The transactions demand for money in a two-currency economy

In this paper the model of the transactions demand for money of Baumol (1952) is extended to an economy where transactions are conducted in two currencies. The currency substitution hypothesis - that the domestic demand for domestic money depends on the expected rate of depreciation, as well as the domestic rate of interest and level of income - is derived from the model. In addition, several new insights into the implications of currency substitution are provided.     

Currency substitution, capital mobility and money demand

This paper re-examines the currency substitution (CS) issue by specifying a general portfolio balance (PB) model where domestic residents' demand for foreign money is distinguished from their demands for foreign non-monetary assets. The latter possibility, which reflects international capital mobility as opposed to CS per se, is already a key feature in the open-economy macro literature. The inclusion of foreign money leaves the usual asset demand functions unchanged (in the PB model that ignores CS), at least as far as the appropriate rate-of-return arguments and their signs are concerned. Although this suggests that CS is of limited importance in macro modelling, it implication for the estimation of money demand functions is pursued. An initial attempt is made to empirically isolate the separate efects of high capital mobility and currency substitution for Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The results, while not conclusive due to high multicollinearity problems, bring into question the empirical as well as the theoretical relevance of currency substitution.     

Financial innovation,new assets,and the behavior of money demand

Two fundamental changes in US banking regulations have affected the behavior of money demand (M1). The first authorized checkable deposit accounts paying explicit interest rates. The second allowed these rates to be market determined. The theoretical literature does not directly address the impact of these events, suggesting that they are primarily an empirical issue. However, the empirical literature has yet to agree on the impact of financial innovation on money demand; for example, several studies report an increase in the elasticity of money demand, several others report a decline. This paper uses a Lancaster-type choice model to analyze formally the expected impact of these two changes on the demand for money. The model derives specific conditions under which (i) the demand for money increases as new assets are introduced and (ii) the impact of either the introduction of new assets or the elimination of interest rate restrictions on the elasticity of money demand.     

Money and the Welfare Cost of Inflation in an R&D Growth Model

This study analyzes the effects of inflation on R&D and innovation‐driven growth. In the theoretical section, we incorporate money demand into a quality‐ladder model with elastic labor supply and derive the following result. If the elasticity of substitution between consumption and the real money balance is less (greater) than unity, then R&D and the growth rate of output would be decreasing (increasing) in the growth rate of money supply. Quantitatively, decreasing inflation in the U.S. to achieve price stability improves social welfare, and the welfare gain is equivalent to at least 0.5% of annual consumption. In the empirical section, we use cross‐country data to establish a negative and statistically significant relationship between inflation and R&D.     

A sentiment-based explanation of the forward premium puzzle

A sentiment-based model of the exchange rate is proposed to understand the forward premium puzzle. Agents over- or under-estimate the growth rate of the economy. All else equal, when perceived domestic growth is higher than perceived foreign growth, the domestic interest rate is higher than the foreign interest rate. At the same time, an econometrician would expect an increase in the home currency value. Together, the model with investor misperception can account for the forward premium puzzle. In addition, misperception helps lower the correlation between consumption growth differentials and exchange rate growth. Finally, this paper provides empirical evidence supporting the mechanism in the sentiment-based explanation.     

Inflation,wealth and interest rates in an intertemporal optimizing model

This paper analyzes the relationship between the growth of the money supply and capital accumulation in a monetary optimizing model. Under certain conditions we show that a large intertemporal elasticity of substitution makes the nominal rates of interest undershoot its long-term value, that a low elasticity gives rise to overshooting, while a unitary elasticity is shown to make the nominal rate of interest a constant. These considerations plus explicit attention paid to the income and substitution effects induced by the changes in the nominal rates of interest provide us with an understanding of the correlation between growth of money and capital accumulation.     

Local risk factors in emerging markets: Are they separately priced?

We provide new evidence on the pricing of local risk factors in emerging stock markets. We investigate whether there is a significant local currency premium together with a domestic market risk premium in equity returns within a partial integration asset pricing model. Given previous evidence on currency risk, we conduct empirical tests in a conditional setting with time-varying prices of risk. Our main results support the hypothesis of a significant exchange risk premium related to the local currency risk. Exchange rate and domestic market risks are priced separately for our sample of seven emerging markets. The empirical evidence also suggests that although statistically significant, local currency risk is on average smaller than domestic market risk but it increases substantially during crises periods, when it can be almost as large as market risk. Disentangling these two factors is thus important in tests of international asset pricing for emerging markets.     

股票市场、人民币汇率与中国货币需求

本文在开放经济条件下考察了1999年1月至2010年5月期间中国货币需求函数的特征。研究结果表明通胀预期、股票价格波动和人民币汇率是影响长期货币需求的重要因素。股票收益率和通胀预期都是衡量企业和居民持有货币的重要机会成本变量,但通胀预期占主导地位。人民币升值和升值预期通过货币替代效应和国际资本流动效应增加了长期实际货币余额需求。研究结果还表明在样本期间人民币汇率波动的短期国际资本流动效应是造成中国A股市场动荡加剧的重要原因之一。这意味着中国货币政策的制定与实施应该至少关注资产价格波动和考虑人民币汇率因素,尤其是当前应特别注重稳定人民币升值预期。     

Does Bitcoin behave as a currency?: A standard monetary model approach

We derive the Bitcoin exchange rate dynamics by solving the exchange rate equation of the standard flexible-price monetary model to investigate any characteristics of Bitcoin like a currency. The dynamics is driven by an asymmetric mean-reverting fundamental shock which can be attributed to a money demand shock. A crash occurs when the exchange rate with a weakened mean-reverting force breaches a lower boundary where a smooth-pasting condition is imposed. The empirical results show the exchange rate dynamics can be calibrated according to the model, in which the mean reversion of the dynamics is positively co-integrated with the Bitcoin transaction volume indicating demand for Bitcoin; and with the risk reversals of the commodity currencies (Australian dollar and Canadian dollar) in currency option markets. The analysis shows that the Bitcoin exchange rate shares some characteristics of commodity currencies with crash risk. This suggests that Bitcoin behaves as a currency between fiat money and a crypto-commodity used for trading and investment purposes.     

U.S. domestic money, inflation and output

Recent empirical research documents that the strong short-term relationship between U.S. monetary aggregates on one side and inflation and real output on the other has mostly disappeared since the early 1980s. Using the direct estimate of flows of U.S. dollars abroad we find that domestic money (currency corrected for the foreign holdings of dollars) contains valuable information about future movements of U.S. inflation and real output. Statistical evidence suggests that the Friedman-Schwartz stylized facts can be reestablished once the focus of analysis is back on the correct measure of domestic monetary aggregates.     

The hysteresis of currency substitution: Currency risk vs. network externalities

It is widely documented that currency substitution (using foreign money in transactions) increases in periods of high inflation but does not decline once inflation is reduced. The paper uses survey data from Bulgaria, which experienced this phenomenon, to investigate the origins of this ratchet effect. We find that expected devaluation of the domestic currency, while relatively high, does not play a major role in sustaining the dollarization of transactions. Conversely, preferences for the use of foreign money are strongly influenced by people's perception that foreign money is already widely used in the economy.     

Convertibility risk: the precautionary demand for foreign currency in a crisis

This paper presents theoretical work linking money demand to the perceptions of households about the risk that domestic currency may become inconvertible or that it may be devalued. An empirical investigation of the size of this effect is carried out using monthly data for Korea to estimate an augmented demand-for-money equation. It is found that the fear of inconvertibility arising from the 1997 Korean currency crisis may have caused broad money demand to fall by 4–5% points,equivalent to the loss of reserves of $6–7.5 billion (or about 30% of reserves as measured at end-November 1997). This is a revised version of IMF Working paper WP/2001/210; it was written while Professor Black was Senior Policy Advisor at the IMF Institute and Christofides and Mourmouras were staff members in the IMF’s Policy Development and Review Department. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the IMF, its Executive Board, or its management. For useful comments and suggestions we thank an anonymous referee, Tim Lane, Ydahlia Metzgen, Roberto Perelli, Tony Richards, Christian Mulder, Steve Russell, as well as seminar participants at the IMF Institute, the IMF’s Asia and Pacific Department, Federal Reserve Board, and Bank of Indonesia. We would also like to note similar (unpublished) empirical results using our approach by Dr. Rino Effendi for Indonesia and Angana Banerji for Russia     

International market response to announcements of US macroeconomic data

This paper presents empirical evidence relating the announcement effects of US money supply and inflation (CPI and PPI) to Eurocurrency interest rates and the foreign currency markets (both spot and forward) for seven industrial countries over the period 1977–1982. The results indicate that unanticipated components of announced changes in money supply have a significant positive effect on Eurocurrency interest rates and a negative effect (implying dollar appreciation) on the spot exchange rates. Unanticipated changes in PPI have a positive significant effect on interest rates, a small surprisingly negative impact on spot exchange rates, and a positive effect on gold prices. The CPI has no effect on either market.     

Nonseparable Preferences,Frisch Labor Supply,and the Consumption Multiplier of Government Spending: One Solution to a Fiscal Policy Puzzle

This paper proposes a theoretical explanation of the positive consumption multipliers of government spending often found in the data. The explanation requires two ingredients. First, labor demand expands (e.g., prices are sticky). Second, general nonseparable preferences over consumption and leisure should be such that the two goods are substitutes; that is, Frisch labor supply elasticity is lower than the constant‐consumption elasticity; this implies that constant‐consumption labor supply shifts left. Existing empirical evidence on the relative magnitudes of the two elasticities supports this hypothesis. The parametric conditions under which the result occurs are consistent with restrictions of concavity and noninferiority of consumption and leisure.     

金融市场开放背景下境内外币市场的变化与挑

长期以来,境内外币市场流动性更多受到境内企业外币存贷款需求变化的影响,关注其变化就能对流动性做出较好预判。但随着我国金融市场的开放程度不断提升,资本及金融市场项目的进出逐渐成为了决定境内外币流动性状况的主要因素,境内外市场利差不断缩小,对于全球货币市场流动性及境内资产的对外吸引力研究已成为境内外币流动性管理者不得不重视的课题。     

Do Imported Commodities Cause Inflation in China? An Armington Substitution Elasticity Analysis

Based on the perspective of Armington substitution elasticity, this article researches the price transmission effect of China’s imported commodities. First, this article focuses on the theory of Armington substitution elasticity of nonhomogeneous products and then estimates the overall level of Armington substitution elasticity of China’s imported commodities. Second, this article studies the fluctuation trend in Armington substitution elasticity’s estimations using a state space model. The results of this article indicate that the value of Armington substitution elasticity of China’s imported commodities is negative and decreased significantly after the international financial crisis, which means that the relationship between China’s imported commodities and domestic products is complementary rather than substitutional. Moreover, this article finds evidence of the price transmission effect in China’s imported commodities. However, this effect is not obvious and weakened after the international financial crisis. Finally, we conclude that, if it wishes to prevent serious inflationary problems in China, the Chinese government should pay attention to the price of domestic products instead of focusing on the hazards of imported inflation (deflation).     

Outside wealth,the demand for money and the crowding out effect

Policy simulations with most large macroeconometric models evidence little, if any, crowding out of private spending from debt financed increases in government expenditures. Examination of the structure of these models reveals that none allows for a wealth effect of debt finance on the demand for money, even though theoretical studies suggest that this wealth effect may cause significant crowding out. This paper provides empirical evidence that increases in government debt held by the public do increase the demand for money; therefore, the fiscal policy simulations of the large macroeconometric models may yield biased conclusions concerning the crowding out effect.     

Do Domestic Investors Have an Edge? The Trading Experience of Foreign Investors in Korea

We investigate whether domestic investors have an edge overforeign investors in trading domestic stocks. Using Korean data,we show that foreign money managers pay more than domestic moneymanagers when they buy and receive less when they sell for mediumand large trades. The sample average daily trade-weighted disadvantageof foreign money managers is 21 basis points for purchases and16 basis points for sales. There is also some evidence thatdomestic individual investors have an edge over foreign investors.The explanation for these results is that prices move more againstforeign investors than against domestic investors before trades.     

Monetary policy, ‘dollarization,’ and parallel market exchange rates: The case of the Dominican Republic

Excessive money creation may give rise to inflation tax revenues and to a depreciation of the domestic currency. this in turn leads to a shift away from the domestic currency into a foreign currency (e.g., the US dollar, hence the term ‘dollarization’). From the domestic monetary authority's point of view, ‘dollarization’ is an unwelcomed phenomenomn, thus the monetary authorities will attempt to arrest the ‘dollarization’ phenomenon while maintaining the excessive money growth. This paper develops and tests a model which analyzes the effects of monetary policy on dollarization and the ‘parallel’ market exchange rates.     

中国工业部门资本能源替代问题研究——基于元分析的视角

本文采用元分析方法对有关中国工业部门资本能源替代问题的研究文献进行量化分析。我们采用元回归模型对采用超越对数生产函数模型来估算Morishima替代弹性和交叉价格弹性的研究样本进行分析,发现不同研究者对诸如规模报酬、技术中性等模型假设前提的设定差异是造成研究结果异质性的主要原因。在对这些影响模型估算结果的因素进行控制后,我们重新估算了中国工业部门的资本能源替代弹性,结果表明两者的替代关系是确定的,长期而言,通过加大资本要素的投入可以减少工业部门的能源消耗。