small and frequent adjustments of policy rates are desirable for reducing the volatility of interest rates. The panel VAR represents interest rate channel is a more important than exchange rate and stock price channel.     

人民币汇率弹性化改革对中国金融市场的影响

2005年下半年以来,人民币汇改已成为促进我国金融市场改革与发展的重要因素:外汇市场创新和改革的"催化剂"、利率市场化和货币市场创新的"助推器"、股市的"鲶鱼"等.就将来而言,人民币汇改仍将是推动我国金融创新与发展的重要力量,但随着资本账户的进一步开放和汇率弹性的进一步增加,也将会增加我国金融市场的不稳定性和金融风险.     

The Interactions of Stock Prices and Exchange Rates in the ASEAN-5 Countries: New Evidence Using a Bootstrap Panel Granger Causality Approach

Abstract

Using a data-set from the ASEAN-5 countries over the January 2000–August 2013 period, this paper revisits the Granger causal nexus between the equity and foreign exchange markets by employing the bootstrap panel Granger causality approach developed by Kònya, which allows for both cross-sectional dependency and heterogeneity across countries. The results indicate a unidirectional causality from stock prices to exchange rates in Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand and from exchange rates to stock prices in Indonesia. These findings have important implications for policy-makers and institutional investors who should rigidly monitor the dynamic linkages between stock price and exchange rate movements across the ASEAN-5 financial markets when making policy decisions and investing in these countries.     

Risk Sensitivity of Bank Stocks in Malaysia: Empirical Evidence Across the Asian Financial Crisis

The present study examines the sensitivity of commercial banks' stock excess returns to their volatility and financial risk factors, measured by interest rates and exchange rates, across the recent Asian financial crisis. In general, we found that there were no significant differences among Malaysian commercial banks in their risk exposure prior to and during the Asian financial crisis. The introduction of selective capital controls, a fixed exchange rate regime and a forced banking consolidation program, however, had increased the risk exposure of both large and small domestic banks. The effects of these risk factors were significantly detected in both large and small banks.     

A political economy analysis of the Korean economic crisis

This paper analyzes the causes of the Korean economic crisis from a political-economic perspective. The author points out that the economic causes which had been mentioned often such as overvalued won exchange rate and moral hazard of financial sector and corporate sector, have political origins. If the Korean economic crisis was caused by political economic factors, structural reform of the economy alone is not sufficient for economic recovery. Therefore, this paper argues, the behaviors of politicians, bureaucrats, and interest groups had been influential for resource allocation in the Korean economy. It concludes that the self-interest seeking activities of various interest groups should be properly controlled.     

美国量化宽松政策对新兴经济体股票市场价格的影响

2008年金融危机后美国采取量化宽松货币政策造成大量流动性进入新兴经济体股票市场。通过建立面板VAR模型,运用脉冲响应函数和方差分解技术分析了美国货币供应M1、股票市场以及联邦基金利率透过汇率、利率和预期方式对新兴经济体股票市场价格指数产生的影响。结果表明,美国量化宽松货币政策对新兴经济体股票市场价格具有正向溢出效应,利率渠道影响效果显著。     

Stock Markets,Banks and Long Run Economic Growth: A Panel Cointegration-Based Analysis

The aim of this paper is to investigate the long run relationship between the development of banks and stock markets and economic growth. We make use of a Johansen-based panel cointegration methodology allowing for cross-country dependence to test the number of cointegrating vectors among these three variables for 5 developing countries. In addition, we test the direction of potential causality between financial and economic development. Our results conclude to the existence of a single cointegrating vector between financial development and growth and of causality going from financial development to economic growth. We find little evidence of reverse causation as well as bi-directional causality. We interpret this as evidence supporting the significance of financial development for economic development although banks and stock markets may have different effects depending on the level of economic development.     

A simple test of the effect of interest rate defense

High interest rates to defend the exchange rate signal that a government is committed to fixed exchange rates, but may also signal weak fundamentals. We test the effectiveness of the interest rate defense by disaggregating into the effects on future interest rates differentials, expectations of future exchange rates, and risk premia. While much previous empirical work has been inconclusive due to offsetting effects, tests that “disaggregate” the effects provide significant information. Raising overnight interest rates strengthens the exchange rate over the short-term, but also leads to an expected depreciation at a horizon of a year and longer and an increase in the risk premium, consistent with the argument that it also signals weak fundamentals. J. Japanese Int. Economies 20 (4) (2006) 612–636.     

Testing for the uncovered interest parity condition in a small open economy: A state space modelling approach

Do interest rate differentials smoothly mirror the changes in the exchange rate between a small open economy and a large emerging market economy? The literature provides conflicting views on the validity of the uncovered interest parity condition (UIP), including its size and factors influencing the risk premium. We examine the validity of the UIP condition between Nepal and India using time-series data covering the period 1989 – 2019. A state space modelling approach based on the Kalman filter analysis is applied to simulate the risk premium. We find that the UIP condition does not hold for the Nepalese Rupee. A time-varying persistent negative risk premium that dominantly explains interest rate differentials is, instead, found. These findings imply that Nepalese residents prefer to hold foreign assets and continually expect future devaluations of the domestic currency. These present obstacles to developing domestic financial markets and the implementation of a market oriented monetary policy.     

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.     

次贷危机后的中、美股市联动性分析

采用协整分析和向量自回归(VAR)模型,对上证综指和美国道指之间的联动性进行了实证研究。研究结果发现:在股权分置改革以后至金融危机发生以前,中、美两国股市存在联动关系;危机以后,中、美两国股市相对独立。从整体上看,截至目前为止中、美两国股市无显著的长期动态均衡关系,中国股市也无力引领美股。