Will the role of the dollar as the international reserve currency be challenged?

The actual role of the US Dollar as the international reserve currency is an essential part of a financial architecture, which was conceived after World War II. Since then the world-wide economic, financial and political landscape has fundamentally changed. The article describes through which mechanisms the actual financial architecture will be challenged and what will be the consequences and occasional outcome.     

解析高外汇储备与人民币升值的循环困局

目前,我国的巨额外汇储备被普遍视为人民币升值的直接导火索,同时,受人民币升值预期的影响,大量热钱流入国内,央行为保持人民币币值稳定加大了对外汇市场的干预力度,这进一步增大了我国的外汇储备。外汇储备增大和人民币升值的循环导致了我国当前宏观经济面临两难选择。     

论国际储备货币体系能否实现多元化

欧元虽然在整个货币体系结构中地位逐渐增强,可就现阶段而言,美元的霸权地位仍然很难被其他货币所取代。但从长远来看,国际储备货币体系的多元化仍然是大势所趋。因为只有稳步地推进的多元化的货币体系,才能真正支撑起国际经济的稳定。     

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.     

Stabilization of effective exchange rates under common currency basket systems

We investigate the extent to which a common currency basket peg would stabilize effective exchange rates of East Asian currencies. We use an AMU (Asian Monetary Unit), which is a weighted average of ASEAN10 plus 3 (Japan, China, and Korea) currencies, as a common currency basket to investigate the stabilization effects. We compare our results with another result on stabilization effects of the common G3 currency (the US dollar, the Japanese yen, and the euro) basket in the East Asian countries [Williamson, J., 2005, A currency basket for East Asia, not just China. In: Policy Briefs in International Economics, No. PB05-1. Institute for International Economics]. We obtained the following results: first, the AMU peg system would be more effective in reducing fluctuations of the effective exchange rates of East Asian currencies as a number of countries applied the AMU peg system increases in East Asia. Second, the AMU peg system would more effectively stabilize the effective exchange rates than a common G3 currency basket peg system for four (Indonesia, the Philippines, South Korea, and Thailand) of the seven countries. The results suggest that the AMU peg system would be useful for the East Asian countries whose trade weights on Japan are relatively higher than others. J. Japanese Int. Economies 20 (4) (2006) 590–611.     

基于真实收益率的中国外汇储备最优币种结构分析

本文利用Markowitz提出的资产组合理论(Markowitz,1952),结合中国外汇储备结构的具体情况,根据经济实力、币值稳定性和交易匹配三大原则,摒弃含有诸多弊端的、单纯以美元计价的外汇储备收益率,改为采用以商品篮子衡量的外汇储备真实收益率作为期望收益率,利用二次规划工具求出了以4种外汇储备最优资产组合的风险有效前沿,测算出我国外汇储备最优币种结构,并给出相应建议,以期实现外汇储备保值增值的目标。     

金融危机下对建立超主权货币问题的思考

在第二次全球金融峰会召开之际,周小川行长发表文章《关于改革国际货币体系的思考》,提出对特别提款权进行改造,使之成为全球最主要的储备货币。本文在此基础上,针对金融危机形势下国际货币体系内在缺陷的突显,提出了建立超主权货币的背景、意义、问题及相关对策。     

Vehicle currency pricing and its positive welfare consequences under optimal monetary policy

Using a two-country general equilibrium model, this paper analytically derives the possibility of positive welfare consequences of vehicle currency use in invoicing international trades. Such vehicle currency use is prominent in the data. The literature points out welfare loss under optimal monetary policy due to vehicle currency pricing relative to the flexible price equilibrium outcome, modeling only tradable goods. By introducing nontradable goods and their sector-specific productivity shocks, this paper provides a closed-form condition under which one country's welfare is higher under optimal monetary policy if its exports are invoiced with the other country's currency than if invoiced with its own currency, given that the other country's exports are invoiced with the producer's currency. That is, this paper derives a condition under which vehicle currency pricing is preferred by the nonvehicle currency country to producer currency pricing.     

The Forex Regime and EMU Expansion

This paper provides evidence that the choice of the foreign exchange regime is not of first order importance for achieving high output growth. It is argued that due to the forward looking nature of the foreign exchange market, exchange rate stability hinges on the current and anticipated coherency of monetary and fiscal policies. We demonstrate this empirically on a panel including potential EMU accession countries. By means of rank regression analysis we uncover the partial links across the regime specifics of the representative country versus the German regime during the 1990s.     

Macroeconomic Policy Interaction under EMU: A Dynamic Game Approach

In this article, we study macroeconomic stabilization in the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) using a dynamic game approach. With the aid of a stylized macroeconomic model, this article analyzes the transmission and interaction of national fiscal policies and monetary policy of the European Central Bank (ECB) in the EMU. A special focus is on the effects of labor market institutions in the participating countries and of the introduction of fiscal stringency criteria like those imposed in the Stability and Growth Pact.     

货币从紧政策下央行票据的货币调控效果探析

我国目前的货币政策工具中占主要地位的是央行票据。它的发行引起了社会的广泛关注。它代表了中央银行对目前宏观经济的调控方向。本文从它收缩市场上流动货币的能力及它与各项经济指标的关联性入手,分析它在货币政策调控中的效果。     

全球金融危机背景下的我国货币错配问题研究

我国的货币错配具有一些自身的特点,表现为巨额正外币资产头寸,在全球金融危机背景下,这将带来巨大的风险挑战。因此加强对货币错配问题的研究对于宏观经济政策的制定特别是对汇率制度的改革,具有非常重要的现实意义。本文首先通过估计我国的货币错配水平,分析我国的货币错配现状,指出全球金融危机背景下的风险挑战,进而提出相应的风险防范措施。     

两岸货币清算机制内涵、困境及进程的探讨

完整的两岸货币清算机制是指解决两岸间美元、欧元、人民币、新台币等主要货币资金往来的制度性协议,这一协议由若干阶段性协议所构成,最终目的是实现人民币与新台币的直接兑换。大陆现有的四种跨境资金清算模式可以作为两岸货币清算机制的制度基础。受制于政治定位和资本账户管制,两岸货币清算机制迟迟未能签订。即便全面实现,在市场因素的驱动下,两岸依然会面临许多问题。     

The Information Contents of Aggregated Money Demand in the EMU

Estimates of aggregated and disaggregated demand-for-money functions in 7 EMU member states show that the aggregated function slightly outperforms the disaggregated functions in explaining the European demand for M3. The aggregated function appears to contain some additional information on money demand in The Netherlands and, to a lesser extent, in France. For the other countries investigated in this study information on aggregated European money demand does not add much to the explanation of demand for money in the individual countries.     

论城市商业银行在紧缩性货币政策下的发展趋势

为抑制经济过热、流动性过剩及通货膨胀等严重经济问题,紧缩性货币政策成为目前及未来一段时期内货币政策的必然选择,而该政策将极大左右银行业的经营业绩与资产质量。为此,我们有必要探讨在连续的紧缩性货币政策下,比较竞争力并不占优的城市商业银行所面临的关键问题及其所应调整的战术与战略。     

The Impact of EMU on Inflation Expectations

This paper analyses the impact of the monetary regime change from the Bundesbank to the ECB on inflation expectations. In the theoretical part, the Barro-Gordon model is used to derive the potential effect of a new central bank on inflation and inflation expectations. The econometric investigation is based on a flexible specification of expectation formation which allows both for rational and adaptive elements. The results indicate that the monetary regime change did not have a strong and lasting impact on the formation of inflation expectations and that the credibility of both central banks is not perceived to differ significantly anymore. JEL Classification Numbers: E 58, E 31     

加强中央银行独立性的重要意义--以日本为实例的分析

以日本为实例的分析表明,如果一国的中央银行缺乏应有的独立性,一般说来并不会像“时间非一致性”理论所分析的那样,会促使政府反反复复地背弃维护物价稳定的承诺,去有意制造通货膨胀,也不会像政治商业周期理论所分析的那样,会引发政府为谋求连任而周期性地运用货币政策愚弄选民。部分西方学者以通货膨胀率的讷氏来分析是否应该加强中央银行独立性的观点是极其片面的。为了使货币政策选择免受个别政治家或某届政府不合理的干预,避免国际压力对货币政策运营产生错误影响,使货币政策真正起到稳定经济运行的作用,必须赋予中央银行以充分的独立性。     

The spill over effects of monetary policies and the welfare effects of the currency appreciation in an open economy -A simple discussion

Based on new open-economy macroeconomics, this paper provides simple discussions about the equilibrium conditions of labour market, goods markets and money market in a two-country world model economy. Given one-period wage sticky assumption, the following conclusions are obtained, the monetary policy can impact labour supply and thereby the equilibrium of labour market in the short run; The spill over effect of monetary policy in home and foreign countries implies an important international transmission channel in terms of equilibrium relationships between home and foreign countries, which also demonstrates the welfare effects of currency appreciation.     

The theory of optimum currency areas,trade adjustment,and trade

This article seeks to provide a closer integration of the theory of optimum currency areas with the theory of international trade. A currency area is treated as a continuous variable ranging from zero to one: zero if there is no enlargement, and some positive value otherwise, corresponding exactly to the percentge of trade in the enlarged area. The benefits of widening a currency area are then regarded, in terms of conventional trade theory, as equivalent to a reduction in transportation cost. The costs of widening a currency area are seen, instead, with reference to open economy macroeconomics, as a drop in the speed of adjustment of the terms of trade to their long-run equilibrium level. On this basis, it is shown that the marginal benefits of enlarging a currency area fall, the marginal costs rise, and an optimum size arises. But this size depends heavily on the optimal composition of the members.CEPR     

市场和政府:扩大内需的约束条件

七次降息未能扭转通货紧缩现象,其原因在于以间接融资为主的金融市场,利率机制自发调节存在 失灵的区域,而宏观调控缺乏运作的基础,也存在盲目性。应加快利率市场化进程,促进金融市场直接融 资的迅速发展,才能有效实现币值稳定和经济增长。