Crisis and Recovery: What We Have Learned from the South Korean Experience?*

This paper analyzes the process of recovery from the 1997 financial crisis in South Korea, and draws some lessons from it. The fast restoration of financial stability due to early closure of non‐viable financial institutions and quick resolution of non‐performing loans was critical for the speedy recovery of the South Korean economy. The swift adjustment in fiscal and monetary policies in addition to the large depreciation of real exchange rates also supported the fast recovery. Corporate and government bond markets played an important role in the financial restructuring and macroeconomic adjustment process. Structural reforms helped to alleviate the weaknesses in the corporate sector, particularly in chaebol groups. However, the fast recovery also generated unwelcome side‐effects. Because of aggressive fiscal expansion through government‐guaranteed bonds and public credit guarantee programs, sovereign liabilities increased greatly and transparency of the official fiscal stance deteriorated. Thanks to structural reform, corporate and financial sectors began to recognize the importance of micro risk management, but increased risk aversion contributed to the slowdown of corporate investment and, therefore, reduced long‐run growth perspective in South Korea. How to revive long‐term growth rates remains an important question in South Korea despite fast recovery from the crisis.     

Business fixed investment of Chinese manufacturing firms in the post-financial crisis era

ABSTRACT

I document the investment decline of Chinese manufacturing firms after 2011, following the end of the 4 trillion fiscal stimulus program and expansionary monetary policies for combating the 2008–2009 financial crisis. I employ a difference-in-difference strategy to show that state-owned enterprises (SOEs) acted as investment stabilizers. In the post-crisis era, SOEs’ investment rates fell less compared to their private counterparts. Moreover, they had a smaller chance of exiting the market than private firms. In the face of monetary tightening, SOEs enjoyed a much smaller increase in the interest rates of their long-term debts. Although these may fuel the growth of the SOE sector relative to the private sector, and thus raised concerns for capital misallocation, the adverse effect on reallocation was dampened by shadow banking.     

The effects of economic policy uncertainty on China’s economy: evidence from time-varying parameter FAVAR

ABSTRACT

This article explores the effects of China’s economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on its fiscal policy, monetary policy and a wide range of macro-economic variables using a time-varying parameter FAVAR model. Based on monthly data from 07/2003 to 08/2017, the time-varying structure of the model allows us to capture the time-varying characteristics of the macro-economic variables and which channel is relevant. Empirical results reveal that the reaction of monetary and fiscal policies to EPU is highly asymmetric across macro-economic circumstances. Loose monetary and fiscal policies are adopted in response to EPU shocks during the financial crisis, while policies are moderately tightened after the crisis. The China Interbank Offered Rate (Chibor) responds more sensitively and severely than M2 to EPU shocks. Additionally, EPU shocks have a significant and negative impact on economic growth, consumption, exchange rates, bonds and the stock market, but showing a positive impact on credit, real estate and fixed asset investment (which might be due to China’s special economic market environment and the high investment return). The results indicate that EPU shocks significantly affect macroeconomic fundamentals through precautionary savings and financial market channels but lose their effectiveness through a ‘real options’ effect.     

Euro Crises and Euro Scams: Trade not Debt and Deficits Tell the Tale

The euro crisis has been typically presented as excessive fiscal deficits leading to the accumulation of unsustainable public debts. This debt and deficit diagnosis applied most notably in Greece and Italy, but also in Portugal and Spain (the ‘PIGS’). Implicit in much of the analysis, and occasionally explicit, is the suggestion that these were not only profligate but also lazy PIGS that spent beyond their means and abandoned a commitment to international competitiveness. This article demonstrates that the German export-led growth strategy generated large trade and current account deficits throughout the eurozone in the 2000s. When the global financial crisis struck the continent in 2008, these trade-based deficits proved unsustainable. With the exception of Greece, neither public debts nor fiscal deficits represented a major problem among eurozone countries prior to 2008. The analysis leads to measures that could have avoided the crisis of sovereign debt entirely, as well as corrected the unsustainable trade balances in the euro zone. These policies were not seriously considered, with the result that in the second decade of the 21st century the future of the common currency is in doubt.     

Detroit’s Municipal Bankruptcy: Racialised Geographies of Austerity

ABSTRACT

Urban geographer Jamie Peck theorises austerity urbanism as a dominant state practice of financially ‘restructuring’ the fiscal agendas of local governments in order to reduce government budget deficits in times of economic recessions. This project seeks to investigate the role of race in the context of austerity urbanism in Detroit following the subprime mortgage crisis in 2008. What is clear is that subprime lending in Detroit was explicitly a raced event. Analysis of austerity politics in Detroit demonstrates that the city is clearly spatially divided along racialised lines. Black city pensioners, former public sector employees, and ‘deliquent taxpayers’ were blamed for Detroit’s municipal bankruptcy in narratives centering on their bloated and generous benefits during the city’s financial decline. The policy outcomes of austerity programmes during the city’s financial crisis impacted racialised, poor communities, specifically the outcomes of privatising the city’s water services that led to state-sanctioned water shut-offs. This paper explores the ways in which race figures in the causes (race-based credit redlining/subprime super-inclusion lending practices) in the way the crisis was narrated to wrongly apportion blame to the racialised poor and city pensioners, and in the effects of the crisis, where water shut-offs wrought punishment on the racialised poor.     

金融危机下中国经济系统的内外部冲击影响——基于虚实两部门一般均衡模型的研究及模拟测算

国际金融危机下的石油价格波动、财政金融政策、结构和技术变化等内外部冲击对中国经济系统的影响越来越受到政府部门和中外学者的密切关注.为了能从数量上把握冲击的直接和间接效果,文章基于一个实物部门与金融部门相统合的金融可计算一般均衡(CGE)模型,运用比较静态和比较动态的方法定量分析它们对中国经济的影响,并据模拟结果给出相关政策含义,从而为政策制定提供更充分的理论依据.     

A Reconsideration of the Protectionism Debate: Keynes and Import Controls

One of the most important elements of financial crises is the credit restriction that follows and the immediate consequences it has on investment and employment. In the post-Keynesian vision, an exit from economic crises frequently requires increased demand, specifically through public expenditure and employment. Furthermore, it requires the exploration of various policies and institutional reforms that could counteract the credit rationing emerging from the first moments of the financial crisis, particularly in regard to the financing of small business. This is one of the principal lessons this paper explores when studying a sample of Mexican immigrant entrepreneurs in three cities in the United States, and their conditions of survival amid the financial crisis.     

MASSIVE DIVESTITURE AND PRIVATIZATION LESSONS FROM CHILE

Between 1974 and 1989, the Chilean government privatized 550 state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Before 1974, all but a handful of major corporations were SOEs. About 50 of the largest enterprises privatized during the 1970s fell into government hands again, only to be re-privatized later. This was due partly to the economic and financial crisis affecting most Latin American countries during the early 1980s but also was a consequence of the privatization modes used. This paper analyzes that unique privatization experience so as to extract policy lessons. The analysis focuses on economic conditions, objectives of government policy, privatization modes, and the divestiture effects on employment, fiscal revenues, public sector wealth, spread of ownership, and capital market development.     

The financial fragility and the crisis of the Greek government sector

The purpose of this paper is to develop Minskyan financial fragility indices for the government sector and to examine the financial structure of the Greek government before and after the onset of the sovereign debt crisis in 2009. We provide empirical evidence that clearly shows the growing financial fragility of the Greek public sector in the 2000s. We also assess the effectiveness of the implemented bailout adjustment programmes in Greece and claim that the conducted austerity measures and fiscal consolidation have not significantly improved the financial posture of the Greek government sector. We argue that the implementation of fiscal and wage austerity in an economy that lacks structural competitiveness produces prolonged recession and unemployment with adverse feedback effects on the financial fragility of the government.     

Algeria: A three-sector macrofiscal model for debt sustainability and growth policy analysis

In this paper, we present a dynamic general equilibrium (DGE) model to address the macrofiscal vulnerabilities and the effects of fiscal policy on growth and employment in Algeria. We first discuss the baseline scenario over the period 2021–2040. According to our baseline results, without fundamental changes in fiscal policies, even relatively high growth will not be sufficient to put public debt on a sustainable path. We then conduct four experiments and assess their impact on fiscal accounts, growth, and unemployment: an increase in the efficiency of public spending on infrastructure investment, a gradual reduction in the share of noninterest government spending in GDP, the same gradual reduction in spending combined with a permanent increase in the share of investment in infrastructure in total noninterest government expenditure, and a composite fiscal reform program that combines these individual policies, respectively. The results suggest that public debt sustainability can be achieved, and growth and employment can be promoted, as long as an ambitious fiscal reform program involving tax, spending, and governance reforms is implemented. Importantly, our quantitative analysis shows that, with a well-designed fiscal program, there may be no trade-off between fiscal consolidation and economic growth.     

Dynamics of Macroeconomic Adjustment with Growth: Some Simulation Results *

This paper examines the impact of several macroeconomic policies, both demand and supply management policies, on economic activity within a small macroeconomic simulation model. The model is based on a standard analytical framework that underlies adjustment policies in developing economies (Des). The standard approach has been to use aggregate government expenditure as an instrument of fiscal policy to shock economic activity in a DE, with a negative dynamic response typically observed. In the context of such a small macroeconomic simulation model we decompose government expenditure into consumption and investment expenditure. Simulation exercises with and without model-consistent expectations throw up some contrasting results in the sense that fiscal policy can influence output positively through the effects of public sector investment on private investment in a DE such as India. [F43, E62]     

A dynamic approach to analysing the effect of the global crisis on nonperforming loans: evidence from the Turkish banking sector

This article analyses the effect of the global crisis on the determinants of nonperforming loans (NPLs) in the Turkish banking sector by using dynamic panel estimation techniques. Empirical findings suggest that NPLs present persistence, which is more evident after the crisis, while other regressors have also persistent effects in the post-crisis period. Moreover, NPLs are mostly shaped by bank-specific variables before the crisis, whereas, after the crisis, NPLs are also driven by macroeconomic and policy-related variables. In particular, the post-crisis significance of GDP, policy rate and sovereign debt shows that robust economic activity, tight monetary policy and strong fiscal balances restrict NPLs, thereby enhancing financial stability. The significance of inflation in both sub-periods shows that commitment to price stability objective is indispensable for limiting NPLs and promoting financial stability. In the period ahead, the speed and the direction of normalization in global monetary policies may determine the course of financial conditions, which, therefore, have implications regarding NPL dynamics and financial stability.     

Optimal macroeconomic policies in a financial and economic crisis: a case study for Slovenia

In this paper, we study different and, in particular, “optimal” reactions of fiscal (and to some extent monetary) policies to the financial and economic crisis of 2007–2009 in Slovenia, a small open economy that is part of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). Using an econometric model of the Slovenian economy, we simulate the effects of the global crisis under the assumption of no-policy reactions, i.e. assuming that macroeconomic policies are conducted without attempting to deal with the effects of the crisis. Next, we study the possibilities of fiscal policy reducing or even annihilating the effects of the crisis. We also investigate the optimal reaction of fiscal policies based on the assumption that Slovenian policy-makers behave as though they were optimizing an objective function. We show that optimal policies call for only a very modestly active countercyclical role of fiscal policies. There are strong trade-offs between countercyclical fiscal policies and the requirements of fiscal solvency.     

Global Financial Crisis and ASEAN: Fiscal Policy Response in the Case of Thailand and Indonesia

Sound macroeconomic and financial fundamentals, plus quick and forceful fiscal policy responses contributed to Thailand's and Indonesia's economic recovery in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. This paper reviews the impacts of the recent global financial crisis on the Thai and Indonesian economies, and identifies the characteristics of the fiscal stimulus package in each economy and their implications to counter the negative impact of the global financial crisis.     

金融危机后的对外经贸、劳动就业与政策抉择

目前,金融危机对我国社会经济各方面的影响逐渐显现。金融危机主要是通过外贸渠道传播其负面效应的。由于金融危机的影响,我国进出口贸易、外商投资和对外经济合作的增长速度都出现了不同程度的下降,导致相关领域的就业数量及其结构发生了很大变化,加剧了我国就业的严峻形势。因此,积极采取应对措施是十分必要的。     

The Stagnation Tendencies of Neoliberalism: A Review Essay

In his 2012 book, From Financial Crisis to Stagnation, Thomas Palley argued that the financial crisis of 2008 would be likely to result in a period of long-term stagnation. Both the crisis and the predicted stagnation, Palley argued, were the outcomes of policies pursued since the 1980s; the persistence of those policies explains the stagnation. Underpinning the policies and their consequences are the flaws of the neoliberal macro model and the particular role played by finance in that model. The rejection of Keynesianism meant the abandonment of the commitment to full employment. The neoliberal paradigm rests upon a foundation of ‘bad ideas’ that are located in political philosophy as much as in economic theory. Palley’s argument has a bearing on recent discussions among mainstream macroeconomists, whose interest in secular stagnation has been revived by the ‘ongoing crisis’. These discussions have left mostly unanswered the question of the causes of stagnation. The present essay argues that Palley’s concept of ‘structural Keynesianism’ can benefit from a closer association with the analysis of structural transformation and its effects on policy regimes and stagnation tendencies.     

金融危机下宏观政策发布对我国股市的短期冲击效应研究

本文在单指数模型的基础上,利用Chow Test法和引入虚拟变量的方法,对2008年我国为应对全球金融危机而计划实施的货币政策和财政政策的信息公布对沪市行业板块的短期冲击效应进行了实证研究。结果显示,在金融危机引发经济衰退的背景下,尽管我国公布了强有力的财政政策和货币政策,但除个别板块在个别时点出现波动外,基本上未对我国股市各行业板块造成短期冲击影响。这表明,金融危机下宏观调控政策信息的公布在短期内对股市的刺激效果并不会太显著。     

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.     

"后危机"时代中国财政政策的选择——部门投资政策影响建模与分析

当前中国经济已经进入后危机时代,继续加大各产业部门的国家投资是巩固前阶段经济刺激政策成果的一项重要措施。为了分析分部门投资政策的经济影响,文章构建了一个包含8个产业部门和8个区域的中国多区域宏观经济可计算一般均衡模型,通过分析典型分部门投资情景的政策模拟结果,文章提出了三种宏观经济政策目标约束下的投资部门指向建议。     

次贷危机后美国经济金融化趋势是否逆转?

20世纪70年代以来资本主义经济金融化趋势显著,以金融资本为主导的积累模式在一定时期内刺激了资本主义经济增长,但也为由美国次贷危机引发的2008年国际金融危机埋下了祸根.而今,距离危机的爆发已经十余年,危机后当代资本主义也经历了一系列调整.本文考察了危机后美国政府的系列"再工业化"政策、新自由主义持续强劲的势头、新形势...