Currency Substitution and the Stability of the Demand for Money in East Asia

Abstract

This paper models and tests the stability of the demand for money in five East Asian countries—Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand—in the context of an open economy. The Johansen multivariate cointegration vector error correction analysis against quarterly data covering the period 1985:1–2001:4 was used. It was found that a stationary long run cointegrating relationship exists between broad money, real income, domestic interest rates, foreign interest rates corrected for exchange rate depreciation, and the expected rate of depreciation of the exchange rate. The results show that US Treasury bills rates and the foreign exchange rate vis-à-vis the US dollar play a significant role in the East Asian countries money demand relationship. This suggests that currency substitution vis-à-vis the US dollar may be an important consideration in the design and implementation of monetary policy in the East Asian countries. Furthermore, the results show that the Asian currency crises impacted the money demand functions negatively in these countries. CUSUM and CUSUMSQ stability tests show no evidence of parameter instability of the money demand functions in three of the five countries throughout the period under investigation.     

The Demand For Money: A Structural Econometric Investigation

This study empirically investigates dynamic microfoundations for the conventional static money demand equation. An intertemporal substitution model with the addilog utility function yields a money demand relationship that closely approximates the double log specification. Results from previous empirical studies largely support the derived equation. Estimations with quarterly U.S. data support cointegration among real per capita M1 and consumption, and an after-tax long-term interest rate for the post-1980 period. Estimated short-run intertemporal interest rate elasticities of consumption vary from -0.26 to -0.93. Estimated long-run elasticities of substitution between consumption and money range from -0.26 to -0.41.     

资本开放、外汇储备累积与货币政策独立性——中国数据的实证研究

在开放和发展条件下,基于凯恩斯动态货币需求调节方程和Cavoli模型,本文构建了一个包含外汇储备增加的国内市场利率决定模型。对中国2001~2008年月度数据的OLS和TSLS回归结果表明,国际市场利率和外汇储备增加对国内利率影响并不显著,而物价水平、产出和滞后一期的货币供给等变量系数符号不仅与理论预期一致,且检验显著。论文进一步采用了递归的SVAR模型来分析国际利率和外汇储备增加对国内利率的动态冲击效应,脉冲响应函数表明这种动态冲击效应同样十分微弱,说明了中央银行的货币冲销有效性和国内货币政策的独立性。     

Demand for International Reserves and Exchange Rate Policy in Taiwan, 1979–1990*

Taiwan has experienced a huge trade surplus and a rapid growth in the money supply since the 1970s. This paper constructs and estimates a model that takes into account the demand for international reserves, price levels, and the joint determination of the exchange rate, the demand for money, and the balance of payments in Taiwan during the period 1979 to 1990. We focus our attention especially on the period from 1986 to 1990 when foreign reserves rapidly accumulated and the appreciation expectations prevailed. Our estimate of exchange rate reaction function accords with what is expected. The exchange rate appreciations had a favourable effect on the stabilization of price levels. In addition, the exchange rate and its expectations play important roles in the demand for money equation.     

The Demand for Money in Brunei

Based on data for the 1974–95 period this paper estimates demand for narrow money and broad money in Brunei using the error-correction specification. Short-run and long-run elasticities are estimated with respect to real income, interest rate, expected price level and liquidity. Narrow money is quite responsive to changes in real income and interest rate in both the short and long terms. Broad money is income inelastic regardless of the time horizon, however, it is interest inelastic in the short run but interest elastic in the long run. Price elasticity of money demand is negligible in the short run but quite significant in the long run. Changes in the proportion of commercial bank assets placed in foreign money markets do not seem to affect demand for narrow money but their effect on the demand for broad money is both direct and significant.     

Economic integration and the foreign exchange

This paper demonstrates effects of economic convergence processes on the foreign exchange behaviour in a monetary modelling approach. Since the exchange rate represents the relative price of two currencies, commonness of stochastic trends between the fundamental determinants of supply and demand of the underlying monies restricts exchange rate movements to transitory fluctuations. In the spirit of optimal currency areas, this has the potential to serve as a criterion for an all-round integration of two economies. Empirically, such a constellation is found between Australia and New Zealand, whereas diverging trends in money and interest rates characterise the relation of Australia towards the US.     

美联储量化宽松货币政策实施效果评估与现实借鉴

2008～2011年,美联储推出的两轮量化宽松货币政策(QE)实施效果与预期有较大落差。基于后凯恩斯主义的内生货币理论,由于货币供给来源于经济体的内生需求,因而中央银行无法外生控制货币供应量,也无法简单地通过量化宽松政策刺激银行体系扩大信贷投放,以达到对内提升需求、扩大就业的政策目标,而对外的货币贬值也不必然能有效改善贸易逆差。中国调控经济、应对危机应该弱化汇率制度对国内政策的限制,完善信贷的内生创造机制,有效发挥政府与市场的互动机制确保就业。     

Post-crisis monetary and exchange rate policies in Indonesia,Malaysia and Thailands

This paper surveys the post-crisis monetary and exchange rate policies of Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. Malaysia has pegged the ringgit while Indonesia and Thailand have adopted heavily managed exchange rates. Under their IMF programs, Thailand and Indonesia set base money targets, but Thailand has moved, and Indonesia is now moving, to inflation targeting, using interest rates as the short-term instrument. Malaysia also sets interest rates. The ability of the three central banks to set interest rates and also pursue an exchange rate target with an interest rate target has been bolstered by restrictions on the internationalisation of the domestic currency. The three central banks have also had to sterilise the monetary effects of their foreign exchange interventions. It is argued that inflation targeting is now a good policy choice, but that a more freely floating exchange rate would be better than sterilisation of balance of payments surpluses or deficits.     

On black market exchange rate and demand for money in developing countries: The case of Nigeria

This paper examines the hitherto unexplored question of the effects of the black market exchange rate expectations on the domestic demand for money in Nigeria. This study finds that real income and expected inflation rates are the appropriate scale and opportunity cost variables for the demand for money function in Nigeria. The results also suggest that depreciation in black market exchange rate exerts a significant negative impact on the domestic demand for money. A policy implication of this research is that since a depreciation of the black market exchange rate tends to decrease the demand for money, it should be taken into account in the execution of monetary policy. The authors would like to thank an anonymous referee for helpful suggestions which substantially improved the quality of the paper. This research was supported in part by a summer research grant from the College of Business Administration, University of New Orleans.     

Money demand in China and time-varying cointegration

Many studies analyze the money demand using a (fixed coefficient) cointegrating regression model, which may not be appropriate to deal with the money demand of a transition economy like China. This paper investigates this issue using a time-varying cointegration approach based on the quarterly data from 1996 to 2009. We find some interesting results: (i) the estimates of the income elasticities are between 0.60 and 0.75, which are comparable with the previous studies; (ii) the estimated interest rate elasticity supports the argument that the overall effect of the interest rate on the money holding is weak although there are some mild evidences that it has been strengthened in recent years; (iii) the substitution effect of equity asset dominates the wealth effect, especially, during the bullish market period. Our result is robust to the alternative choices of the scale or opportunity cost variables and shows that omission of the stock prices in the money demand function would possibly yield a misspecification problem.     

The expectations management approach to stabilization in Argentina during 1976–1982

The main goals of the economic authorities in Argentina during 1976–1982 were to open the economy to foreign trade and to reduce inflation. The stabilization plan relied first on the control of money and wages, later on a preannounced schedule of a declining future exchange rate—actions that were supposed to be accompanied by a fiscal policy to reduce the public sector deficit.The stabilization plan was abandoned in the first quarter of 1981 for two reasons: an important financial crisis during the second quarter of 1980, and a deterioration of fiscal discipline that could no longer assure coherence between the deficit and the preannouncement schedule. The paper also argues that the political situation in Argentina undermined the credibility of the reforms and particularly the stabilization attempts. With the abandonment of the stabilization schedule, new commercial and exchange rate measures were gradually introduced, reversing the policy of opening the economy to foreign trade. The financial reform was reversed in 1982 with the virtual nationalization of deposits.The experience of Argentina suggests that capital inflows responding to interest rate arbitrage play a fundamental role in the short run dynamics of real exchange rates. They can promote the adjustment, or they can precipitate a run on the foreign exchange market. The lesson is that a stabilization plan based on the preannouncement of future exchange rates is highly risky for an economy like Argentina's.     

The behavior of market interest rates when information is incomplete

Conclusions This paper has attempted to show how participants in financial markets, in the face of incomplete information about the supply of and demand for money, might go about formulating expectations of future interest rates in making market-clearing decisions. In particular, it was seen that information about the current excess demand for money, extracted from the current interest rate, could be used in formulating these expectations.In studying the behavior of the resulting market-clearing interest rate, two key conclusions emerged. First, relative to a full-in-formation market-clearing rate, where money supply and money demand were assumed observable, the market-clearing interest rate under signal extraction resulted in a biased response. Second, the bias was found to be related to the rates at which the disturbances to money demand and money supply dissipated. This suggested a role for monetary policy in reducing this bias. But, conversely, this also showed that monetary policy could be a source of volatility of market-clearing interest rates, relative to their full-information values.     

Demand for cash balances in a cashless economy

We study the demand for cash balances in the year 2050, when people exclusively use debit cards for all transactions. Money no longer serves as a medium of exchange. However, money still retains its roles as unit of account, numeraire and store of value. We capture these roles in a multi-period model with intertemporal uncertainty regarding prices and the interest rate on bonds, the alternative asset. A key result of our analysis is that the standard negative relationship between money demand and the bond interest rate is seen to be part of a larger economic reality encompassing a broader range of empirically testable implications, including the possibility that the relationship may be positive. We develop formal structural restrictions under which the positive relationship between cash balance demand and the bond interest rate is not only a possible outcome, but an explicit prediction of the model.     

汇率政策与利率水平传导机制的研究——基于抵补利率平价模型的实证分析

在资本自由流动和货币自由兑换下,货币市场和外汇市场相互作用、相互影响,汇率与利率之间存在灵活有效的传导机制。本文从汇率政策的概念入手,借助抵补利率平价模型,指出中国利率和汇率之间有效的传导机制尚未形成。之后对其原因进行了分析,并提出疏通人民币汇率政策传导机制的有关政策建议。     

Stabilization policy under flexible exchange rates and liquidity

Summary A two country model under flexible exchange rates is developed. The model shows that changes in the interest rate resulting from monetary or fiscal expansion has indeterminant effects on prices, output, capital flows and liquidity demand for money under conditions of a less than full employment equilibrium. Stabilization policy recommendations previously respected in this context fall under suspicion.     

The implications of monetary expansion in China for the US dollar

We examine the influence of rapid growth in China's money supply on the US dollar within a framework of monetary models of exchange rates. We develop out-of-sample forecasts of the US dollar exchange rate using US and global data on price level, output, and interest rates, and money supply data for the US, China, and the rest of the world for the period 1996–2013. Monetary model forecasts significantly outperform a random walk forecast in terms of mean squared forecast error in the long run. A monetary error correction model with sticky prices performs best. Rolling sample analysis indicates changes over time in the influence of Chinese money supply in forecasting the US dollar. The expectation is that rapid money growth in China would increase the demand for dollars thus raising the value of the dollar, yet our forecasts are to the contrary for the mid 2000s. This is consistent with anticipation of renminbi appreciation under China’s managed exchange rate, which made holding renminbi more attractive. With the break from a dollar peg in 2005 and subsequent currency appreciation, the distortion was alleviated and the forecast direction for the dollar became as expected.     

The Netherlands Bank's narrow monetary policy

Summary In his article Mr. Timmerman describes the way the Netherlands Bank conducts its so-called narrow monetary policy,i.e. the policy pursued in the money and foreign exchange markets. The developments during the period October 1979–July 1981 serve as example of how movements in Dutch money market rates are dominated by exogenous factors. The author concludes that in a small open economy which maintains a stable exchange rate there is no room for an independent money market policy and that the hectic developments in the international money and foreign exchange markets have made illusory what until very recently was regarded as the most important objective of the narrow monetary policy,viz. an orderly money market. P.C. Timmerman was Deputy Director of De Nederlandsche Bank N.V. and is now Managing Director of De Bank van de Nederlandse Antillen. A similar article by the author appeared inZoeklicht op beleid, liber amicorum in honour of Professor G.A. Kessler.     

The stability of money demand in Germany and in the EMS: Impact of German unification

The Stability of Narrow Money Demand in Germany and Aggregate Money Demand in the EMS: Impact of German Unification. —This paper shows that the German monetary union not only had an impact on the stability of the narrow money demand in Germany but also on the stability of the aggregate demand for money in two larger European currency areas, consisting of three and seven EMS countries. However, the impact was only of a temporary nature. The empirical results show that the close link between real money, output, and the interest rate still exists. In a European Monetary Union, narrow money thus remains a potential candidate as an indicator and/or intermediate target for the European Central Bank.     

Money demand in the euro area: new insights from disaggregated data

Conventional money demand specifications in the euro area have become unstable since 2001. We specify a money demand equation in deviations of individual euro area Member States variables from the euro area average and show that the income elasticity as well as the interest rate semi-elasticity remain stable. The corresponding deep parameters of the utility function have not changed fundamentally. Aggregate money demand instability does therefore not result from altered standard factors determining the preference for holding money. Instead, other factors determine the aggregate monetary overhang. Since monetary developments cannot easily be explained by changing preferences, they should be closely monitored as they may actually be a sign of other factors.     

Currency Substitution in Laos

This study investigates the determinants of currency substitution in Laos based on the function of money demand. The empirical model is estimated using the autoregressive distributed lag approach to cointegration for the period 1993–2012. Our estimation results indicate that the interest rate differential is a significant currency substitution determinant in the Laos economy. Moreover, there is evidence supporting the existence of a ratchet effect in the currency allocation of deposits, implying that particularly strong policies should be pursued over an extended period of time in order to convince depositors to switch back to kip‐denominated assets.