A structural break in the effects of Japanese foreign exchange intervention on yen/dollar exchange rate volatility

We study the impact of Japanese foreign exchange intervention on the volatility of the yen/dollar exchange rate since the early 1990’s in a GARCH framework with interventions as exogenous variables. Using daily intervention data provided by the Japanese Ministry of Finance, we show that the effect of interventions varies over time. From 1991 up to the late 1990’s, Japanese foreign exchange intervention is associated with an increase in volatility of the yen/dollar exchange rate. After the year 1997, Japanese foreign exchange intervention correlates with reductions in exchange rate volatility. This can be explained by the fact that Japanese foreign exchange intervention remained quasi unsterilized in the liquidity trap.

PPP: <Emphasis Type="Italic">Delusion</Emphasis> or <Emphasis Type="Italic">Reality</Emphasis>? Evidence from a Nonlinear Analysis

In this paper we analyze the validity of the purchasing power parity (PPP) in a nonlinear framework using data for 18 bilateral US dollar exchange rates. Following Enders and Ludlow (2002), we use unit root and cointegration tests that do not assume a specific nonlinear adjustment. We find evidence of non-linear mean reversion in deviations from the PPP equilibrium in 11 out of 18 currencies. Additionally, to disentangle the respective contribution of exchange rate and prices to the adjustment toward the long run equilibrium, we estimate a Vector Error Correction Model. According to our empirical analysis, there exists a nonlinear mechanism to correct for deviation from the PPP equilibrium that comes mainly from the exchange rates. This is consistent with theoretical arguments on international goods markets under transaction costs as well as with an emerging strand of empirical literature. These results highlight the importance of neglecting the possibility of nonlinearity in the debate about the PPP and provide empirical evidence that supports the scenario of the PPP hypothesis as a reality.     

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.     

ARCH versus information-based variances: evidence from the Tokyo Stock Market

By using both the individual stock prices quoted on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and their price index (TOPIX), this paper examines whether the conditional variance of stock returns is characterized by the auto-regressive-conditional-heteroskedasticity (ARCH) effect or the information-based effect. The paper finds that the inclusion of the trading volume in both generalized ARCH (GARCH) and exponential GARCH (EGARCH) specifications eliminates the ARCH effect for individual stocks and the TOPIX. The paper explains the reasons for these results. The findings suggest strong support for the information-based variance model which gives a parallel explanation to the ARCH-type models.     

中国黄金市场与外汇市场间收益、波动溢出效应实证分析--基于VEC-DCC(BEKK)-BVEGARCH模型

用向量自回归动态二元EGARCH模型,对中国黄金市场与外汇市场间的收益与波动,在金融危机前后溢出效应进行分析。研究显示：美元兑人民币汇率和中国黄金不存在溢出效应,欧元兑人民币汇率对黄金存在负向溢出效应;较之金融危机以前,美元和欧元兑人民币汇率对黄金收益的波动溢出效应减弱,尤其是美元,危机前,黄金市场对来自美元和欧元外汇市场的信息冲击,存在显著＂杠杆效应＂;危机期间,市场间＂杠杆效应＂减弱。     

Managing the renminbi: should China peg to a trade‐weighted basket?

Pegging the renminbi (RMB) to the US dollar since 1994 has characterised China's exchange rate policy under a fixed peg or appreciating crawling peg. The current policy, announced in June 2010, of ‘floating with reference to a basket’ made the RMB 25 per cent stronger against a trade‐weighted basket by early August 2015, while it was 10 per cent stronger against the US dollar. Thus, 14 percentage points arose from changes in the cross rates of the other currencies, notably from the fall of the euro since December 2014. Devaluation of the RMB by 3 per cent in August 2015 just covered the effective appreciation since December 2014. Effects of the cross rates of other currencies could be eliminated by managing the external value of the RMB with reference to a genuine trade‐weighted basket. This could be a suitable intermediary exchange rate regime for China, as the risks associated with free floating are still great. Diversifying further the currency composition of the foreign exchange reserves and other foreign assets of the Chinese government, from US dollars towards euro and yen assets, would be a natural parallel shift. The euro–US dollar–yen exchange rates in late summer 2015 may offer a good opportunity to carry out this move.     

UK External Imbalances and the Sterling: Are they on a Sustainable Path?

An updated version of Krugman’s 1993 MMF framework is used to consider the implications of buoyant domestic demand for the real exchange rate and debt dynamics. The updating includes a Taylor rule for monetary policy and explicit treatment of external assets and liabilities. In response to an exogenous rise in the aggregate demand, short-run appreciation of the real exchange rate is followed by a prolonged decline as external debt accumulates and net wealth deteriorates. Whether in equilibrium the real exchange rate is stronger or weaker depends crucially on a comparison of real interest rates and the growth rate. If the domestic growth rate is higher than global real interest rates, the currency may strengthen in the long run despite the deterioration of net external assets. To see whether the strength of sterling is sustainable, the analysis is briefly calibrated to UK data over the last decade. Blanchard et al. (The US current account and the dollar. CEPR DP no 4888, 2005) suggest that international liabilities to be treated as imperfect substitutes: so we check to see how this would affect our results.

Optimal currency shares in international reserves: The impact of the euro and the prospects for the dollar

Foreign exchange reserve accumulation has risen dramatically in recent years. The introduction of the euro, greater liquidity in other major currencies, and the rising current account deficits and external debt of the United States have increased the pressure on central banks to diversify away from the US dollar. A major portfolio shift would significantly affect exchange rates and the status of the dollar as the dominant international currency. We develop a dynamic mean-variance optimization framework with portfolio rebalancing costs to estimate optimal portfolio weights among the main international currencies. Making various assumptions on expected currency returns and the variance–covariance structure, we assess how the euro has changed this allocation. We then perform simulations for the optimal currency allocations of four large emerging market countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China), adding constraints that reflect a central bank's desire to hold a sizable portion of its portfolio in the currencies of its peg, its foreign debt and its international trade. Our main results are: (i) The optimizer can match the large share of the US dollar in reserves, when the dollar is the reference (risk-free) currency. (ii) The optimum portfolios show a much lower weight for the euro than is observed. This suggests that the euro may already enjoy an enhanced role as an international reserve currency (“punching above its weight”). (iii) Growth in issuance of euro-denominated securities, a rise in euro zone trade with key emerging markets, and increased use of the euro as a currency peg, would all work towards raising the optimal euro shares, with the last factor being quantitatively the most important. J. Japanese Int. Economies 20 (4) (2006) 508–547.     

Was it really a dollar peg?: The exchange rate policies of East Asian countries, 1980–1997

This paper examines the exchange rate policies of East Asian countries during the period preceding the currency crisis of 1997, in an attempt to ascertain the extent to which they could be considered, as they frequently are, as a dollar peg. We do so by estimating the implicit weights of foreign currencies in the nominal exchange rate determination of East Asian currencies by means of a time-varying parameter model. The crucial element of our approach concerns how the weight of the Japanese yen was altered in response to the movement of the yen–dollar exchange rate. It is found that, while the weight of the U.S. dollar was large and the weight of the Japanese yen was small for the period as a whole, the weight of the yen was raised in some of the countries in the early 1990s. In particular, the Korean and Malaysian authorities raised the weight of the yen when the yen depreciated against the U.S. dollar, while the Singaporean authorities raised the weight of the yen when the yen appreciated against the dollar.     

On the identification of de facto currency pegs

We describe an exchange rate peg on a dollar/euro/yen basket as an orthogonality condition for bilateral exchange rates vis-à-vis these currencies. This approach avoids the choice of a numeraire and allows simple testing on the composition of the peg. GMM estimation is performed before and after the 1997–1998 crises for up to 139 currencies. We find that the number of pegs has not diminished after the crises. Intermediate regimes, defined as de facto pegs which are not reported as hard pegs to the IMF, have been replaced by hard pegs (primarily as a consequence of the launch of the euro) while the proportion of free floats has not increased. The dollar remains the main anchor currency. J. Japanese Int. Economies 20 (1) (2006) 112–127.     

The ASEAN dollar standard in the post-crisis era: A reconsideration

This paper examines the role of global currencies in ASEAN exchange rate regimes. The investigation considers the post-crisis era from January 1, 1999 through December 31, 2007 and focuses on the five original members of ASEAN (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand) plus Vietnam. Unlike most papers that use classical regression analysis of logarithmic data in first differences to detect the influence of various foreign currencies on particular Asian currencies, this paper considers modern time series analysis more seriously. In particular, this paper finds evidence of cointegration among individual ASEAN currencies and some of the global currencies, indicating a long-run relationship. Examination of the cointegrating vectors yields four main findings. First, there is a notable absence of a clear US dollar standard. Second, the yen is downright unimportant, suggesting that ASEAN currencies are quite far from a yen standard. Third, ASEAN currencies are also quite far from a euro standard. Fourth, and most surprisingly, the UK pound is very important. These results are at odds with the traditional (short-run) regressions which suggest that ASEAN is on a dollar standard, although it is not a perfect dollar standard because coefficients are not at unity and various other currencies are significant in different equations. Hence, the overall conclusion from this research is that there is a wide variety of influences on ASEAN exchange rates in both the long run and the short run. This suggests that ASEAN, as a group, is not pursuing – and is in fact not ready for – a global-currency standard.     

Asian Currency Crisis and the Generalized PPP: Evidence from the Far East

The present paper investigates the effects of the Asian currency crisis of 1997–1998 on the generalized PPP between several real exchange rates of the Far East countries. Monthly log of real exchange rates of the currencies of Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and South Korea vis-à-vis the US dollar and the Japanese yen during 1990–2004 are applied in the investigation. Further tests are conducted between exchange rates vis-à-vis the Thai baht. Tests are conducted for periods before and after the crisis. Results from the Johansen method of multivariate cointegration show a substantial change in the relationship between these real exchange rates before and after the Asian currency crisis. This result is found using rates based on three currencies: US dollar, yen and baht.     

Retrospect of the Chinese Exchange Rate Regime after Reform： Stylized Facts during the Period from 2005 to 2010

In the present paper, we estimate the de facto RMB exchange rate regime, the currency basket, the floating band and the foreign exchange market pressure before and after the reform of the Chinese exchange rate regime in 2005. We find the following stylized facts： the value of the RAIB became stable after the reform; the weight of the US dollar remained high in the basket, while other currencies remained statistically significant; and the floating band gradually increased to lO percent during 2005-2008, and then greatly narrowed from the late summer of 2008 under the assumption of a yearly resetting interval. We find that the foreign exchange market pressure increased from 2005 to 2008. A possible reason is that the weight of the US dollar in the basket was slightly lower than the share of the US dollar in total transactions on the Chinese foreign exchange market. Therefore, it is reasonable for China to adopt a dollar peg exchange rate regime.     

The Foreign Exchange Rate Exposure of Nations

Following the well-known approach by Adler and Dumas (Financ Manage 13(2):41–50, 1984), we evaluate the foreign exchange rate exposure of nations. Results based on data from 27 countries show that national foreign exchange rate exposures are significantly related to the current account and financial account balance variables of corresponding economies.     

A Review of Theoretical Results for ARCH-type Models

This paper provides a review of some theoretical results for ARCH-type models, and is directed towards practitioners. Starting with the simple ARCH model and proceeding to the GARCH model, various ARCH-type models, including exponential GARCH, threshold ARCH, ARCH-in-Mean and multivariate ARCH are reviewed.     

Interest rates, exchange rates and international adjustment: BW II dynamics

Recent attempts to explain the dynamics of adjustment of dollar exchange rates in the face of an anticipated deterioration of the US net international investment position have focused on portfolio balance models of exchange rate determination. In this paper we argue that such models are useful in understanding the behavior of dollar exchange rates with emerging market currencies but, consistent with a large body of empirical research, are not useful in understanding changes in the dollars value against the euro or the currencies of other developed countries. We conclude that portfolio preferences of governments of emerging markets provide the most plausible explanation for the persistent US current account deficit.     

Economic Liberalization and Conditional Volatility of Exchange Rate in Sub‐Saharan Africa: Asymmetric GARCH Analysis

Abstract: For small open economies, an understanding of movements in the exchange rate is imperative in analyzing trade and capital flows. In addition, reliable forecasting of exchange rate volatility is important in risk‐taking assessment and investment decision‐making, both of which are critical to long‐term growth. Using an asymmetric GARCH‐type approach, this paper examines the implications of economic liberalization on the stochastic behavior of the exchange rate series in a sample of sub‐Sahara African (SSA) countries over the 1970–2004 period. The results indicate that exchange rate volatility is variable, and is less volatile under fixed exchange rate regime (pre‐economic liberalization) and higher under flexible regime (post‐economic liberalization), that is, it is asymmetric. For most of the countries, the EGARCH and TGARCH models are robust to parameter stability and gives better forecasting performance compared to the standard GARCH model.     

Exchange rate regimes and uncertainty

Conclusion This paper examines the change in exchange rate uncertainty between the Bretton Woods and floating exchange rate periods. We estimate both the unconditional variance and the conditional variance of the DM/dollar exchange rate under each exchange rate regime. The former is estimated on the basis of the coefficient of variation and the latter on the basis of a GARCH model. Our GARCH results show that the unconditional variance greatlyunderstates the change in exchange rate uncertainty that resulted from the switch to a flexible exchange rate regime.     

Forecasting the Euro exchange rate using vector error correction models

Forecasting the Euro Exchange Rate Using Vector Error Correction Models. — This paper presents an exchange rate model for the Euro exchange rates of four major currencies, namely the US dollar, the British pound, the Japanese yen and the Swiss franc. The model is based on the monetary approach of exchange rate theory which uses fundamental macroeconomic variables to explain the exchange rate. A crucial point when using such a model is its proper estimation through cointegration analysis. The euro exchange rate model is therefore estimated in the form of a Vector Autoregressive (VAR) model with cointegrating vectors (VECM). We find that when cointegration analysis is undertaken properly, the naive random walk prediction can be out-performed for the US dollar, the British pound and the Japanese yen, but not for the Swiss franc.     

Evidence of long-run purchasing power parity: analysis of real asian exchange rates in terms of the Japanese yen

In this paper we find strong new evidence in favour of the long-run purchasing power parity (PPP) hypothesis in the bilateral real exchange rates between the Japanese yen and the currencies of the most important southeast Asian economies only when the presence of several possible structural breaks of the series is taken into account. Such evidence for PPP is weaker for these southeast Asian exchange rates with the US dollar, the German mark and the Australian dollar.