Exchange Control,Black Market for Foreign Exchange,and Employment in a Model with a Nontraded Good

This paper examines the employment effect of devaluation in a model with a nontraded good and a black market for foreign exchange. The disaggregative approach reveals, in contrast to an earlier one-sector analysis, that overall employment may change even if the exchange control is such that aggregate output remains the same following devaluation. But in such a situation, depending on the state of the market, the change in nontradables demand due to a change in the black market exchange rate constitutes the major source of a contractionary effect, and that too happens when, most desirably, the black market rate appreciates.     

对我国外汇储备问题的若干思考

我国国际收支的连年顺差,境外热钱不断流入,人民币升值压力的进一步增大,再加上我国长期实行的外汇制度等原因,使我国外汇储备大幅增加,而且已经是过量增长.而过多的外汇储备量,会给我国带来一定的风险和损失,包括通货膨胀带来的损失、美元贬值带来的损失以及存在的机会成本等.因此,要从控制增量、合理使用和配置资产以及改革现行外汇制度等角度出发,对我国外汇储备进行合理的控制.     

The effects of exchange rate regimes on real exchange rate misalignment

The literature on exchange rate regimes has paid little attention to the effects of exchange rate policies on real exchange rate misalignments. This paper contributes to filling that gap by exploring such relation empirically. Because the underlying model is probably not linear and the treated individuals differ from non-treated individuals, we rely on Matching models rather than on standard regressions. Our main finding is that pegs are associated with more overvaluation. The results are robust to different exchange rate regime classifications, misalignment indexes, and matching estimators. The evidence presented suggests that policy-makers concerned with overvaluation should avoid sticking with rigid arrangements for too long.     

The demand for money in an open economy: the United Kingdom

Most previous studies have estimated the demand for money without paying too much attention to developments in the foreign exchange markets. In light of the fact that any development abroad and in the foreign exchange markets could have implications for domestic stabilization, we make an attempt to incorporate such developments into the demand for money in the United Kingdom. More precisely, after incorporating a measure of real effective exchange rate of the British Pound into a dynamic money demand function, we estimated it for the UK using quarterly data over 1973–87 period. By relying upon the Akaike' Final Prediction Error criteria to select the optimum number of lags, it is shown that in addition to income and interest rate, the real effective exchange rate exerts significant effect on the UK demand for money in the short run as well as long run.     

The role and impact of monetary policy in CEFTA countries

An effective monetary policy requires a stable relationship between the money stock and macroeconomic variables such as output, price level, interest rates, and exchange rates. A dynamism of structural changes in transition economies of eastern Europe makes such stability far from obvious. This is reflected in the fact that a stable demand for money function cannot be estimated even for the most advanced East European countries: Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. Empirical analysis of the relationship between nominal variables indicates rather limited relationships as well. Therefore, all that can be expected from monetary policy in eastern Europe is not to be too tight so as to starve the economy of needed liquidity and not to be too loose so as to ignite inflation.     

基于机构投资者交易需求的中国股市流动性研究

基于机构投资者的交易需求,结合对15家机构投资者的调研,通过实证数据发现:我国股市的流动性水平高于美国NYSE等世界其他主要证券市场,机构投资者一般对国内股市整体流动性水平比较满意。但是我国股市流动性波动率高,并且和市场回报率之间存在单向格兰杰因果关系。对机构投资者来说,当前我国股市主要的流动性问题不是流动性水平过高或过低的问题,而是流动性风险过高并难以和价格风险相分散。     

我国外汇储备过快增长的影响及其政策选择

近年来，我国外汇储备过快增长对国民经济的稳定持续增长产生了一些消极影响。笔者试图通过对我国外汇储备的现状以及外汇储备过快增长而产生的负面影响的分析，指出我国近期应主要通过国际收支的调节以化解外汇储备过快增长的负面影响，与此同时应不失时机地大力推进人民币汇率形成机制的改革，并提出了相应的解决思路及其对策。     

Forex interventions and exchange rate exposure: Evidence from emerging market firms

Foreign exchange (forex) interventions by central banks have recently become too frequent in emerging markets. The effects of these interventions on exchange rate volatility are widely documented, but their implications for firm-level outcomes have rarely been examined. This study argues that forex interventions should influence the sensitivity of firms’ cash flows to currency movements. Accordingly, I address a novel question regarding the effect of forex interventions on emerging market firms’ exchange rate risk exposure. I find an asymmetric effect, such that the impact of forex purchase interventions differs from that of forex sale interventions. Moreover, the positive effects of forex sale interventions on the magnitude of firms’ exposure are more pronounced during depreciation periods. Study findings imply that firms remain unhedged, given that interventions are perceived as implicit government guarantees against currency fluctuations. Credible communication from policymakers regarding the motives for interventions by central banks would assist in alerting firms to potential currency risks.     

Leaning Against the Wind: Do Central Banks Necessarily Lose?

A leaning-against-the-wind intervention that has only a temporary effect on the exchange rate and that is not too aggressive can be shown analytically to yield positive expected profits to a central bank even when the exchange-rate process is nonstationary. These profits arise if there are some transitory shocks to the exchange rate. Furthermore, very aggressive intervention will yield positive expected profits eventually when there is a tendency for exchange rates to return to a long-run equilibrium level.     

Optimal Currency Areas Scottish Economic Society/Royal Bank of Scotland Annual Lecture, 1999

Microeconomic efficiency and market transparency argue in favour of UK membership in EMU and for Scotland’s membership in the UK monetary union and also in EMU. UK seigniorage (government revenues from money issuance) would be boosted by EMU membership. Lender of last resort arrangements would not be substantially affected by UK membership in EMU. The UK is too small and too open to be an optimal currency area. The same point applies even more emphatically to Scotland. The ‘one‐size‐fits‐all’, ‘asymmetric shocks’ and ‘cyclical divergence’ objections to UK membership are based on the misapprehension that independent national monetary policy, and the associated nominal exchange rate flexibility, can be used effectively to offset or even neutralise asymmetric shocks. This ‘fine tuning delusion’ is compounded by a failure to understand that, under a high degree of international financial integration, market‐determined exchange rates are primarily a source of shocks and instability. Instead, opponents of UK membership in EMU view exchange rate flexibility as an effective buffer for adjusting to asymmetric shocks originating elsewhere. I know of no evidence that supports such an optimistic reading of what exchange rate flexibility can deliver under conditions of very high international financial capital mobility. The economic arguments for immediate UK membership in EMU, at an appropriate entry rate, are overwhelming. Monetary union raises important constitutional and political issues. It involves a further surrender of national sovereignty to a supranational institution, the ECB/ESCB. It is essential that this transfer of national sovereignty be perceived as legitimate by those affected by it. In addition, the citizens of the UK have become accustomed to a high standard of openness and accountability of their central bank since it gained operational independence in 1997. The ECB/ESCB must be held to the same high standard, and, while there are grounds for optimism, there still is some way to go there.     

UNDERSTANDING REAL EXCHANGE RATE MOVEMENTS WITH TRADE IN INTERMEDIATE PRODUCTS

We suggest that it may be ‘too easy’ to attribute real exchange rate movements to deviations from the law of one price. We show that it is immaterial whether one uses seemingly traded goods, nontraded goods, or even a single, unimportant consumer good, say beer. The ease of attributing the variation to any such deviations is explained using a model with intermediate goods trade. In the model, the stage of production determines the traded/nontraded distinction. We find empirical substantiation for the model: law of one price deviations lose explanatory power and, defined appropriately in terms of intermediate goods, relative prices matter.     

Optimal Conservation Programs, Asymmetric Information and the Role of Fixed Costs

An increasing number of environmental protection programs offers financial compensation to farmers in exchange for conservation services. Incentive-compatible contracts can be designed to mitigate excess compensation, but the extant literature suggests that outcomes are always second-best so that other instruments (such as conservation auctions) may be preferred. We argue that the claim regarding the first-best solution never being incentive-compatible is correct if all conservation costs are variable in nature; if there are fixed costs too, the first-best compensation scheme may be incentive-compatible after all. Given the relevance of fixed costs in conservation issues, we conclude that incentive-compatible contracts should be given a second chance as a policy measure to induce conservation.     

解析外汇储备对中国货币政策的影响

本文从中国外汇储备的现状入手，分析了中国外汇储备迅猛增长的原因，封高外汇储备封中国货币政策影响的机理追行了探讨，从而得出结论：高外汇储备使基础货币的可调控空间减小，弱化了中国货币政策的自主性。     

Financial Instability under a Flexible Exchange Rate*

Many governments in developing countries contemplate the possibility of increasing the flexibility of their exchange rates despite having accumulated substantial dollar‐denominated debt. Using a model of corporate dollar debt in which the future exchange rate is uncertain, this paper studies the financial risks that might arise as a consequence of increased exchange rate flexibility. Since a firm may default on its debt either because its dollar income is too low or because investors refuse to roll over its debt, the measure of the overall risk of default should take into account both factors, as well as their interaction. Solving the model for the no‐default rational expectations equilibrium, we find that a small risk of insolvency may bring about a substantial risk of illiquidity.     

Portfolio allocation and international risk sharing

Abstract We show that recent explanations of the consumption‐real exchange rate anomaly that rely on goods and financial market frictions are not robust to introducing just one additional international asset. When portfolios are selected optimally, international trade in two nominal bonds implies a consumption‐real exchange rate correlation that is too high compared with the data even when there are many shocks. Monetary policy specification plays a potentially important role for the degree of risk sharing provided by nominal bonds, both in the benchmark model with only tradable and non‐tradable sector supply shocks and also in the model that allows for news.     

Improving GARCH volatility forecasts with regime-switching GARCH

Many researchers use GARCH models to generate volatility forecasts. Using data on three major U.S. dollar exchange rates we show that such forecasts are too high in volatile periods. We argue that this is due to the high persistence of shocks in GARCH forecasts. To obtain more flexibility regarding volatility persistence, this paper generalizes the GARCH model by distinguishing two regimes with different volatility levels; GARCH effects are allowed within each regime. The resulting Markov regime-switching GARCH model improves on existing variants, for instance by making multi-period-ahead volatility forecasting a convenient recursive procedure. The empirical analysis demonstrates that the model resolves the problem with the high single-regime GARCH forecasts and that it yields significantly better out-of-sample volatility forecasts. First Version Received: November 2000/Final Version Received: August 2001     

Optimal hedging with currency forwards,calls, and calls on forwards for the competitive exporting firm facing exchange rate uncertainty

We extend the well-known full hedge theorems of the hedging literature to random profits that are nonlinear in the random exchange rate. This arises when production flexibility is added to the standard model of the risk-averse exporting firm, where all production decisions have to be made before the exchange rate is known. Hence, hedging with currency derivatives that provide a linear payoff in the exchange rate can no longer provide a perfect hedge. Therefore forward selling is replaced by writing a certain call portfolio. Adding delayed revenue to the model induces the firm to sell calls on forwards. Because our generalized full hedge proposition is proved for random profits that might as well decrease in the exchange rate, the result is applicable to certain types of importing firms, too. — Given the absence of speculative motives on the part of the firm, it turns out that long-term investments in capital goods are chosen in risk-neutral manner.     

Analyst Behavior: The Geography of Social Interaction

In this paper, I provide empirical evidence that an analyst working in Germany is more likely to publish a high (low) price target regarding a DAX30 stock when other Germany based analysts are also optimistic (pessimistic) about the same stock. This effect of geographical proximity is not biased by the fact that DAX30 companies are headquartered in Germany. Shedding light on how influence takes place, I show that influence through communication and the exchange of opinion within small groups of analysts plays a vital role. This mainly applies during a bullish market environment. When markets are bearish, analysts' incentives induce them not to deviate too much from the overall average, such that then observational learning has a greater impact.     

清朝时期晋商票号“股份制”经营探微

票号的"两权分离"和"人力资本持股"是明清晋商经营管理制度中两个重要的创新,它使票号得以迅猛发展。但同时又成为票号衰败的缘由之一:一方面,由于两权分离制度中财东的过分放权并缺乏对经理有效的制约,使得代理成本、道德风险不断增加,从而威胁了票号的健康发展;另一方面,人力资本股制度由于没有合理有效地控制,最终使得人身股份额大大超过了资本股份额,组织内部的权责利出现了明显的不对等。这些都加速了票号的衰亡。     

Money and capital as competing media of exchange

We construct a model where capital competes with fiat money as a medium of exchange, and establish conditions on fundamentals under which fiat money can be both valued and socially beneficial. When the socially efficient stock of capital is too low to provide the liquidity agents need, they overaccumulate productive assets to use as media of exchange. When this is the case, there exists a monetary equilibrium that dominates the nonmonetary one in terms of welfare. Under the Friedman Rule, fiat money provides just enough liquidity so that agents choose to accumulate the same capital stock a social planner would.