Economics,Power, and Regulation of Multinational Corporations

Contingent — rather than secure — provisioning is the core of the institutions of capitalism. This differential access to means of life is a method of prodding labor force participation, considered “coercion” by “old” institutional economists and “freedom” by neoliberal thinkers. Status differentials, which are based on pay hierarchies and branded consumer goods, help reinforce the individual competition for differential rewards. Reform would require reconstituting the labor market, as well as financial institutions, and restructuring the rationales for income distribution.     

Reliability Management in Competitive Electricity Markets

This paper examines market design issues for reliability management in competitive power markets. The institutional structure is characterized by a power exchange that conducts electricity market trading, a system operator that operates the electric power system, and a property right system for transimission pricing. In a competitive market, priority insurance fosters market information for determining efficient system reliability levels and induces system operator to maintain system security efficiently. A six-node network example is examined to illustrate the basic insights.     

Income instability,terms of trade,and the choice of exchange rate regime

In this article terms of trade fluctuations, which constitute an important source of income instability in many LDC's, are decomposed into three principal components: (a) shifts in world market conditions, (b) shifts in home market conditions and (c) changes in exchange rates. The appropriateness of a ‘basket peg’ is then analyzed in terms of a country's net export-side market power and a weighting formula is derived which would offset variations in third countries' exchange rates on the home country's terms of trade. Initial empirical results tend to support the hypothesis that basket pegs are usually adopted by countries with net export-side market power.     

Black market for foreign exchange,capital flows and smuggling

The paper develops a geometrical model of the working of a black market for foreign exchange and considers such questions as: Can the black market exchange rate be a guiding instrument to exchange control authorities considering a change in the exchange rate? How does exchange control affect the current and capital account use of foreign exchange in the presence of a foreign exchange black market? What are the implications of changes in trade restrictions (such as import tariffs) for the black market exchange rate, supplies of foreign exchange to exchange control authorities, and current and capital account use of foreign exchange?     

Can EconJobMarket help Canadian universities?

We analyze the academic matching market by considering a simple model in which applicants who face an application cost strategically choose portfolios of applications. Universities then play a decentralized offer game in which unaccepted offers result in failure to trade on both sides of the market. We characterize a basic equilibrium to illustrate the sorting role that application costs play. In a numeric example, we illustrate how reduced application costs can result in increased matching frictions.     

市场失灵、政府失灵与住房保障

住房市场作为一种特殊的市场,存在着三种不同形式的市场失灵,需要政府干预加以弥补。但同时出现的政府失灵则要求我们不能完全依靠政府去矫正所有的市场缺陷。因此,政府应该从促进市场效率和增进社会公平的角度来介入住房市场,以提供住房保障为核心来定位政府在住房市场中的职能,以市场失灵为起点,以政府失灵为警戒线来确定住房保障的边界。     

论诚信特性、生成因素及良好诚信环境的培育

诚信问题实质上人们在市场交易中的道德选择问题,本文探讨了诚信的特性,即互惠性、隐蔽性和单独实施的风险性,分析了影响诚信生成的多种因素,如信仰、价值观、现实的交易状况、交易特点及制度的供给等等,并对如何培育良好的诚信环境提出了一些针对性的对策。     

Nexus between economic sanctions and inflation: a case study in Iran

Conventional studies have applied dummy variables to analyse the relationship between economic sanctions and inflation while we construct an index which is called Trade-Financial Sanctions (TF index). TF Index is a liner combination of indices which includes trade openness and foreign investment by applying the principal component model. Through the TF index and market exchange rate the impact of economic sanctions on inflation is analysed in the three phases of sanctions; free sanctions, heavy sanctions, and light sanctions. The results illustrate that the TF index decreases inflation when the Iran’s economy experiences free sanctions or light sanctions relative to when the economy is in heavy sanctions. Heavy sanctions create instability in the market exchange rates and widening the gap between the market and the official exchange rates. Furthermore, economic sanctions increase expected inflation among the people and drive higher inflation. Therefore, these results suggest that the government should work more seriously to solve the main obstacles of trade and investment inflows imposed by the economic sanctions.     

The coordination channel of foreign exchange intervention: A nonlinear microstructural analysis

Taylor (1994, 1995) [Taylor, M.P., 1994. Exchange rate behaviour under alternative exchange rate regimes. In: Kenen, P. (Ed.), Understanding Interdependence: The Macroeconomics of the Open Economy. Princeton University Press, Princeton; Taylor, M.P., 1995. The economics of exchange rates. Journal of Economic Literature 33, 13-47] has proposed the coordination channel as a means by which foreign exchange market intervention may be effective, in addition to the traditional portfolio balance and signalling channels. If strong and persistent misalignments of the exchange rate are caused by nonfundamental influences, such that a return to equilibrium is hampered by a coordination failure among fundamentals-based traders, then official intervention may act as a coordinating signal, encouraging stabilising speculators to re-enter the market at the same time. We develop this idea in the framework of a simple microstructural model of exchange rate movements, which we then estimate using daily data on the dollar-mark exchange rate and on Federal Reserve and Bundesbank intervention operations. The results are supportive of the existence of a coordination channel of intervention effectiveness.     

Monetary policy,endogenous transactions,and financial market segmentation

An endogenous financial market segmentation model is constructed to explore the role of costly credit as a medium of exchange in the monetary policy elasticity of financial market activity. Against inflation risk, credit is an alternative insurance device to a cash transfer from the financial market. In equilibrium, credit reduces the financial market activity rate. Monetary policy has redistributive effects across economic individuals. Inflation may not tax financial market non-participants. However, it may tax financial market participants by increasing the financial market activity rate. Welfare may increase and the optimal money growth rate can be positive.     

Measuring Exchange Market Pressure and Intervention in Interdependent Economies: A Two-Country Model

In this article, operational exchange market pressure and intervention indices are derived for a world composed of two interdependent economies. The model-consistent formulae, which can be calculated from observed data, are obtained by applying general definitions of exchange market pressure and intervention activity to a two-country rational-expectations model. It is demonstrated that the functional forms used to measure exchange market pressure and intervention activity depend on whether intervention is direct or indirect and also on whether foreign exchange reserves are held as currency or in the form of bonds.     

Capital inflows, fiscal discretion, and exchange rate policy

Many writers have argued for the benefits of a credible fixed exchange rate (a hard peg) as a commitment device in an open economy. But historically, fixed exchange rates have often been associated with large current account deficits and episodes of ‘over-borrowing’. This paper develops a model of capital inflows that are linked to the exchange rate regime because of endogenous fiscal policy. The key message of the paper is that a hard peg is undesirable in the absence of commitment in fiscal policy. In face of a credible fixed exchange rate, the fiscal authority subsidizes capital inflows. The economy will engage in inefficiently high international borrowing, and in welfare terms may end up worse off than under capital market autarky. To eliminate the incentive to subsidize borrowing, the monetary authority must follow a flexible exchange rate rule in which capital inflows lead to exchange rate appreciation. If fiscal policy must be financed by money creation rather than direct taxation, then a fixed exchange rate rule may cause both over-borrowing and a subsequent exchange rate crisis.     

Financial Trilemma in China and a Comparative Analysis with India

A key challenge facing most emerging market economies today is how to simultaneously maintain monetary independence, exchange rate stability and financial integration subject to the constraints imposed by the trilemma, in an era of widespread globalization. In this paper we review and contrast the trilemma policy choices and trade‐offs faced by the two key drivers of global economic growth: China and India. China's trilemma configurations are unique relative to other emerging markets in terms of the predominance of exchange rate stability, and in the failure of the trilemma regression to capture a consistently significant role for financial integration. In contrast, the trilemma configurations of India are in line with choices made by other emerging countries. Over time, India, like other emerging economies, has converged towards a middle ground among the three policy objectives, and has achieved comparable levels of exchange rate stability and financial integration buffered by sizeable international reserves.     

Public Information Arrival, Exchange Rate Volatility, and Quote Frequency

The mixture of distributions model motivates the role of public information arrival in foreign exchange market dynamics. Public information arrival is measured using Reuters Money-Market Headline News. The exchange rates are high-frequency mark/dollar and yen/dollar quotes. Estimation results suggest that higher than normal public information brings more than the normal quoting activity and volatility. The results have implications for the debate over regulation of the foreign exchange market. Foreign exchange activity is not largely self-generating. Trading is likely providing the function it is meant to provide-adjusting prices and quantities to achieve an efficient allocation of resources.     

Exchange Rates, Market Structure, Prices and Imports*

Eighteen months after sizable declines in the US and Australian dollars in 1985, the trade accounts of both countries showed little improvement In some markets import prices failed to decline as expected Was this due to normal lags, or are there markets where exchange rate responses are limited? This paper analyzes the impact of firm behaviour and market structure on the sensitivity of import markets to exchange rate changes.     

理解人民币汇率的均衡、失调、波动与调整

本文区分产品市场和资产市场均衡汇率、失调和波动,得出了人民币实际汇率的短期和长期均衡值,发现人民币不存在严重高估和低估,只是产品市场上近期实际汇率低估且程度在加深,而资产市场上高估;产品市场上实际汇率长期波动主要源自相对供给冲击,资产市场上短期波动则主要来自自身调整机制和相对货币供给冲击。政策含义表明:资本账户保持一定管制降低了风险溢价,允许决策者调整短期实际汇率波动,扩大波动幅度减缓汇率升值预期,消除资产市场上短期失调;长期波动决定因素使得决策者只能以产品市场长期均衡汇率为升值目标汇率,在需求政策效果不明显的情况下,可以考虑供给管理政策实现内外经济均衡。     

双边贸易、外汇市场规模、网络外部性与美元的国际地位——基于国别(地区)市场的实证研究

美元堪称世界的"霸权"货币,其地位的维持要借助在位货币的优势和外力支持,本文通过面板模型对美元国际地位的影响因素进行了实证分析。在静态面板模型中发现,一国(地区)同美国的实际进出口贸易额、一国(地区)外汇市场规模对美元的国际地位均产生重要的正面影响,这表明一国(地区)与美国的实际进出口贸易额越大或一国(地区)外汇市场越发达,该国(地区)对美元的需求量越大。随后的动态面板模型不仅支持了上述结论,而且发现前一期外汇市场的实际货币交易量也是影响美元充当主要国际货币的重要因素,一国(地区)前一期外汇市场的实际货币交易量越大,其越青睐于持有美元,美元在该国(地区)的地位就越高。这一结论证实了网络外部性效应所发挥的重要作用。     

Exchange Rate Pass-Through in Vertically Related Markets

The paper provides a theoretical framework which addresses exchange rate pass-through within the setting of vertically related markets. In particular, foreign firms' price adjustment in response to an exchange rate shock is evaluated. This permits study of the importance of cost effects of the exchange rate shock. Recent empirical evidence indicated the relevance of these cost effects. It is shown that one can decompose the effects of an exchange rate shock on the final goods market into direct and indirect components. The indirect effect works through the input market. The degree of pass-through then depends on the relative importance of direct and indirect effects, which in turn depends on the nature of vertical structures and strategic firm behavior. It is shown that the institutional aspects of vertically related markets play a role in explaining incomplete price adjustments in both intermediate and final goods markets and the failure of PPP in the short run.     

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.     

Exchange market reform,inflation, and fiscal deficits

This paper examines the effects of exchange market reform on inflation and quasifiscal deficits in developing countries. The first part presents the conceptual framework, which identifies a variety of implicit taxes and subsidies that must be taken into account (in addition to implicit taxes on exports, as emphasized by Pinto (1991)) in assessing the fiscal and inflationary effects of exchange market reform. A formula that attempts to capture explicitly these taxes and subsidies is derived. The second part applies the formula to six countries (Guyana, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Sierra Leone, and Sri Lanka). The results suggest that exchange market reform may lead to a significant reduction in reliance on the inflation tax.