Dual-track interest rates and capital misallocation

The control-track interest rate and the market-track interest rate constitute China's dual-track interest rates. A theoretical model of dual-track interest rates and financial frictions is studied. In the model, bank loans are provided to state-owned enterprises with the control-track interest rate, private enterprises resort to shadow banking with the market-track interest rate. The interest rate wedge between these two interest rates distorts capital allocation, even driving a sector out of production. Full interest rate liberalization which eliminates the interest rate wedge alleviates cross-sector capital misallocation. However, the net effect on aggregate TFP is ambiguous due to the within-sector effect. Under calibrated parameters, full interest rate liberalization improves aggregate TFP moderately, unless the financial reform aimed to have SOEs and POEs face the same degree of financial frictions is also implemented.     

Non-linear pattern of international capital flows

Review of World Economics - In a two-country OLG model with interest rate wedges capturing financial frictions, international capital flows can follow a non-linear pattern, depicted as a U-shaped...     

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.     

Capital Flows and Economic Growth in the Era of Financial Integration and Crisis, 1990–2010

We investigate the relationship between economic growth and lagged international capital flows, disaggregated into FDI, portfolio investment, equity investment, and short-term debt. We follow about 100 countries during 1990–2010 when emerging markets became more integrated into the international financial system. We look at the relationship both before and after the global crisis. Our study reveals a complex and mixed picture. The relationship between growth and lagged capital flows depends on the type of flows, economic structure, and global growth patterns. We find a large and robust relationship between FDI – both inflows and outflows – and growth. The relationship between growth and equity flows is smaller and less stable. Finally, the relationship between growth and short-term debt is nil before the crisis, and negative during the crisis.     

东亚股票市场的一体化及其趋势——基于股指趋同性的分析

伴随着国际资金的频繁流动,东亚金融市场成为国际证券投资的主要地区。东亚各国和地区为了使其股票市场健康稳定发展,采取了一系列措施增强其区域内股票市场的一体化程度。本文通过Johansen协整,方差分解等方法,分析了当前东亚股票市场的股票指数与两大国际股票市场(美国和日本)股票指数的趋同性,以此为基础讨论东亚股票市场的全球一体化程度与区域一体化程度。本文研究发现,东亚股票市场的一体化程度不高,但其全球化程度高于其区域化程度。     

Do private capital markets insure regional risk? Evidence from the United States and Europe

A striking feature of international economic relations is the limited extent of intertemporal trade and risk-sharing among nations. This paper uses data on consumption, income, and production from regions of the United States to address the question of whether the limited participation of national economies in international capital markets is a fundamental aspect of economic relations among large geographic regions, or whether it is specifically an artifact of international economic relations. We conclude that capital flows among the regions of the United States are significantly larger than those across countries. However, such private markets still provide a relatively limited degree of insurance against regional fluctuations.     

Multinational banking and economic development: a case study

Evidence of inward foreign direct investment by commercial banks into two regions of China is used to examine the effect or relaxation of controls over inward investment on investment by nonfinancial firms. The existence of sophisticated intermediaries with experience in the international financial system creates conditions for a verifiable, sharp increase in the rate of inward investment by multinational corporations. Two explanations are advanced: the newly available expertise in the international financial system allows multinational firms to invest with the assurance that they will have sophisticated capability to hedge risks and, because the financial sector is a sensitive sector, permission for multinational banks to enter is a sign of a commitment to a policy of open industrialization.     

Capital Markets and Capital Formation in Australia, 1945–1990

This survey article continues the author's examination of the interaction between domestic capital markets and capital formation by studying the 45 years after the end of World War II. (Part 1 appeared in AEHR 37 (3) 1997.) The significant rise and the sustained increase in the ratio of gross domestic capital formation to gross domestic product (GDP) posed challenges to local deposit taking institutions and capital markets to mobilize savings. The changing balance between public and private investment, and between investment by businesses and households, was reflected in the relative importance of government and private debt, and equity. The capital markets and financial institutions proved themselves to be adaptable enough to finance more than 90 per cent of postwar capital formation. However, the increasing inward and outward flows of foreign direct investment have weakened the nexus between the supply of domestic savings and capital formation.     

金融市场差异与全球经济失衡

本文利用两国动态一般均衡模型对比分析了在开放经济前后两国利率、资本存量、消费和对外负债的变化,研究了封闭与开放均衡时期金融市场差异在形成两国相应经济变量数量差异过程中的作用,以及金融市场对资本跨境部门间流动和经常账户变动的影响,进而探究金融市场在全球经济失衡中的作用。研究结果表明,金融市场发展水平较高国家在提供无风险资产方面具有绝对优势,它的金融部门较生产部门对国际资本的吸引力更强,而金融市场发展水平较低的国家则恰好相反。由此,金融市场差异通过对资本的配置影响消费与投资,进而使两国经常账户顺逆有别。本文还通过将39个国家2000年后的相关数据进行面板回归分析对这一结论进行了验证。     

Business cycle accounting for the Japanese economy

We conducted business cycle accounting (BCA) using the method developed by Chari, Kehoe, and McGrattan (Chari, V.V., P.J. Kehoe, E.R. McGrattan, 2002a. Accounting for the Great Depression. Am. Econ. Rev. 92 (2), 22–27) on data from the 1980s to 1990s in Japan and from the interwar period in Japan and the United States. The contribution of this paper is two-fold. First, we find that labor wedges may have been a major contributor to the decade-long recession in the 1990s in Japan. Assuming exogenous variations in the share of labor, we find that the deterioration in the labor wedge started around 1990, which coincides with the onset of the recession. Second, we performed an alternative BCA exercise using the capital wedge instead of the investment wedge to check the robustness of BCA implications for financial frictions. The accounting results with the capital wedge imply that financial frictions may have had a large depressive effect during the 1930s in the United States. This implication is the opposite of that from the original BCA findings.     

Relationship between foreign capital flows,domestic investment and savings in the SADC region

The importance of foreign capital in the domestic economy cannot be underestimated as it bridges the gap between domestic capital demand and supply. Given this background the paper studies the relationship between the different types of foreign capital flows in the Southern Africa Development Region (SADC) region – foreign direct investment (FDI), remittances, cross border bank flows (CBF), overseas development assistance (ODA) – and domestic savings and investment, employing the panel cointegration test and the dynamic ordinary least squares method (DOLS). The empirical results reveal that there is a strong positive relationship between domestic investment and domestic savings, FDI and remittances. These findings indicate that FDI remittances help in overcoming the limits on the domestic capital formation in the SADC region through permitting a rate of investment which is in excess of that which can be generated by domestic savings. Important policy implications on attracting foreign capital flows are discussed in the paper.     

Aggregate net flows,inflows, and outflows of equity funds: The U.S. versus Japan

This paper investigates the aggregate cash inflows and outflows of domestic equity mutual funds as well as their net flows for the U.S. and Japan in an international context. The U.S. and Japan are two representative countries that have the largest and most developed fund markets in the Western world and Asia, respectively. For the purpose of analyzing dynamic relationships between market volatility, market return, and cash flow, this paper employs reduced-form and structural vector auto-regression (VAR) models. The analysis shows much different empirical findings between the U.S. and Japan, which can be explained by different culture and investment sentiments.     

Private capital flows,stock market and economic growth in developed and developing countries: A comparative analysis

Empirically we investigate how three types of private capital flows could promote economic growth in recipient developed and developing countries. Our focus is on the role of stock markets as a channel through which foreign capital flows could promote growth. The findings reveal that FDI exhibits a positive impact on growth, while both foreign debt and portfolio investment have a negative impact on growth in all sample countries. However, our results indicate that stock markets might be a significant channel or leading institutional factor through which capital flows affect economic growth. The findings provide clear implications that the negative impact of private capital flows can be transformed into a positive one if the stock market development has attained a certain threshold level, regardless of whether it is in developed or developing countries.     

Behavioral and empirical perspectives on FDI: International capital allocation across Asia

We investigate Asia's recent experience in international capital allocation through flows of foreign direct investment. A calibrated general equilibrium model with a new capital flow modelling component is applied to highlight underlying relationships between a Heckscher-Ohlin (labor and capital) endowment perspective and such considerations as human capital, productivity, endogenous growth, and institutional behavior. Our results support the argument that all these factors played a role in Asia's recent growth, to different degrees in different countries, with complex relationships to investment incentives. In addition, new directions for further research in the FDI-growth linkages policy area are identified.     

How would Capital Account Liberalization Affect China＇s Capital Flows and the Renminbi Real Exchange Rates？

In this paper we study the determinants of gross capital flows, project the size of China's international investment position in 2020, and analyze the implications for the renminbi real exchange rate if China liberalizes the capital account. We assume in this exercise that the renminbi will have largely achieved capital account convertibility by the end of the current decade, a timetable consistent with recent proposals by the People's Bank of China. Our analysis shows that if the capital account were liberalized, China's gross international investment position would grow significantly, and inflows and outflows would become much more balanced. The private sector would turn its net liability position into a balanced position, and the official sector would reduce its net asset position significantly, relative to the country's GDP. Because of the increasing importance of private sector foreign claims and the decreasing importance of official foreign reserves, China would be able to earn higher net investment income from abroad. Overall, China would continue to be a net creditor, with the net foreign asset position as a share of GDP remaining largely stable through this decade. These findings suggest that the renminbi real exchange rate would not be particularly sensitive to capital account liberalization as capital flows are expected to be two‐sided. The renminbi real exchange rate would likely be on a path of moderate appreciation as China is expected to maintain a sizeable growth differential with its trading partners.     

The limited role of small stock exchanges in economic development: A case study of Mozambique and Swaziland

The establishment of a successful stock market in a developing economy can provide a major source of development finance, both channelling domestic savings and attracting foreign investment. But small markets generally fail. Two micro-markets, Mozambique and Swaziland, provide an interesting case study to examine the features of new markets in sub-Saharan Africa that differ in a number of ways, including colonial legacy, membership of the Common Monetary Area and the dynamics of the political economy that defines the links between the citizens, the local elite and the state. In both countries, the operational aspects of the stock exchange are clearly inadequate as a means of promoting international investment. Thus, gains from regional integration initiatives or foreign investment are unlikely, as the market's small size and incomplete institutions currently offer limited potential for either domestic or international risk diversification. However, the political economy in both countries is the real barrier to growth.     

Stock returns and investment trust flows in the Japanese financial market: A system approach

To study dynamic and causal relations between stock returns and investment trust flows in Japan, we employ a system method which utilizes information from the stock, bond, and money markets. The empirical evidence from SURECM, and Granger (1969) and Sims (1972) causality tests in the system method indicates that investment trust flows are weakly exogenous and stock returns cause net fund flows, implying that investors move their money to the securities that yield higher returns to rebalance their investment portfolios in the short-run. Thus, our findings do not support the popular notion of mutual fund flows as a driving force behind rallies in Japanese financial markets.     

Capital controls and the political discount: The Spanish experience in the late 1980s

This article examines the wedge between Madrid and London peseta interest rates in the late 1980s, when controls on capital inflows were imposed. A model of onshore and offshore markets and of arbitrage between the two is proposed, where arbitrage has a dynamic structure caused by the process of controls avoidance. The model implies, first, that the wedge can follow an ARMA process and, second, that onshore and offshore rates can be cointegrated and can adjust according to an error correction mechanism. These models are consistent with the data and show that the monetary independence given by the controls was limited.     

Do exchange rate arrangements and capital controls influence international capital flows and housing prices in Asia?

This paper investigates the influence of international capital flows on housing prices in eight Asian countries, including China. We focus on determining whether exchange rate arrangements and capital regulations influence capital inflows and housing prices. Our results show that an arrangement to restrain the fluctuation of the exchange rate and capital controls has the potential to raise housing prices in Asia. The strong prospect of the Chinese yuan's appreciation also pushed up housing prices in China. Another expected reason for the increase in capital inflows into Asian markets is the expansion of global liquidity. Such capital flows often have a sensitive reaction to market sentiment, and an increase in asset market volatility caused by the liquidity squeeze decreases Asian housing prices. These results suggest the need to review capital controls and future exchange rate system options for Asian countries.     

我国短期国际资本流入研究

国际短期资本流动对我国经济的影响越来越明显。本文由国内外学者对国际短期资本流动的实证研究综述展开,分析并探讨了国际短期资本流动的动因。本文通过实证检验,试图找出影响我国短期资本流动的关键影响因素。研究表明,短期资本流动与中美利差、房地产指数以及证券市场的收益率呈正相关关系,而汇率的变动对短期资本流动影响不大,汇率的预期变动才是影响短期资本流动的因素之一。