Business Cycle Synchronization in EU: A Time‐Varying Approach

This article investigates the time‐varying correlation between the EU12‐wide business cycle and the initial EU12 member‐countries based on Scalar‐BEKK and multivariate Riskmetrics model frameworks for the period 1980–2012. The paper provides evidence that changes in the business cycle synchronization correspond to major economic events that have taken place at a European level. In the main, business cycle synchronization until 2007 had moved in a direction positive for the operation of a single currency, suggesting that the common monetary policy was less costly in terms of lost flexibility at the national level. However, as a result of the Great Recession of 2007 and the subsequent Eurozone Crisis, a number of periphery countries, most notably Greece, have experienced desynchronization of their business cycles with the EU12‐wide cycle. Nevertheless, for most countries, any questions regarding the optimality and sustainability of the common currency area in Europe should not be attributed to a lack of cyclical synchronization.     

What Determines Sectoral Trade in the Enlarged EU?

In this paper, we estimate a sectoral gravity model for trade within a heterogeneous trade bloc, the enlarged EU, comprised of a high‐income group (wealthiest EU), a middle‐income group (Greece, Portugal and Spain), and a low‐income group (new Central and Eastern European member countries). The estimation was conducted on sectors with different degrees of scale economies and skill‐intensities in the presence of transport costs. The results offer support for the call to incorporate trade theories based on both endowments and scale economies. In addition, whilst integrating poorer countries is beneficial for all of the participants in the bloc, there is still a role for a redistribution policy, such as the EU's Regional Policy, which should comprise a mix of policies, focusing on both income and education/skills, together with infrastructure development.     

International Trade and the Business Cycle

This paper develops a new empirical framework for analysing the dynamics of the trade balance in response to different types of macroeconomic shocks. The model provides a synthetic perspective on the conditional correlations between the business cycle and the trade balance that are generated by different shocks and attempts to reconcile these results with unconditional correlations found in the data. The results suggest that, in the post-Bretton Woods period, nominal shocks have been an important determinant of the forecast error variance for fluctuations in the trade balance in G-7 countries.     

FDI流量变化与世界经济周期的相关性分析

经济周期影响一切经济活动，以跨国公司为主体的FDI也必然受经济周期的影响。本文以实证方式利用世界FDI和世界GDP增长率的历史数据分析了FDI与经济周期的相关性，并作了相应解释。     

Vertical Specialization and International Business Cycle Synchronization*

We explore the impact of vertical specialization—trade in goods across multiple stages of production—on the relationship between trade and business cycle synchronization across countries. We develop an international business cycle model in which the degree of vertical specialization varies with trade barriers. With perfect competition, we show analytically that fluctuations in measured total factor productivity are not linked across countries through trade. In numerical simulations, we find little dependence of business cycle synchronization on trade intensity. An extension of the model to allow for imperfect competition has the potential to resolve these shortcomings.     

External Influences on Business Cycle Synchronization in the Euro Area

Most studies of business cycle synchronization in the EMU identify a core set of counties with high synchronization and a periphery set of countries with low synchronization. Using a structural VAR with model uncertainty, we identify spillover effects from shocks that originate in the United States, the EMU, and the rest of the world to test whether external influences can explain the existence of the core and periphery. Most countries typically found in the core respond to external spillovers in similar ways, leading to more synchronized business cycles. The response to external influences in the countries traditionally found in the periphery, on the other hand, help explain their exclusion from the core.     

国内价值链与区域经济周期协同:来自中国的经验证据

本文采用2002年、2007年和2010年中国30个省区区域间投入产出表,就国内价值链对区域经济周期协同性的影响进行了全方位考察。结果表明,国内价值链贸易增强了中国地区间经济周期的联动性,而在控制国内价值链贸易之后,区际贸易却降低了两地区产出的协同程度,区际贸易具有的Frankel-Rose效应主要是国内价值链贸易的作用结果。在引入省区官员交流等工具变量控制内生性后,结果仍是稳健的。同时,国内价值链贸易的传导效应不仅受价值链分工地位差异的影响,而且呈现出显著的危机前后时段特征和东部与中西部内外空间特征。进一步纳入全球价值链后发现,全球价值链贸易对国内价值链贸易的正向经济周期协同效应具有放大作用,而传统国际贸易对传统区际贸易的负向经济周期冲击存在叠加效应,国内价值链联结的区际分工网络是保证中国经济外向型发展过程中各地区之间经济紧密联动、协同共进的重要力量。     

The Role of the Business Cycle in Exchange Rate Pass-Through: The Case of Finland

In this paper we investigate whether exchange rate pass-through (ERPT) responds nonlinearly to economic activity along the business cycle. Using quarterly data spanning the period 1975:1 to 2011:1, we explore the existence of nonlinearities in ERPT to CPI inflation for the Finnish economy. Within a logistic smooth transition framework, our investigations reveal a strong regime-dependence of pass-through, depending positively on economic activity. Besides, point estimates indicate that the long-run pass-through coefficient is equal to 0.15 % (weakly significant) when GDP growth is below a threshold of 3 %. However, when the Finnish economy’s growth rate speeds up—above the threshold of 3 %—ERPT elasticity increases to 0.47 %. These results provide some useful guidance on how policymakers should act over different phases of the business cycle. More specifically, monetary policy should factor in the nonlinear mechanism of ERPT over the business cycle in order to prevent exchange rate movements from fueling a continuous inflationary process.

     

Business Cycle Synchronization in Europe: Evidence from a Dynamic Factor Model

This paper revisits the effect of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) on the extent of business cycle synchronization across its member states. A dynamic latent factor model is used to identify the ‘regional’ effect of the euro area on output growth and inflation dynamics across European countries. The results of variance decomposition analysis confirm that both output growth and inflation tended to be more synchronized among European countries during the run-up to the EMU, but there is no strong evidence to support the argument that the ‘regional’ effects prevailed after 1999.     

全球价值链分工对国际经济周期协同性的影响研究

为考察全球价值链分工的宏观经济效应,本文基于2000—2014年全球102个经济体相关数据,探究了全球价值链贸易对国际经济周期协同性的影响。结果表明,全球价值链贸易深化了国际垂直型分工,显著提升了国际经济周期的协同性;无论是制造业还是服务业价值链贸易,对国际经济周期协同性都具有显著正向影响,侧面反映出服务业也在越来越深入地融入全球分工体系;价值链贸易对国际经济周期协同性的影响效应主要体现于发展中与发达经济体之间,发达经济体之间的经济周期协同性受其影响并不明显。     

Business Cycle Synchronization in the Proposed East African Monetary Union: An Unobserved Component Approach

This paper uses the business cycle synchronization criteria of the theory of optimum currency area (OCA) to examine the feasibility of the East African Community (EAC) as a monetary union. We also investigate whether the degree of business cycle synchronization has increased after the 1999 EAC Treaty. We use an unobserved component model to measure business cycle synchronization as the proportion of structural shocks that are common across different countries, and a time‐varying parameter model to examine the dynamics of synchronization over time. We find that although the degree of synchronization has increased since 2000 when the EAC Treaty came into force, the proportion of shocks that is common across different countries is still small implying weak synchronization. This evidence casts doubt on the feasibility of a monetary union for the EAC as scheduled by 2012.     

Business Cycle Synchronization between Euro Area and Central and Eastern European Countries

We analyze the degree of co‐movements in real macroeconomic aggregates across selected euro area and Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries applying a multi‐factor model. Our results suggest that the evolution of the global European factor matches well the narrative of main economic events between 1995 and 2011, capturing among others the recession during the recent global financial and economic crisis. This factor plays a central role in explaining real output growth variability in euro area and is negligible in CEE countries. Furthermore, using Markov switching models and concordance indices, we shed light on an increase in business cycle synchronization, with the degree of concordance between country‐specific and European business cycles being high.     

中国内地与香港经济周期的区制状态及协同性分析

笔者运用Markov区制转移模型,对中国内地与香港经济周期的区制状态以及两地经济周期的协同性进行了检验.结果显示:一方面,中国内地与香港经济周期均存在显著的三区制性质,即经济周期可划分为"低速"、"适速"和"高速"增长区制;另一方面,中国内地与香港经济周期的协同性水平偏低,并且存在依赖于区制状态的"门限性质",即在不同的经济周期区制内呈现出不同的协同性水平.     

Trade Structure and Trade liberalization: The emerging pattern between the EU and Transition Economies

The purpose of this study is to find empirical evidence for the assumption that trade liberalization unlocks the potential of the Transition Economies (TEs) to achieve technological upgrading, productivity progress and catching-up (in terms of income). The study examines the trade structure now emerging between the European Union (EU) and the TEs in the light of two sets of differently liberalized trade items identified by the European Agreements. The aim is to determine whether trade liberalization has helped to supersede the structures – reflected mainly in the low quality of products – inherited by the TEs from the command economy. The empirical results are interpreted in the light of the Flam-Helpman quality-cycle model. We find evidence of an ongoing division of labor between high quality products (EU) and low quality products (TEs) according to a cycle. The first stage comprises the already well established dominance of quality advantage products by EU countries producing and exporting high-quality products, which crowd out the TEs' production of similar products. The second stage is the exploitation of cost-advantages by TEs in less liberalized trade, and there they appear to achieve better results. All these results may be taken as support for an active government in TEs.     

Trade Integration and Business Cycle Convergence: Is the Relation Robust across Time and Space?*

In this paper we investigate the relationship between trade intensity and the business cycle correlation using a panel data set taken from 24 countries over the period 1959–2003. Most previous studies did not account for the possibility that the business cycle correlation may be influenced by unobservable country‐pair specific effects. Our estimates, using both fixed‐ and random‐effects methodologies, suggest that trade intensity and the business cycle correlation are positively related to one another. However, detailed investigation shows that this relationship exists mainly for the European countries.     

浅析中欧贸易与欧盟技术性贸易壁垒

近年来,技术性贸易壁垒(TBT)已成为发达国家实施贸易保护主义更为隐蔽、更为有效的手段。作为中国第三大贸易伙伴的欧盟,其实施的各种TBT措施对中国的出口产品产生了严重的影响。为了能更好地了解欧盟的TBT,探求企业和政府应对TBT的措施,本文拟从技术性贸易壁垒的特点、中欧贸易现状、欧盟技术性贸易壁垒的主要措施、企业和政府的应对措施等角度探讨欧盟技术性贸易壁垒。     

欧盟对华直接投资对中欧双边贸易影响的协整分析

欧盟对华直接投资与中国向欧盟出口以及欧盟对华直接投资与中国向欧盟进口均表现为一种显著的协整关系.这说明欧盟对华直接投资与中欧双边贸易之间的长期均衡关系比较稳定,而且欧盟对华的直接投资与中欧双边贸易在规模上具有相同的变化趋势.同时,从短期看来,欧盟对华直接投资与中国对欧盟进出口的关系由短期偏离向长期均衡调整的速度很快.