Optimal exchange-rate policy in a low interest rate environment

This paper examines optimal monetary policy with an explicit zero lower bound in a small open-economy model. The paper finds that the gains from commitment are increasing in the openness of the economy while the optimal rate of inflation is decreasing in the openness of the economy. These results imply that the main findings of Adam and Billi (2007) for a closed-economy model are also true for an open-economy model. Finally, the paper finds that the effectiveness of the exchange-rate channel as a stabilization tool in the low interest rate environment depends on whether the central bank can make a credible commitment. If the central bank cannot commit and makes monetary-policy decisions on a discretionary basis, the optimal path of the nominal exchange rate will exhibit an appreciation, rather than depreciation as suggested in the literature.     

Monetary targeting for price stability in Bangladesh: How stable is its money demand function and the linkage between money supply growth and inflation?

Since the mid-1980s Bangladesh has implemented a loose form of monetary targeting under two exchange-rate régimes: a pegged system until May 2003 and a ‘managed floating’ exchange-rate system. Under both régimes, broad money has been used as an intermediate target to maintain price stability, which implies as the ultimate goal a relatively low and stable rate of inflation. Inflation in this country has, however, remained moderately high and volatile, especially during the 1970s under the pegged exchange-rate system. With the apparent ineffectiveness of the monetary-targeting system in achieving price stability, even following the 2003 ‘managed float’ of the currency, there has been some suggestion that it should be replaced by, say, inflation targeting. This paper forms an element of a fuller study of the issue. It investigates the behaviour of broad money demand in Bangladesh using annual data over the period 1973–2008. Empirical results suggest that an open-economy broad money demand function has remained stable in Bangladesh since the early 2000s. Empirical results also suggest the existence of a causal relationship between money supply growth and inflation. The paper concludes that, although monetary targeting remains appropriate for Bangladesh, its implementation can be made more effective in stabilising the price level if the Bangladesh Bank enhances its control over the money supply by eschewing nominal exchange-rate stabilisation through foreign exchange market interventions.     

Real exchange-rate uncertainty and US foreign direct investment: an empirical analysis

This paper empirically analyzes the impact of exchange-rate uncertainty, exchange-rate movements, and expectations on foreign direct investment (FDI). Using data on US outward FDI for the period 1984–2004 we examine two competing measures of exchange-rate volatility. While the standard measure yields a discouraging effect on FDI outflows in all industries the alternative risk specification reveals a clear distinction between manufacturing and non-manufacturing industries, with the latter showing a positive correlation with increased exchange risk. A real appreciation of host-country currency was associated with higher FDI flows, while expectations about an appreciation showed a negative result.     

Alternative views of the money transmission mechanism: what difference do they make for monetary policy?

This paper examines how alternative views of the monetary transmissionmechanism affect the choice of a monetary policy rule. The mainfinding is that many different structural models indicate thatthe same simple monetary policy rule - one in which the centralbank's target short-term interest rate reacts to inflation andto real output - would perform well. Such rules work well evenin models where the monetary transmission mechanism has a relativelystrong exchange-rate channel. The models differ, however, intheir implications for more complex monetary rules.     

The choice of the inflation rate as a target in an economy with pricing-to-market

This article verifies an effect caused by introducing alternative inflation targeting in a two-country economy model by following the new open-economy macroeconomics trend of incorporating pricing-to-market behavior among firms. Previous research suggests that, from the point of view of stabilizing output and inflation, central banks must choose producer price inflation as a target under the assumption that purchasing power parity applies. This paper, however, with a revived conventional pricing-to-market model, indicates that a central bank must choose consumer price inflation, not producer price inflation, from the point of view of stabilizing output and inflation.     

A Survey of Exchange Rate Pass-Through in Asia

Exchange rate pass-through (ERPT) refers to the transmission of exchange-rate changes into import (export) prices of goods in the destination-market currency as well as into aggregate domestic prices. This paper examines the analytical and empirical literature on ERPT with particular reference to Asia. It is generally believed that Asian economies are potentially susceptible to ERPT into domestic inflation since they are highly trade-dependent. Particular attention is paid to production sharing—a key characteristic of Asian trade—and its implications for ERPT.     

The curse of Moctezuma: American silver and the Dutch disease

This study formalizes and empirically tests the conjecture that the discovery of large silver reserves in its American colonies during the 1540s triggered in Spain a case of Dutch disease, diverting factors of production to non-traded goods industries and undermining the Spanish comparative advantages in the Early Modern Age. I develop an open-economy model to mimic the economic conditions in Imperial Spain. I then present new consumption weights built from primary sources, which I combine with existing price data to produce price indexes for traded and non-traded goods; these are then used to test the implications of the model in a Markov-switching regression framework. I identify a strong and persistent increase in the relative price of non-traded goods coinciding with the silver discoveries, lasting for almost three decades and reversing itself only after the 1575 and 1579 crown bankruptcies.     

Monetary policy interaction within or without an exchange-rate arrangement

In a simple stochastic two-country model in which each country uses monetary policy to offset shocks that impinge on its national income, the policy rule chosen by each country is affected by the rule chosen by the other. A monetary union emerges as a Nash equilibrium (and is Pareto optimal) if the variance of shocks affecting the real exchange rate is small. An exchange-rate arrangement, and in particular a system of exchange-rate bands such as the European Monetary System (EMS), may create a need for more policy cooperation and may give scope for strategic asymmetries.     

Demand Shocks and Trade Balance Dynamics

This paper studies the trade balance dynamics in the G-7 countries plus Spain. We estimate a SVAR model to identify three different shocks: real supply shocks, real demand disturbances and nominal shocks. A microfounded stochastic open-economy model is built to derive the long-term identification restrictions. Estimates show that real demand shocks explain most of the variability of trade imbalances, whereas, contrary to previous findings, nominal shocks play a very limited role. These results are consistent with the predictions of a widely set of open-economy models and illustrate that demand policies are the main responsible of trade imbalances.     

我国贸易多样性的影响因素和生产率增长——基于内延边际与外延边际的考察

依据Feenstra等人的检验方法,本文测算了中国省份层面的初级品和制成品贸易多样性,结果发现,制成品进口多样性的地区区域出现扩散形态,而出口多样性走向区域趋同.在计算样本期我国省份TFP指数基础上,研究进一步考察了贸易多样性与生产率增长的双向关联,结果发现,除了科研投入,贸易多样性成为我国生产率提高的重要因素;就贸易...     

The impact of market regulations on intra-European real exchange rates

We study the contribution of market regulations to the dynamics of the real exchange rate within the European Union. Based on a model proposed by De Gregorio et al. (Rev Int Econ 2(3):284–305, 1994a), we show that both product market regulations in nontradable sectors and employment protection tend to raise the real exchange rate. We then carry out an econometric estimation for European countries for 1985–2006 to quantify the contributions of the pure Balassa–Samuelson effect and those of market regulations on real exchange-rate variations. Based on this evidence and on a counter-factual experiment, we conclude that the relative evolutions of product market regulations and employment protection across countries play a very significant role for real exchange-rate variations within the European Union and especially within the euro area, through their impacts on the relative price of nontradable goods.     

Does a J-curve exist for Korea and Taiwan?

This article examines whether the trade balance of two dynamic export-oriented economies, Korea and Taiwan, exhibits a J-curve effect. The article studies both their bilateral and aggregate trade balance during the flexible exchange-rate era. When the exchange-rate coefficients are unconstrained, we demonstrate that no J-curve effect exists either for bilateral or aggregate trade balances. Several robustness checks confirm the validity of our findings. When a polynomial-distribute lag structure is imposed on exchange-rate coefficients, a J-curve is evident in some cases. The article discusses possible explanations for the general lack of evidence in favor of a J-curve, including the response of a small country's trade balance to exchange-rate changes.     

Exchange-Rate Policies in Emerging Countries: Eleven Empirical Regularities From Latin America and East Asia

In this paper I discuss some of the most important lessons on exchange-rate policies in emerging markets during the last 35 years. The analysis is undertaken from the perspective of both the Latin American and East Asian nations. Some of the topics addressed include: the relationship between exchange-rate regimes and growth, the costs of currency crises, the merits of “dollarization,” the relationship between exchange rates and macroeconomic stability, monetary independence under alternative exchange-rate arrangements, and the effects of the recent global “currency wars” on exchange rates in commodity exporters.     

China's money demand in a cointegrating vector error correction model

This paper estimates open-economy macroeconomic models of the Chinese economy allowing for the structural change caused by the 1992 reforms. Unrestricted vector autoregressions, VARs, and cointegrating vector error correction models, VECMs, are estimated on quarterly data for the early reform period 1980–1992, and the late reform period, 1993–2018. Two long-run cointegrating vectors are identified, which can be interpreted as a long-run, money demand function and a long-run IS type income equation driven by export demand. The 1992 reforms involved a move to a more market oriented system and a transformation of financial institutions and this seems to be responsible for a change in the direction of effect of interest rates in both the IS and LM relationships.     

Determinants of exchange-rate regimes for currencies of developing countries: Some preliminary results

The breakdown of the Bretton Woods system gave the LDCs an opportunity to move away from exchange-rate regimes based on pegging to a single currency. Relatively few chose to do so, thus providing some evidence that, from their point of view, the recognized advantages of more flexible exchange-rate arrangements are more than outweighed by the recognized drawbacks.The aim of this article is to set up a suitable econometric model and use it for a preliminary assessment of the quantitative significance of various factors affecting the choice of exchange-rate regimes by the LDCs.     

Vertical Trade,Exchange Rate Pass-Through,and the Exchange Rate Regime

We compare the welfare of different combinations of monetary and currency policies in an open-economy macroeconomic model that incorporates two important features of many small open economies: a high level of vertical international trade and a high degree of exchange rate pass-through. In this environment, a small economy prefers a fixed exchange rate regime over a flexible regime, while the larger economy prefers a flexible exchange rate regime. There are two main causes underlying our results. First, in the presence of sticky prices, relative prices adjust through changes in the exchange rate. Multiple stages of production and trade make it more difficult for one exchange rate to balance the whole economy by adjusting several relative prices simultaneously throughout the vertical chain of production and trade. More specifically, there is a tradeoff between delivering an efficient relative price between home and foreign final goods and delivering an efficient relative price between home and foreign intermediate goods. Second, because the small economy faces a high degree of exchange rate pass-through under a flexible regime, it suffers from a lack of efficient relative prices in vertical trade. The larger economy, however, does not face this problem because its level of exchange rate pass-through is low.     

The Small Open-Economy New Keynesian Phillips Curve: Empirical Evidence and Implied Inflation Dynamics

In this paper we apply GMM estimation to assess the relevance of domestic versus external determinants of CPI inflation dynamics in a sample of OECD countries typically classified as open economies. The analysis is based on a variant of the small open-economy New Keynesian Phillips Curve derived in Galí and Monacelli (Rev Econ Stud 72:707–734, 2005), where the novel feature is that expectations about fluctuations in the terms of trade enter explicitly. For most countries in our sample the expected relative change in the terms of trade emerges as the more relevant inflation driver than the contemporaneous domestic output gap.     

汇率制度演变与宏观经济绩效：文献回顾

本文回顾了利用不同汇率制度分类方法对汇率制度演变、假说与争议以及汇率制度与宏观经济绩效之间关系的研究。本文发现：一,由于;12率制度分类方法的不同,经验研究对汇率制度演变及其发展趋势得出了不同的结论;二,同样由于分类方法的不同,经验研究对不同;12率制度下的宏观经济表现也不能形成一致的看法,并且,经验结果与理论预测之间存在非常大的鸿沟;三,一国政府在;12率制度安排上的言行不一致极大地影响了一国的宏观经济绩效。这些发现促使经济学家重新审视不同汇率制度的优劣和对汇率制度选择的理论研究。     

Monetary Policy in Estimated Models of Small Open and Closed Economies

This paper compares monetary policy effects in New-Keynesian models of small open and closed economies fit to Canada. A monetary policy rule allows the central bank to systematically manage the nominal interest rate in response to inflation, output, and money growth variations. The structural parameters of a small open-economy (SOE) and a closed-economy (CE) models are estimated using a maximum-likelihood procedure with a Kalman filter. Estimation results show that the SOE and CE models lead to qualitatively similar estimates for the Canadian economy. Also, the effects of monetary policy shocks, and of other domestic shocks, generated in the SOE model resemble to those generated in the CE model. In addition, the forecast-error decomposition shows that foreign shocks account for small fractions of the variability observed in Canadian macroeconomic variables.