Macroeconomic policy regimes,real exchange rate overvaluation,and performance of the Brazilian economy (2003–2015)

The objective of this article is to present a review of the workings of the macroeconomic policy regimes in Brazil since 2003 in order to show that both the macroeconomic policy tripod and the new macroeconomic matrix were not capable of ensuring macroeconomic stability in the medium- to long term due to their incapacity to avoid a persistent overvaluation of the real exchange rate or to stop the increasing trend in primary expenditures/gross domestic product, which produced a major fiscal crisis in 2015.     

The Effect of Changes in Real Exchange Rates on Employment: Evidence from Manufacturing Industries in China, 1980–2002

This paper analyzes the effect of changes in real exchange rate on manufacturing employment. Our theoretical model predicts the positive effect of depreciation of real exchange rate on employment through a firm’s expectation on changes in real exchange rate and the interaction between real exchange rate and a firm’s import and domestic input. Using China’s manufacturing data during the 1980–2003 period, we find that depreciation of real exchange rate promotes employment growth in manufacturing industries, while change in real exchange rate is not a significant factor in promoting wage growth. We also find that an increase in export share offsets partially the effects of real exchange rate on employment and real wages. Translated from Journal of World Economy, 2005, (4): (in Chinese)     

Research on China’s export structure to the US: Analysis based on the US economic growth and exchange rate

Due to the rapid appreciation of RMB, the consistent declining of the US economy and other uncertain factors, China’s export volume to the United States has declined. The paper first chooses six industries to divide them into three groups based on per capita possession of capital, then employs the monthly data from 2001 to 2008 to carry out EG two-step cointegration test, and finally analyzes the impacts of the US economic growth and the exchange rate variability on different export industries. Empirical results show that the labor-intensive industries are most susceptible to fluctuations brought by economic growth and real exchange rate, while those industries with higher per capita possession of capital are less susceptible to external factors. In the short run, the export of labor-intensive products gives an advantage to China’s foreign trade development, but in the long-run, these industries will be affected greatly by various uncertain factors and the advantages of China’s labor-intensive export industries will disappear with the shift of the international division. Therefore, the only way to guarantee the dominant position of China’s foreign trade is to develop capital and technology intensive export industries and upgrade export structure.     

人民币行为均衡汇率及错位程度的测算研究:1978-2006

基于行为均衡汇率理论,应用多种计量经济方法对1978-2006年期间人民币实际汇率状况进行的实证分析结果表明:从名义汇率错位情况来看,1995年及以前的名义汇率都是高估的,1996-2005年的名义汇率基本上都是低估的,且低估程度在2000年达到顶点,然后逐渐下降;2005年约低估4.7%,但到2006年,受2005年人民币汇率改革的影响,名义汇率反而高估约0.9%.从实际汇率错位情况来看,1993年及以前的人民币实际有效汇率都是高估的,1994年以后,随着出口的快速增长以及美元的不断贬值,人民币实际有效汇率相对于行为均衡汇率低估程度总体上不断扩大,2005年约低估16.3%;到2006年,受2005年人民币汇率改革的影响,人民币实际有效汇率低估程度有所下降,约低估15.3%.     

Does Regime Choice Affect Exchange Rate Volatility-Economic Growth Link? An Application of Panel-VAR Approach

In recent years, numerous studies demonstrated that the effect of exchange rate regimes on economic growth is influenced by several factors. However, the literature rarely takes into account the possible costs associated with improving institutional quality on the choice of exchange systems and the analysis of the effects of shocks in the case of each type of regime. Throughout this research, we analyze the extent of bidirectional shocks according to each regime and compare the shock effects accordingly. The results show that the real exchange rate is less volatile and the shock effect is lower in countries that adopt a fixed exchange rate regime while the exchange rate is more volatile and the shock is higher in countries that adopt a flexible exchange rate regime. To show the effect and persistence of shocks, we carried out a Panel-VAR regression completed by impulse response functions, VAR decomposition and Granger causality tests for 20 countries adopting the first type of exchange regime compared with 20 countries practicing an alternative exchange rate regime in the period from 1996 to 2012.     

Effect of China’s Real Exchange Rate Appreciation in the Next Decade: A Recursive Dynamic CGE Analysis

Although the renminbi has appreciated over 30% against the US dollar since China launched exchange rate reform in the mid of 2005, the US Treasury Department still claims that the renminbi remains “significantly undervalued”. If that is true, how to adjust the currency effectively and rebalance the current account are challenges for the Chinese government. This paper explores the effect of alternative adjustments of China’s real exchange rate. Unlike previous simulation designs, this paper considers the formation mechanism of the real exchange rate. By assuming the same change in factor price during different periods and by using the recursive dynamic computable general equilibrium model, two different scenarios are simulated against the baseline. One scenario adjusts the macro-structural imbalance by decreasing the gross national savings rate in China, and the other adjusts the micro-structural imbalance by increasing the real wage rate of Chinese labor. The external imbalance is improved by both internal structural adjustments in the long term. The effect of macro-adjustment is more significant than the micro-adjustment. A real appreciation will be sufficient for China to improve its terms of trade and to change the export-oriented model into the demand-oriented model of development in the next decade.     

人民币实际汇率与中国经济增长的关系研究——基于边限检验法的巴拉萨-萨缪尔森效应检验

以Faria和Leon—Ledesma简化的巴拉萨-萨缪尔森模型为基础,运用Pesaran、Shin和Smith的边限检验法实证分析了1980—2007年期间人民币实际汇率与中国经济增长之间是否存在长期稳定关系。研究发现：改革开放以来,中国经济增长并没有伴随着人民币实际汇率的升值,巴拉萨-萨缪尔森效应在中国不成立。产生这一结果的原因在于：对高估的汇率进行贬值是中国经济高速增长的前奏,非市场化的劳动力市场阻断了BS效应中价格传递机制的发生。但是,如果中国经济保持较高的增长率,人民币实际汇率在长期中将经历一个升值过程。     

Investment and the real exchange rate’s profitability channel in Mexico

The paper estimates different versions of an equation for private investment in Mexico during the post-liberalization period 1988–2013, with the aim of studying the operation of the recently discussed real exchange rate’s profitability channel. During this period, the real exchange rate (RER) was broadly positively correlated with the Mexican price/wage ratio and the Mexican/US relative profit margin in the manufacturing sector, particularly so when the RER experienced large fluctuations, before the end of disinflation in the early 2000s. In the estimations, the effect of the profit margin appears to be ‘deeper’, wiping out the effect of the RER when the two variables are included together in the investment equation. From this, the paper argues that the positive effect of the RER on investment, observed in previous studies that omitted the profit margin, reflects indirectly the positive link of the RER with the profit margin, supporting the existence of a profitability channel in Mexico.     

汇率变动、对外贸易与经济增长——以湖南省为例

选取了2005年7月汇改以来至2013年12月的季度数据,通过建立联立方程模型,利用3SLS(三阶段最小二剩法)计量方法就人民币汇率的变动对湖南省对外贸易、经济增长的影响进行实证研究。实证结果表明:人民币实际有效汇率升值1%,经济增长速度降低0.612%;湖南省进出口额的增长速度降低2.79%,人民币实际有效汇率升值对湖南省经济总量的增长有紧缩效应。     

货币升值对经济增长影响的国际比较及启示

首先对日本、德国、美国和东亚国家货币升值对各自国家经济增长的影响进行国际比较,然后对1990年后日本经济增长率大幅下降的原因进行分析,指出目前中国的经济与1990年代的日本经济存在巨大的差异,人民币适度升值不会引起中国经济增长率的大幅下降,人民币升值应遵循主动性和渐进式原则.     

资本账户、法定汇率制度与事实汇率制度

文章对资本账户开放程度以及法定与事实汇率制度之差异的共同决定过程进行了研究。文章以世界各国自布雷顿森林体系崩溃以来的相关数据为基础,利用离散变量联立方程模型进行计量经济学分析。经验分析的结果表明,资本账户的开放程度,对于法定与事实汇率制度的差异有显著影响,但后者对前者的影响并不显著。此外,无论是资本账户的开放程度,还是法定与事实汇率制度的差异,都存在显著的状态依赖性。     

人民币均衡实际汇率的估计与实际汇率错位的测算

基于均衡实际汇率理论 ,本文应用多种经济计量方法实证分析了自 2 0世纪 50年代中期至 2 0 0 0年期间人民币实际汇率状况 ,估计出人民币均衡实际汇率 ,进而测算了实际汇率错位状况。研究结果表明 :在计划经济时期 ,人民币实际汇率长期被高估。改革开放后 ,均衡实际汇率长期处于贬值状况 ,现实的实际汇率长期被低估。在亚洲金融危机期间 (特别是 1 997和 1 998年 ) ,人民币实际汇率出现了明显的高估。 1 999年这种高估状况得到部分缓解 ;2 0 0 0年出现了根本性好转。在现实中 ,1 999年以后中国出口的快速增长也证实了这一结论。     

Do large capital inflows hinder competitiveness? The Dutch disease in Ethiopia

This article investigates whether large inflows of foreign aid and remittances have had a damaging impact on the Ethiopian Real Exchange Rate (RER). We improve the current empirical literature by: (i) compiling a unique quarterly dataset to provide a larger sample size and enable the modelling of important intra-year dynamics – which should lead to better model specifications; (ii) providing a new empirical approach (Unobserved Components (UC)) to test the ‘Dutch disease’ hypothesis; and (iii) using several cointegration approaches to further test the robustness of our conclusions. Our results suggest that there are two main long-run determinants of the RER in Ethiopia: trade openness is found to be correlated with RER depreciations, while a positive shock to the terms of trade tends to appreciate the RER. Foreign aid is not found to have a statistically significant impact, while there is only weak evidence that remittances are associated with RER appreciations. The lack of empirical support for the ‘Dutch disease’ hypothesis suggests that Ethiopia has been able to effectively manage large capital inflows, thus avoiding major episodes of macroeconomic instability. We believe that most African countries will therefore be able to absorb large inflows of foreign capital without damaging their external competitiveness.     

“中国制造”路在何方:兼论滞涨威胁下的对外经济政策

当前中国宏观经济面临诸多难题,特别是对外贸易和汇率、外汇储备过多等问题.众多影响因素之下,中国作为世界工厂的地位受到威胁,形成了所谓的"中国制造"难题.本文通过分析新古典贸易理论,认为主流经济学的贸易理论不适合解释当前对外贸易中出现的问题;一个存在技术进步的中美贸易虚构的模型可以看出中美贸易导致中国贸易条件恶化的可能性.本文认为,要保持中国对外经济的健康发展,实现"中国制造"的顺利升级,必须保持独立的货币政策和提高名义经济增长率,唯此才能获得人民币升值牢固的基础和对外贸易的主动权.