A note on tests of efficient market hypotheses: The case of the forward exchange rate

The purpose of this paper is to show that the definition of market efficiency based on rational expectations presents serious problems for empirical hypothesis testing on data that consist of equally spaced observations. Indeed, one can argue that the efficient market hypothesis is, in a strict sense, immune from empirical falsification for the typical data set. This idea is developed for an application of the efficient market hypothesis to the foreign exchange market, i.e., the notion that the forward exchange rate is an unbiased and efficient predictor of future spot exchange rates.     

Financial Integration in the 1920s: A Cointegration Approach

Financial Integration in the 1920s: A Cointegration Approach. - This paper applies the concept of cointegration to analyze the foreign exchange market during the 1920s. The data set consists of daily spot and forward exchange rates for the U. S. dollar, French franc, Belgian franc, Italian lira and German mark, each quoted with respect to the British pound. The authors find that the future spot and forward exchange rates for the U.S., France, Belgium, and Italy are cointegrated. Using a multivariate test for cointegration, they find no evidence of cointegration across markets. There is weak evidence of cointegration among the two neighboring economies of France and Belgium.     

Forward rates and spot rates in the European monetary system — Forward market efficiency

Conclusions Our empirical investigation of forward and spot rates in the European Monetary System in comparison to flexible exchange-rate regimes provides the following results. Unit root tests reveal that forward rates and spot rates are best described by random walks for all six exchange rates under consideration. This indicates that even in the EMS, exchange rates behave in an unpredictable way and exchange-rate variability is relatively high. Applying cointegration theory to the forward rate and the future spot rate, we find that these two time series are cointegrated in the EMS and in flexible exchange-rate systems. There exists a stable linear relationship between the forward rate and the future spot rate which implies that a necessary condition for forward market efficiency is fulfilled. We find the forward rate to be a poor predictor of the future exchange rate. It predicts the sign of the future exchange-rate change correctly except for the guilder, but explains only a small fraction of the change. Concerning forward market efficiency, the single hypothesis, H₀: β₁ = 1, for EMS and non-EMS exchange rates was found to be rather robust. The joint hypothesis for forward market efficiency, H₀: α₁ =0, β₁ = 1, could be rejected for the EMS exchange rates but not for the flexible exchange rates. Thus, a sufficient condition for forward market efficiency is violated in the case of the EMS while it holds for the flexible exchange rates.

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Zusammenfassung Terminkurse und Kassakurse im Europ?ischen W?hrungssystem. Zur Effizienz der Terminm?rkte. — Die Verfasser untersuchen für die Periode 1979–89 das Verhalten der Termin- und Kassakurse im EWS im Vergleich zum System flexibler Wechselkurse. Die „random-walk“-Hypothese für Termin- und Kassakurse kann weder für floatende noch für EWS-Wechselkurse verworfen werden. Kointegrationstests ergeben eine stabile Beziehung zwischen Termin- und Kassakursen, was eine notwendige Bedingung für die Effizienz der Terminm?rkte ist. Eine hinreichende Bedingung für effiziente Terminm?rkte, die sich aus einem von Fama vorgeschlagenen Verfahren ergibt, ist zwar für flexible Wechselkurse erfüllt, nicht aber für das EWS.

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Résumé Les cours du change à terme et les cours au comptant dans le système monétaire européen (SME): L’efficience du marché à terme. — Cette étude analyse pour la période 1979—89 le comportement des cours du change à terme et des cours au comptant dans le SME en comparaison des cours du change flexibles. L’hypothèse de ?random-walk? pour les cours du change à terme et les cours au comptant ne peut pas être réjetée, ni pour les cours flottants ni pour les cours dans le SME. Les tests de cointégration rélèvent une relation stable entre les cours du change à terme et ceux au comptant ce qui est une condition nécessaire pour l’efficience du marché à terme. Une condition suffisante, donnée par une procédure proposée par Fama, est satisfaite pour les cours du change flexibles, mais pas pour le SME.

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Resumen Tasas a término y spot en el sistema monetario europeo. La eficiencia del mercado a término. — En este trabajo se investiga el comportamiento de las tasas a término y spot en el sistema monetario europeo (EMS) en comparación con los regimenes de cambios flexibles de 1979 a 1989. La hipótesis del “random walk” para tasas a término y spot no puede ser rechazada, ni para tasas de cambio flexibles ni para tasas de cambio del EMS. Tests de cointegración revelan una relación estable entre las tasas a término y spot, la cual es una condición necesaria para la eficiencia del mercado a término. Una condición suficiente para la eficiencia del mercado a término, dada por el procedimiento sugerido por Fama, es satisfecha para las tasas de cambio flexibles, mas no para las del EMS.

     

Testing Efficiency of the Taiwan-US Forward Exchange Market - A Markov Switching Model

The 30-day Taiwan-US forward exchange market was tested in this study. The hypothesis that the sample was drawn from a finite mixture distributions could not be rejected, which justified the use of a two-state, first-order Markov switching model. The first state rejected the null hypothesis of SEMH, whereas the second state was consistent with the hypothesis. During most of the time, the smoothed probability of state 2 was around 90%, which indicates that the efficient state has the dominant effect. This smoothed probability was observed to change over time.     

Has the Link Between the Spot and Forward Exchange Rates Broken Down? Evidence from Rolling Cointegration Tests

Recent literature reported conflicting results about the cointegration relationship between the spot and forward exchange rates. Applying rolling cointegration tests to the mark, yen, and Swiss franc with respect to the U.S. dollar for the post-80 period, we find that the relationship between the two rates broke down in the late 1980s. Although they became cointegrated again during the mid-90s, they no longer co-moved proportionally. It is argued that failure to account for such significant structural changes in the data generating process explains, at least partially, the conflicting findings reported in the literature.     

Empirical Study on Information Asymmetry Based on Chinese Forward Exchange Rate Market

Many published studies have considered information asymmetry between domestic and foreign investors about local assets in the stock market, particularly in developed markets. The present study proposes a new perspective to address the issue in the case of China's forward exchange rate market. Following the framework of Clarida and Taylor (1997), the term structures of exchange rates in the domestic forward and the non‐deliverable forward markets are constructed and then applied to predict future spot exchange rates based on a vector equilibrium correction model. By comparing the forecast accuracy on the basis of the root mean square error and the mean absolute error, it is shown that dynamic out‐of‐sample forecasts of the domestic forward market are superior to those of the non‐deliverable forward market, suggesting that domestic investors are better informed than foreign investors. The result has several important policy implications, especially for exchange rate determination.     

Exchange rates and European countries’ export prices: An empirical test for asymmetries in pricing to market behavior

Exchange Rates and European Countries’ Export Prices: An Empirical Test for Asymmetries in Pricing to Market Behavior. — This paper uses forward instead of spot exchange rates to test for the presence of asymmetries in the response of export prices to exchange rate movements on a wide sample of European Union exporter countries and highly disaggregated product categories. In most cases, the data give support to the hypothesis of a symmetric pricing to market behavior during periods of depreciation and appreciation of the exporter’s currency.     

Export and Strategic Currency Hedging

This paper examines an international Cournot duopoly wherein a home firm and a foreign firm compete in the home market under exchange rate uncertainty. The foreign exporting firm, being risk averse, has incentives to hedge its exchange rate risk exposure. In a two-stage setting, we show that hedging via an unbiased currency futures market acts as a strategic device. In particular, under either constant or decreasing absolute risk aversion, an increase in the hedging volume of the foreign firm promotes its exports and deters the home firm’s output. In contrast to the well-known full-hedging result in a perfectly competitive environment, we find that the foreign firm over-hedges for strategic reasons. Furthermore, the separation result from the hedging literature under perfect competition no longer holds in our duopoly framework, i.e., equilibrium output levels depend on the risk attitude of the foreign firm as well as the probability distribution of the spot exchange rate.     

基于人民币国际化视角的人民币汇率形成机制改革问题研究

本文从人民币国际化的研究视角,分析货币国际化与汇率形成机制之间的内在联系,并通过人民币与美元、欧元、日元等主要货币的国际化程度的比较,揭示人民币国际化尚处在起步阶段,人民币汇率形成机制改革是直接影响人民币国际化进程的重要因素。在此基础上,本文探讨了人民币汇率形成机制为何采取钉住一篮子货币的改革方案,继而提出推进人民币汇率形成机制改革,促进人民币国际化的若干政策建议。     

The Euro and Other Major Currencies Floating Against the U.S. Dollar

This paper discusses the interdependent effects of conditional volatilities in returns of the Euro and other major currencies against U.S. dollar exchange rates (spot rates) since the launch of the Euro, using, for this purpose, the daily data and dynamic conditional correlation (DCC)–GARCH model with country-specific effects. The following conclusions are drawn: there are volatility spillovers (contemporaneous and lagged) in the Euro, Yen, and British pound, the degree of the correlation is high between the Euro and British pound against the U.S. dollar, there is a very strong association between the ECB Euro reference rate (fixing rates) and U.S.-traded spot rates, and finally, the impulse-response of volatility (after the accession of new Member States to the European Union) rapidly diminishes in the spot markets, indicating a short-run dynamic effect.     

Gescheiden Valutamarkten en het Korte Kapitaalverkeer

Summary In this article an analysis has been made of the influences of the dual exchange rate system on short-term capital movements and the balance of payments. An effort has been made to connect the till now separate theories of the dual exchange rate system and the short-term capital movements. In the analysis the role of the forward exchange market has been explicitly taken into account. Several doubts as expressed in literature about the feasibility of an effectively operating dual rate system are examined. Some conclusions are drawn about the probable resultant of the forces which affect the size of the premium of the financial spot rate with respect to the commercial spot rate.De basis voor dit artikel werd gevormd door een bijdrage van de auteur aan een wetenschappelijke statbijeenkomst, die gehouden werd aan de Economische Faculteit van de V.U. op 11 november 1974. Hij wenst alle deelnemers aan deze bijeenkomst dank to zeggen voor hun waardevolle kritiek en in het bijzonder Dr. W. J. B. Smits, die daarna zo vriendelijk was het uiteindelijke concept nog eens grondig met hem door to nemen. 1 In de Nederlandse literatuur komt het systeem voor onder diverse benamingen, zoals de dubbele wisselmarkt en de tweevoudige wisselmarkt, terwijl in de Engelstalige literatuur hiervoor termen als dual exchange rate system en two-tier foreign exchange market gebezigd worden. Opvallend is dat de literatuur over de gescheiden valutamarkt niet bepaald dicht gezaaid is, hoewel hierin de laatste tijd enige kentering to bespeuren valt. Recente bijdragen betreffen Fleming (1974) en Decaluwé (1974) en een bijdrage m.b.t. de Belgische ervaring is Abraham (1973).     

The exchange rate and monetary conditions in the Euro area

The Exchange Rate and Monetary Conditions in the Euro Area. — Using information from a variety of sources, this paper suggests that the exchange rate will play an important role in the transmission of the impact of monetary policy on the real economy and inflation in the euro area. As a first approximation it would be reasonable to assume that an increase in the real 90-day interest rate of 100 basis points would have the same effect on demand two years later as a 3.5 percent fall in the real euro exchange rate. This implies that the euro area will tend to behave like a large open economy rather than a closed economy and hence that it would be helpful in informing monetary policy to construct a Monetary Conditions Index (MCI).     

Forward market intervention,endogenous speculation,and exchange rate variability

In a stochastic macroeconomic model, this paper studies the desirability of intervention in the forward exchange market to stabilize the spot rate from the short-run and long-run perspectives. Behavior of forward speculation is endogenized in the light of the Lucas critique. Numerical simulation suggests that such intervention is much less desirable in the long-run than in the short-run. Only when domestic monetary disturbance is present, such intervention may be desirable both in the short-run and in the long-run, provided that price adjustment is sufficiently elastic.     

Investment-saving comovement under endogenous fiscal policy

I expand Feldstein's (1983) model by including flexible exchange rate and by introducing endogenous fiscal policy. Using this model, I demonstrate how a positive investment-saving correlation can arise in a world with endogenous fiscal policy. I show that this correlation does not depend on capital mobility and therefore is compatible with any degree of capital mobility. This implies that the observed investment-saving comovement is not necessarily due to imperfect capital mobility. The model has a testable implication: it predicts a lack of Granger causality from private saving to private investment. Empirical examination of this prediction indicates that U.S. time series data is compatible with the hypothesis of endogenous fiscal policy during a flexible exchange rate period, but not during a fixed exchange rate period.     

人民币离岸市场与在岸市场汇率的动态相关性研究

论文主要检验了人民币在岸市场(CNY)与香港人民币离岸市场(CNH)以及人民币无本金交割远期外汇市场(NDF)之间汇率波动性的动态相关关系。根据人民币离岸市场发展的标志性事件将样本区间分为四段,采用日度数据,利用DCC-MVGARCH模型研究三个市场日汇率数据之间的动态相关关系,研究结果发现:三个市场相关程度不断增强,信息传递较快;2009年7月1日前CNY市场与CNH市场汇率波动率的相关系数较低且规律性不强;2009年7月2日至2010年7月19日,受国际金融危机的影响,人民币汇率稳定不再升值,其相关系数接近于0;2010年7月20日至2011年6月27日汇率波动性的相关性逐渐增强,表明人民币国际化的影响逐渐加大。2011年6月28日至2012年12月24日间汇率波动的相关性显著增强,这说明人民币不同市场之间的信息溢出程度加强,境内外市场融合程度不断提高。     

A model of exchange rate determination in a dual exchange rate mechanism

Summary In this paper a theoretical model of exchange rate determination in the dual exchange rate mechanism is established. The role of interest arbitrageurs, speculators and hedgers in the official and the financial markets (both spot and forward) is analysed. For each of the categories of participants excess demand functions for foreign exchange are derived, which lead to the equilibrium condition for the various market segments. Also the main links between the different markets are discussed.This paper is based on chapter II of my Ph. D. dissertation submitted to the John Hopkins University. I am grateful to Professors Bela Balassa and Kirg Niehans for helpful comments. Also Zoran Hodjera (IMF) and Paul De Grauwe (KUL) provided stimulating criticism.     

Onshore spot and offshore forward markets for RMB: Evidence from the “8.11” exchange rate regime reform

This paper investigates the dynamic relationship between the onshore spot market and offshore forward market for Chinese currency around the period of China's “8.11” exchange rate regime reform, one of the most important market-oriented reforms implemented on August 11, 2015. We compare return and volatility spillover effects between the two markets before and after the “8.11” reform. The empirical evidence shows that a remarkable change has occurred in both the return and volatility spillovers. Before the reform, return and volatility spillovers exist from the offshore forward market to the onshore spot market. After the reform, however, we observe an obvious reverse in the direction and an increase in the strength of the return and volatility spillover effects. These findings suggest the existence of cross-market information flows, a change in the direction and a strengthening of the dynamic relationship after the reform. We argue that the “8.11” reform serves as a milestone reflecting long-term underlying forces that increase the relative importance of the onshore market.     

Exchange rate uncertainty and the efficiency of the forward market for foreign exchange

Exchange Rate Uncertainty and the Efficiency of the Forward Market for Foreign Exchange. — The paper investigates to what extent exchange rate uncertainty can account for the observed deviations from the forward market efficiency hypothesis (FMEH). The empirical analysis employs a simple varying parameter regression to allow uncertainty to modify the central parameters of the FMEH in a direct way. Uncertainty is proxied by significant exchange rate changes. The results indicate that there is considerable support for the FMEH if one allows the intercept term to vary over time.     

Are Offshore RMB Arrangements the Basis for a Long-term Exchange Rate System without Convertibility？

This paper discusses China's relatively new structure of dual onshore and offshore RMB markets. Its distinguishing feature is both offshore trading at exchange rates that are market determined and onshore trading at exchange rates anchored at the official spot rate with capital account inconvertibility. We note that thus far the CNH and CNY spot rates have largely tracked each other, suggesting that the shadow price on the convertibility constraint onshore and also the offshore diversification benefit is close to zero. However, this could change in the future. We discuss the potential for the offshore RMB market to grow with trade settlement and bilateral swap arrangements in RMB, which would provide a big enough pool of liquidity for the RMB to become a vehicle currency and reserve currency. These potential developments will be restrained by onshore inconvertibility, but moving to convertibility seemingly implies major change in China's financial structure and the offshore RMB arrangements are only a small first step along this path. Crucial in this evolution of arrangements will be future Chinese growth performance and the relative attractiveness of onshore inconvertible but offshore marketable RMB relative to the debt laden and slow growth currencies of the USA, the EU and Japan.     

A test of the news model of exchange rates

A Test of the News Model of Exchange Rates. — The news model is tested using quarterly data on six exchange rates involving four currencies over a period extending back to 1975. The results show that unbiased efficiency does not hold and that there are time-varying risk premia. The results also show that the news variables, proxied by the residuals of VAR models, do not have a significant effect on the exchange rate. It is argued that while news is a theoretically plausible explanation for erratic changes in the exchange rate, generated regressors cannot adequately represent news.