Current Account, Capital Formation and Terms of Trade Shocks: a Revisit of the Harberger-Laursen-Metzler Effect

This paper extends the Blanchard model of a closed-economy to a three-good (exportable, importable and non-tradable goods) open-economy model with capital accumulation and uncertain lifetimes to study the impacts of terms of trade shocks on the current account. The simulation results show that a model with uncertain lifetimes is more appropriate to describe a small open economy like Taiwan at the steady-state equilibrium than a model with infinite lifetimes. We find that the Harberger-Laursen-Metzler effect is discernible for temporary or permanent terms of trade shocks. Furthermore, the steady state is a saddle point and the speed of convergence of capital and consumption is quite low.     

Current Account Adjustment and Capital Flows*

We examine episodes of current account adjustment in industrial countries over the past 30 years. We find that they were typically associated with a sizable growth slowdown and a large exchange rate depreciation. There was no discernible change in the nature of capital flows just prior to an adjustment. Hence, adjustments may be responding to the resolution of domestic imbalances rather than being an exogenous event. We show that global developments triggered the adjustment, possibly by triggering the unwinding of the domestic imbalances. Most of the ex post adjustment of the financial account was in private sector flows, primarily by foreign investors.     

中国资本账户开放、利率市场化和汇率制度弹性化

开放经济下,资本流动、利率和汇率三者相互联动、相互协调、自动平衡。利率市场化是资本账户开放和汇率制度弹性化的前提条件;资本控制程度影响利率市场化和汇率制度弹性化;利率和汇率相互作用、相互传导。一国宏观经济调控政策的效果不仅仅取决于资本控制程度和利率或汇率水平的变动,更取决于资本控制、利率和汇率三者的联动效应。中国金融自由化改革进程中,必须正确处理好资本账户开放、利率市场化和汇率制度弹性化之间的关系,发挥三者联动协同效应,实现内外均衡。     

Interest Rates, Exchange Rates and Present Value Models of the Current Account

This paper develops a testable intertemporal model of the current account that allows for variable interest rates and exchange rates. These additional variables are channels through which external shocks may influence the domestic current account. The restrictions from the theoretical model are subjected to present value tests using quarterly data from three small open economies. The paper finds that including the interest rate and exchange rate improves the fit of the intertemporal model over what was found in previous studies. The model predictions better replicate the volatility of current account data and better explain historical episodes of current account imbalance.     

The Behavior of the Current Account in Response to Unobservable and Observable Shocks

The intertemporal approach to the balance of payments states that non-stationary flows in the current account will cointegrate or cotrend, unless there are permanent productivity shocks or long-run policy distortions. This paper examines the dynamics of the current account for a small open economy, using data from Sweden. The results show borderline cointegration for the current account. Recursive estimates disclose that there is no stable tendency towards finding cointegration. Cointegration is found for the first part of the sample, but from 1990 the cointegration test performs badly until speculative attacks force Sweden to give up the peg of the krona in 1992. In terms of the intertemporal approach, policy could be creating the imbalance, solved with the depreciation in 1992, after which the external accounts gradually move back to long-run equilibrium. [F31, F32, F41]     

利率冲击、资本流动与经济波动——基于非对称性视角的分析

本文回顾了过去十几年美国利率调整与中国相关宏观经济变量的关系,发现美国的加息和减息政策对中国资本流动规模产生了明显的非对称性影响。本文运用一个包含名义价格黏性和抵押担保约束两类摩擦的小国DSGE模型来深入分析外国利率冲击的传导和作用机制,并利用抵押担保条件的偶然紧约束特性来解释利率冲击所造成的宏观经济非对称性,然后使用粒子滤波方法进一步验证、测算了偶然紧约束所造成的非对称资本流动规模。研究表明,外国利率的上升和下降将分别导致企业家部门抵押担保约束处于收紧与松弛的不同状态,并通过金融摩擦机制造成本国非对称的资本流动;运用实际数据与反事实估计,本文发现中国宏观经济存在非常明显的非对称现象,在2011年间偶然紧的抵押担保约束导致每季度资本净流入的规模减少了接近5000亿元人民币。     

Fiscal Shocks and the Current Account in the Redux Model: Evidence from the Italian Economy

The main goal of this paper is to study the effects of fiscal policy on the current account in the Italian economy through the analysis of one of the most innovative intertemporal models of recent years, the Obstfeld–Rogoff Redux model. The author proposes an innovative econometric approach to the model, based on the estimation of the microeconomic parameters that appear in its fundamental equations. The estimated parameters are used to empirically determine the multipliers that, according to the theory, connect permanent and temporary variations in public expenditure to the current account. Estimation is carried out on a dynamic extension of the original model, which has been developed modifying the first order conditions system of the maximization problem. Finally, the author provides a comparison between the results obtained and the actual dynamics of the Italian current account balance.     

外商直接投资对中国国际收支双顺差影响的分析

20世纪90年代以来，中国的国际收支呈现出经常项目和资本与金融项目顺差并存的“双顺差”特点。造成双顺差的原因有很多，其中外商直接投资（FDI）是一个重要的影响因素。运用理论和实证的分析结果表明，外商直接投资与“双顺差”之间存在着显著的因果关系，且两者之间存在着长期稳定的均衡关系。积极合理的利用外商直接投资，不仅有利于化解中国宏观经济的外部失衡，也有利于带动中国经济的协调发展。     

Causal Relationship Between the Current Account and Financial Account

We demonstrate that a different causal relationship exists between the current and financial accounts in developed and developing countries. Using the Granger causality test, we clearly determine that the financial account is by and large responsible for the current account in developing countries; instead of financing the current account, the financial account thrusts the current account into an imbalance. In developed countries, however, the current account leads the way, and the financial account, as its name indicates, serves to finance a current account imbalance. This represents a forewarning that countries, which lack a sophisticated financial system to channel funds to proper locations, should not recklessly liberalize capital mobility.The author would like to thank an anonymous referee for valuable suggestions.     

Nontraded Goods and the Current Account

This paper investigates trade balance and current account behavior in response to various shocks when the economy produces and consumes both traded and nontraded goods. Previous analyses of these problems have interpreted current account behavior in terms of tension between parameters that measure intratemporal and intertemporal elasticity, respectively. This paper provides a simple general criterion for whether trade and current account behavior is "perverse" vis-à-vis the standard one-good model results: behavior is perverse if and only if traded and nontraded goods are Edgeworth complements; that is, if the cross-partial of the instantaneous utility function is positive.     

中国资本项目下的资本外逃研究

文章在把握资本外逃实质性内涵的基础上,重新定义了中国经济转型时期的资本外逃,将脱离国内监控、不向政府纳税的对外投资纳入资本外逃的范围,在国内首次深入研究了资本项目下的资本外逃问题,借鉴并改进了多利法(Dooley Method),在相关数据有限的条件下首次测算了中国改革开放以来资本项目下的资本外逃的规模,分析资本项目下资本外逃的负面效应,并就如何治理资本项目下资本外逃提出了对策建议.     

Productive Government Expenditures and the Current Account

This paper examines the effects of a change in government expenditure on the current account of the balance of payments using the optimizing approach. It is assumed that government expenditure is productive, and is regarded as an input in the aggregate production function. Based on the Blanchard–Fischer-type model, the paper demonstrates decisively that the current account deficit is due to a permanent increase in government expenditure.
JEL Classification Numbers: F41, H30.     

资本账户开放与系统性金融危机

本研究以全球范围内具有代表性的55个国家的跨国数据为基础,通过实证分析系统考察了资本账户开放和系统性金融危机之间的相关关系.实证结果表明,在资本账户开放和系统性金融危机的联系机制方面,重要的是开放方式的选择,而不是开放程度的高低:长期中资本账户开放程度的提高不会诱发金融危机,但激进式的资本账户开放方式会显著增加金融危机的发生概率.     

消费行为、产出变化与经常项目动态

国内吸收法认为,当国内需求没有完全吸收其产出时,就会通过净出口产生贸易顺差.中国持续的经常项目顺差似乎与消费需求不足有关.收入是决定居民消费需求的最基本因素之一.本文通过实证分析我国居民的消费与收入变化的关系来考察我国居民的消费需求,结合国内吸收法的思想来分析我国的经常项目动态.     

资本帐户开放研究

实现资本在国际间的自由流动，其意义十分深远。战后许多国家均实施了资本帐户的开放。从国际经验看，资本帐户开放不仅取决于其国内财政状况的改善，还取决于国内金融市场体系的完善。因而，我国资本帐户开放应采取渐进的方式，稳步推进；应实行利率市场化和更中灵活的汇率制度，协调好各项货币政策及其他经济政策，以平稳实现预期目标。     

论资本账户开放的动态条件

现有文献提出的资本账户开放所必要的条件大多是强调资本账户开放之前经济运行应该是稳健的,而忽视了资本账户开放对经济运行的影响.因此,这种分析范式存在很强的误导性,不利于人们正确认识资本账户开放的风险和应该具备的条件.文章强调了资本账户开放对经济运行的影响,并在此基础上提出了国际收支结构可维持性是资本账户开放的核心条件.     

资本项目可兑换的定义

定义资本项目可兑换的目的在于为实行资本项目可兑换提供一个参照系,也就是明确达到什么标准才算符合了资本项目可兑换的要求.但对于资本项目可兑换,国际上迄今尚无严格的、标准的定义.1997年印度成立多部门参加的资本项目可兑换委员会研究资本项目可兑换问题时,推荐了一个实用的工作定义,即:"资本帐户可兑换是指以市场决定的汇率自由进行国内金融资产与国外金融资产的转换"(印度储备银行,1999).本文也试图提出关于资本项目可兑换的工作定义.以下,本文分三部分进行阐述:先介绍现有文献中对资本项目可兑换的主要定义方法,再介绍对资本项目可兑换的国际管辖状况,最后提出对资本项目可兑换的工作定义.     

Meaningful Measures of the Current Account

Since the conventional current account uses cash-flow accounting, it is potentially devoid of economic meaning. Assessing foreign assets at market values and including expected transfers from abroad, this paper reports two measures of the external surplus that are grounded in economic theory. The first measure is the aggregate generational current account, annual differences in the sum of net foreign assets across all current and future generations. The second measure is the generational profile of net foreign assets in a benchmark year. These ideas are implemented with data from Korea.     

Tariffs, Time Preference, and the Current Account under Weakly Nonseparable Preferences

Incorporating weakly nonseparable preferences into the familiar time–preference model, the author emphasizes a role of steady–state welfare changes in determining the effect of permanent tariffs on the current account. The effect consists of a welfare effect, due to steady–state welfare changes, which is negative (positive) when preferences toward imports are more (less) wealth–enhanced than toward exports; and a substitution effect, which occurs only with initial distortion. Even without initial distortion, a marginal tariff has a first–order welfare effect on the current account. Its sign does not depend on whether impatience is increasing or decreasing in wealth.