The macroeconomic impacts of government debt: An empirical analysis of the 1980s and 1990s

This study examines the macroeconomic impacts of government debt. Unlike previous studies, the current study restricts the estimation period to the 1980s and 1990s. The analysis is conducted using variance decompositions and impulse response functions derived from a vector autoregressive model. The results presented here support an extreme form of the Ricardian equivalence hypothesis. In this view, wealth falls as government debt rises. Because wealth falls as government debt rises, an increase in government debt leads to decreases in interest rates, output, and the price level.This work was supported by a grant from the Faculty Research and Creative Activities Support Fund of Western Michigan University. The author wishes to thank Nancy S. Barrett, James S. Fackler, W. Douglas McMillin, Susan Pozo, and Paul D. Thistle for comments and suggestions.     

The Vietnamese Economy in the 1990s

In the 1980s Vietnam made the transition from a centrally planned economy to a market economy. The critical question now facing Vietnam is whether the remarkable growth rates it has achieved in recent years are sustainable over the long term. Does Vietnam have a viable strategy for long-term growth, and if not, where can it find one, and what does it have to do to implement it? These are the principal questions addressed in this review of recent literature on economic developments in Vietnam.     

The regional effects of macroeconomic shocks in China

The extent and persistence of the inequality of regional output is an important policy issue in China and its sources have been the subject of considerable empirical research. Yet we have relatively little empirical knowledge of the effects on the regional distribution of output of shocks to national macroeconomic variables such as GDP and investment. This is an important gap in the empirical literature since much government macroeconomic policy seeks to influence GDP using instruments such as investment expenditure. It is likely that such national shocks will have differential regional impacts and so affect the regional output distribution. Policy-makers need to know the sign, size and timing of such effects before making policy decisions at the national level. We simulate the effects of aggregate shocks on individual provinces' GDP within the framework of a vector autoregressive (VAR) model restricted in a manner following Lastrapes (Economics Letters, 2005). We use annual data from 1980 to 2012 to estimate the model which includes 28 of China's provinces and simulate the effects on provincial outputs of shocks to aggregate output and investment. We find great diversity of effects across the provinces with discernible geographic patterns. There is evidence that output shocks benefit coastal provinces with developed industrial structure, export-exposure and less reliance on SOEs; the opposite is found for the effects of an investment shock and we conjecture that this is likely to have been the result of the strong bias in central government investment policy in favour of the interior provinces during a substantial part of our sample period.     

The effects of fiscal policy in the 1990s in Japan: A VAR analysis with event studies

This paper examines the effects of Japanese fiscal policy during the 1990s. A mixed vector autoregression (VAR)/event study approach is used for this purpose. The first empirical finding is that in the late 1990s, the negative effect of fiscal policy was larger and more persistent than the positive effect. This finding suggests that the large fiscal expansions in the late 1990s were inadequate for stimulating the macroeconomy in terms of the size and persistence of their policy effects. The second finding is that the permanent tax cuts implemented in the former part of the 1990s increased consumer durable spending significantly and persistently. This increase may reflect consumers’ incentive to spend before the increase in the consumption tax rate in April 1997.     

The macroeconomic effects of monetary policy: Evidence from Japan

This study examines the macroeconomic effects of monetary policy in Japan. We apply the new identification strategy proposed by Bu et al. (2021) to the Japanese case and estimate monetary policy shocks that bridge periods of conventional and unconventional monetary policymaking. We show the macroeconomic effects of monetary policy; a contractionary monetary policy shock significantly decreases output and inflation rates even under the effective lower bound. However, because the shorter-term and longer-term nominal interest rates are already close to zero, the magnitude of monetary policy shocks on the macroeconomic variables is modest.     

The effects of reconstruction finance corporation assistance on Michigan's banks' survival in the 1930s

We examine the effects of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation's (RFC) loan and preferred stock programs on bank failure rates in Michigan during the period 1932–1934, which includes the important Michigan banking crisis of early 1933 and its aftermath. Using a new database on Michigan banks, we employ probit and survival duration analysis to examine the effectiveness of the RFC's loan program (the policy tool employed before March 1933) and the RFC's preferred stock purchases (the policy tool employed after March 1933) on bank failure rates.     

婚恋90

时间进入上世纪90年代初期,那个时候三转一响”已经过时了,.三黄一窝鸡(机)成为年轻人新的追求.三黄是指金项链、金耳环、金戒指,一窝鸡(机)就是彩电、冰箱、洗衣机.电视机替代广播成为百姓了解国内、国际大事小情的工具,电冰箱使人们可以一个星期只去一次菜市场,洗衣机彻底解放人们的双手,再也不用自己出力了.     

Taylor法则的实证研究:以1990年代的香港为例

本文研究90年代香港利率的决定模式。近年来,Taylor(泰勒)法则越来越多地被应用于货币研究。该法则认为短期利率可定义为产出缺口和通胀目标偏离的线性函数。尽管这一法则适用于很多经济体,但未必适用于香港。因为香港起码在两个方面跟别的经济体不同:没有与其他经济体相同的央行(或货币当局),与此同时,它又是一个国际金融中心。通过实证研究我们得出如下结论:与其他经济体不同,虽然通胀偏离和产出缺口在香港利率决定中的作用不可忽视,但金融变量如股价似乎在利率决定中起更大的作用。     

Fund Mobilization and Investment Behavior in Thai Manufacturing Firms in the Early 1990s*

This paper investigates capital structure and investment behavior in Thailand in the early 1990s. Various features of financial markets are considered, and the possibility of applying the ‘pecking order hypothesis’ to developing countries is discussed. By estimating the determinants of the capital structure and the investment functions, three major results are obtained. First, the lower debt ratio of listed firms is realized by an increase in the capital surplus gained by initial public offering. Second, firms’ participation in the securities market accommodates agency costs both in the equity and bank‐loan markets. Third, ‘financial conglomerate’ firms are inactive investors and are dependent upon informal financial transactions, whereas foreign firms borrow less and invest more.     

Business responses to crisis in Indonesia: the 1930s and the 1990s

This article looks at the responses of foreign business firms to crisis in a comparative historical perspective. The focus is on Indonesia in the 1930s and the late 1990s. The main approach is one of case studies in order to gain an insight into strategies of adjustment to deteriorating business conditions. For the late 1990s, such information is supplemented by macroeconomic evidence covering a wider range of firms. The article reaffirms a basic resilience of foreign direct investment in times of economic crisis even when there is an overall economic decline, as in Indonesia in the 1990s. The capacity of foreign firms in Indonesia to adjust successfully was considerable both in the 1930s and the late 1990s. Yet, prospects for a swift recovery are far better in the latter case than in the former period, reflecting the different nature of the two crises.     

The French Great Depression: A business cycle accounting analysis

Using the business cycle accounting framework [Chari V., P. Kehoe and E. McGrattan 2007. Business cycle accounting. Econometrica 75, 781–836.], this paper sheds new light on the French Great Depression. Frictions that reduce the efficiency with which factor inputs are used (efficiency wedge) were the primary factor in the economic downturn. The decline in consumption can be attributed to distortions in the Euler equation (investment wedge). In addition, frictions creating a gap between the marginal rate of substitution and the marginal product of labor (labor wedge) contributed to the slowdown of the economy after 1936. This drop in the efficiency wedge might have resulted from financial frictions, whereas the investment wedge might have been caused by financial frictions due to agency costs. Institutional changes in the labor market could serve as a potential explanation for the decline of the labor wedge after 1936.     

Japanese labour in the 1990s: stability and stagnation

We review the state of the labour market and employment practicesin Japan over the past 15 years and try to evaluate the natureof the changes that have been occurring. We also look at howgovernment policy has reacted to the conditions in the labourmarket and what implications this has for the future. Althoughthere has been a continual shift of resources away from manufacturingand agriculture into services, employment practices have notbeen changing so rapidly, and job protection is actually stronger.This, along with wage restraint, accounts for why unemploymenthas only increased by some 2.5 percentage points during almosta decade of stagnation. We also note that much government policyhas acted to maintain existing employment practices and thatlabour economists are divided as to whether or not this is agood thing.     

The assessment: macroeconomic policy

This paper describes the emerging consensus about the 'reactionfunction' approach to macroeconomic policy. The first sectionof the paper describes the historical emergence of this consensus,as a synthesis of pre-Keynesian, Keynesian, and monetarist ideas.The theoretical part of the paper presents the basic frameworkof the approach and explains a number of extensions, including:finding the optimal reaction function, avoiding the problemof inflation bias, the relevance of the Taylor rule, forward-lookingexpectations, extensions to the open economy, and the interconnectionsbetween monetary and fiscal policy. The later parts of the papercontain a detailed discussion of some of the practical and institutionalissues involved in the implementation of this new framework.     

The Role of Monetary Policy in Japan: A Break in the 1990s?

This article documents time series evidence suggesting the case for a possible structural break in the role of Japan's monetary policy during the 1990s. It uses a simple vector autoregressive framework and offers some suggestive results: While a persistent effect of monetary policy on real output is detected over the full sample of 1975–1998 and the subsample that ends in 1993, such effect disappears with the recent subsample of the 1990s. The stability analysis also provides more specified evidence that there is a break in the reduced form dynamic system in 1995. Some interpretations are offered to intuitively support these findings. J. Japan. Int. Econ., December 2000, 14(4), pp. 366–384. Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration, Kobe University, Rokko, Nada, Kobe 657-8501, Japan Copyright 2000 Academic Press.Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: E52, E32.     

Nea presidential address, 1990: Africa,the development challenge of the 1990s

Much of Africa has been excluded from the considerable social and economic progress made in most regions of the world over the past several decades. Disheartening trends in Africa include budget and trade deficits, debt accumulation, inflation, overvalued currency and foreign exchange shortages. However, about half of African nations have courageously implemented structural adjustment programs since the early 1980s. The author examines the economic problems facing Africa and builds a case for responding to the crisis, proposing efforts to increase donor support and coordination and encouraging sustainable adjustment. She strongly advocates research leading to a more productive dialogue with policymakers.     

20世纪90年代国际并购及其影响

第五次并购浪潮给世界经济带来了什么？现在下结论似乎为时过早。中国的并购正孕育着一场量变到质变的过程，一场大规模的并购将在中国大地上兴起，将给中国市场经济发展带来深远的影响。反思第五次并购浪潮将给走向市场经济过程中的并购重组的中国经济某些重要启示。     

Development Assistance in Asia in the 1990s

Aid programs in Asia have been subject to a series of pressures for reform since the early 1990s. The current economic crisis in Asia seems certain to prompt further major changes. This article surveys events since the early 1990s and updates the 1993 article published in this journal. Some comments about recent dramatic economic events in the region are made in the conclusion. The difference between donor and recipient views about aid is the main theme of this survey.     

The dynamic macroeconomic effects of tax policy in an overlapping generations model

The paper studies the dynamic allocation effects of tax policywithin the context of an overlapping-generations model of theBlanchard-Yaari type. The model is extended to allow for endogenouslabour supply and three tax instruments, viz. a capital tax,labour income tax, and consumption tax. Both analytical expressionsand simple diagrams are used to analyze the impact, transition,and long-run effects of tax policy changes. It is shown thata part of the long-run incidence of capital and consumptiontaxes falls on capital when households' horizons are finitewhereas labour would fully bear the burden of these taxes inan infinite-horizon model.