International Saving, Investment and Trade

Feldstein and Horioka (Econ J 90:314–329, 1980) observed that saving and investment move closely together in the major OECD countries. This finding is a puzzle if national economies are characterized by one sector neoclassical production functions—with diminishing returns to capital, a high level of savings in a country should create an incentive to export capital. In this paper, we show that this incentive disappears in the presence of multiple sectors with differing capital intensities. In a high saving country, national capital can be absorbed domestically without a decline in its marginal product through a shift in the sectoral composition of national production towards capital intensive sectors. This is nothing but the well-known Rybczynski effect. We present a modified version of the standard Heckscher–Ohlin (HO) Model to show that very small barriers to capital mobility are enough to force national savings to stay within the country of origin. We also argue that, while the assumptions of this model may appear special, they are not unrealistic for the developed countries in the Feldstein Horioka study. Some historical economic trends are also consistent with the picture presented in this paper. Finally, the paper shows that the conventional insights from the one sector neoclassical model can be completely overturned in a multi-sector setting when technological differences are introduced.

东亚经济一体化与合作：朝向共同体

长期以来,东亚地区的经济一体化主要靠市场力量推动,区域经济合作则落后于经济一体化进程。亚洲金融危机证明,仅靠市场推动的经济一体化是脆弱的,只有加强区域经济合作,东亚地区才能增强抵御外部风险的能力,保持经济的持续繁荣。亚洲金融危机后,东亚地区迅速建立起“10 3”的合作机制,在加强金融领域合作的同时,也不断拓展在经贸投资等领域的合作,并逐步确立了以建立东亚自由贸易区和东亚共同体的长远奋斗目标。特别是在中国提出与东盟建立自由贸易区后,东亚地区的合作步伐明显加快。尽管目前离建立东亚共同体的长远目标还很遥远,但东亚地区的合作进程已不可逆转,各种形式的合作努力将最终推动长远目标的实现。     

Financial constraints and corporate investment in Asian countries

This study overcomes the analytic shortcomings of the linear investment models and applies a Panel Smooth Transition Regression model to examine the investment ratios of 519 non-financial listed firms in six Asian countries over the period of 1991–2004. We find that investment-cash flow sensitivities vary across firms in the sample countries. Additionally, our findings also show that investment-cash flow sensitivity has also been affected by the business cycle in these countries. Furthermore, we find new evidence that tangible assets play a significant role in explaining the increase (decrease) in the investment-cash flow sensitivities for South and East Asian countries. These results imply that possession of the tangible assets increases debt capacity, which in turn reduces under-investment. These new findings have significant implications for financing and investment choices of the firms in the sample countries.     

东亚在华投资视角下中美贸易不平衡与东亚顺差转移研究

文章从投资与贸易关系的角度出发,分析东亚FDI对中美贸易差额的影响程度:首先对比东亚对华直接投资与中国、美国、东亚三方贸易不平衡现状;其次定量分析东亚在华直接投资对中美贸易的影响程度.结果表明:东亚在华直接投资扩大了中国对美国的出口,从而加剧了中美贸易失衡;东亚和美国在华直接投资都加剧了中美贸易失衡,但东亚FDI对中美贸易差额的引致作用更大.     

Is Asian Currency Unit Attractive to East Asian Economies？

Pegging the RMB exchange rate to the Asian currency unit (ACU) has not, at least in the short term, been proved a better solution than pegging to the US dollar or pegging to a G‐3 (US$, Japanese yen and euro) currency basket. Although the Asian currency unit can help Asian economies to keep the relative price of regional currencies stable, the cost of joining a formal regional monetary cooperation is the relinquishment of the autonomy of their domestic policies. Asian monetary cooperation needs to provide more potential benefits if it is to attract Asian economies. We argue that Asian monetary cooperation should be designed to solve the problem of regional trade imbalance, and regional exchange rate policy coordination should be adopted as the first step towards exchange rate cooperation. (Edited by Zhinan Zhang)     

注重从非生产贸易领域推进东亚合作

中国作为大国，参与新一轮区域合作中有着特殊的利益，且在推进东亚区域合作中有重大作用，本文强调，中国在加强从生产贸易领域方面推进东亚区域合作的同时，要注重以金融知识和安全等非生产贸易领域推进东亚区域合作。     

东亚地区金融合作发展展望

1997年的亚洲金融危机给东亚地区的金融合作提供了契机,此后十年来东亚地区的金融合作虽然步履缓慢,但也取得了可喜的进展,表明了其从象征性的合作向实质性的现实合作开展的进程。对今后的东亚金融合作,笔者提出了五条建议。     

日本在东亚地区自由贸易协定(FTAs)发展中的政策变化与选择

20世纪90年代后期，在东亚地区自由贸易协定迅速发展，随之日本也改变了在贸易关系中过去更多地依赖于传统的多边途径的做法，渴望通过更多的双边自由贸易协定来建立自己真正的自由贸易框架。从日本选择双边贸易自由化伙伴的经济、贸易和投资标准来看，东亚各国无疑是日本的最佳选择对象。     

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.     

中日在东亚货币领域的博弈与竞争

随着中国的快速崛起,中日之间逐渐形成"强—强"并列的格局,这一格局对双方在东亚货币领域的合作产生重要影响。中日双方都有意争夺区域货币主导权,彼此的博弈与竞争引人注目;同时,中日双方都有着各自的缺陷并面临一些共同的困难。避免恶性竞争和"零和博弈",实现"合作中的竞争"是中日双方的最佳选择。中日双方应将中日东亚货币合作化成中日合作的纽带和推动中日关系良性发展的平台,化解双方的不信任,并推动东亚区域合作的进程。     

International Dependency and Economic Fluctuations in East Asian NIEs

Abstract

This paper investigates the sources of economic fluctuations in the four Asian newly industrialized economies (NIEs), namely Hong Kong, Republic of Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. As small open economies, their macro-economic development is highly dependent on technology as well as markets of large countries. Using the common trends model, we examine the impacts of external supply shock, internal supply shock and trade shock on the key national macro-economic variables of these four economies, i.e. output, consumption, investment, export and import. Our empirical evidence suggests that supply-side disturbances, both the country-specific supply shocks and international supply shocks explain the bulk of fluctuations in output.     

Situating the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank in the context of global economic governance

The creation of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)was welcomed by the World Bank but opposed by the Obamaadministration. The paper explains China’s positive relationshipwith the Bank and the Organization for Economic Cooperation andDevelopment (OECD) in terms of the mission of the Bank, sharedby the OECD, to develop and deepen the global economy. The AIIBand the related Belt and Road initiative promise to do this throughinvestment in infrastructure and connectivity in and around thepoorly integrated Eurasian landmass. But while the current Chineseleadership has supported an inclusive global economy based uponfree trade and supported by multilateral institutions, China’s controlof resources outside the multilateral framework and adherence topractices that challenge liberal principles prompt suspicions thatthese commitments are either disingenuous or anyway subjectto reversal. In itself, therefore, the AIIB provides no conclusiveevidence either way on China’s future course.     

Engels’ pause: Technical change, capital accumulation, and inequality in the british industrial revolution

The paper reviews the macroeconomic data describing the British economy from 1760 to 1913 and shows that it passed through a two stage evolution of inequality. In the first half of the 19th century, the real wage stagnated while output per worker expanded. The profit rate doubled and the share of profits in national income expanded at the expense of labour and land. After the middle of the 19th century, real wages began to grow in line with productivity, and the profit rate and factor shares stabilized. An integrated model of growth and distribution is developed to explain these trends. The model includes an aggregate production function that explains the distribution of income, while a savings function in which savings depended on property income governs accumulation. Simulations with the model show that technical progress was the prime mover behind the industrial revolution. Capital accumulation was a necessary complement. The surge in inequality was intrinsic to the growth process: technical change increased the demand for capital and raised the profit rate and capital’s share. The rise in profits, in turn, sustained the industrial revolution by financing the necessary capital accumulation. After the middle of the 19th century, accumulation had caught up with the requirements of technology and wages rose in line with productivity.     

东亚模式视角下台湾与大陆发展模式异同研究

中国台湾模式和大陆模式本质上同属于东亚模式,本文在东亚模式的视角下,对台湾与大陆发展模式的异同进行了研究,并分析了中国台湾地区模式与大陆模式异同的原因,对促进台湾与大陆经济合作及发展有一定现实意义。     

经济一体化背景下亚太地区经济合作的趋势分析

从目前来看,APEC作为亚太地区唯一的全区域经济合作组织,在一体化的进程中发展缓慢。通过亚太地区与欧盟一体化成功因素的对比,文章认为东亚地区有首先实现经济一体化的诸多有利条件。在东亚经济一体化的基础之上,东亚联合亚太区域内其它次区域政府合作,并通过不断改进和完善的APEC机制逐步实现亚太地区经济一体化。文章还分析了美、俄、日、中四个亚太地区大国在实现东亚和亚太地区经济一体化过程中的作用。     

Infrastructure policy in Asian developing countries

The urgent need for very large increases in investment in infrastructure in most developing countries in Asia is very clear. This paper surveys the challenges facing policymakers in the region. Nearly all of the main concerns for policymakers in Asia in addressing the global infrastructure imbalance are on the supply side. In particular, there are seven related supply-side issues that are of high priority for policymakers: selection and preparation of appropriate projects, finance, pricing, access, governance and management, policy and regulatory policies, and climate change. Governments and utilities need to improve their policies and performance to build confidence among stakeholders. Access to infrastructure services needs to be improved so that consumers will support realistic pricing policies, and investors will be encouraged to provide finance for infrastructure sectors.     

Corporate effective tax rates in Asian countries

This paper aims to (a) calculate Devereux and Griffith's (2003) forward-looking effective tax rates for 12 Asian countries over a span of 30 years, (b) show the impact of tax holidays on the effective tax rate in Asian countries, and (c) empirically explore the possibility of tax competition among Asian countries. Through relevant analyses, I arrive at three key conclusions. First, while small countries with little rent in domestic markets set their effective tax rates at almost zero, large countries maintain much higher effective tax rates. Second, for countries that have generous capital allowance systems, tax holidays may lead to a rise in not only the effective marginal tax rates (EMTRs), but also the effective average tax rates (EATRs). Third, some Asian countries may engage in tax competition, at least over the EATR, for a limited period of time. However, while some countries have raised their effective tax rates in recent years, others have continued with tax reductions. These results indicate that the recent tax interactions among Asian countries differ from the simpler interactions seen among the European countries.     

Time-varying beta and the Asian financial crisis: Evidence from the Asian industrial sectors

This paper empirically investigates the effects of the Asian financial crisis of 1997–98, and the period immediately afterwards, on the time-varying beta of four industrial sectors (chemical, finance, retail and industry) of Indonesia, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan. We apply daily data from 1992 to 2002 and the bivariate MA-GARCH model (BEKK) to create the time-varying industrial betas. Results provide evidence of the influence of the Asian financial crisis, and the period after, on the time-varying industrial betas of these countries. These results may have implications for investors who are interested in portfolio risk management.     

全球经济失衡态势下的东亚地区资本流动

在全球经济失衡背景下,东亚地区的资本流动呈现出与以往完全不同的特征,一方面是私人资本不断流入东亚地区且结构均衡,另一方面是大量的资本又从官方储备以购买美国国债的渠道流出东亚地区。今后东亚地区的这种资本流动将受到官方外汇储备变动、美国利率的变化、美元贬值、东亚汇率及其制度的调整等因素的影响。     

Inflation Targeting and the Pass‐through Rate in East Asian Economies

There has been serious debate regarding whether the inflation targeting (IT) framework for the emerging market economies has been an effective nominal anchor. Focusing on Korea, Thailand and the Philippines, this article aims to contribute to the debate by providing empirical evidence on a decline in the ‘pass‐through’ effect with IT adoption. Our main findings are as follows. First, under the IT framework, Korea has followed an inflation responsive rule in a forward‐looking manner, while Thailand has adopted the rule in a backward‐looking manner. Second, only Korea experiences a reduction in the pass‐through effect under IT adoption, thereby showing a linkage between the forward‐looking inflation responsive rule and the pass‐through effect. Finally, a test of the sensitivity of inflation expectations to external price shocks in Korea supports this linkage.