STRUCTURAL CHANGE AND PROSPECTS FOR SUSTAINED IMPROVEMENT IN U.S. EXTERNAL BALANCE

Projections from many macroeconometric models have suggested that the improving trend in U.S. external balance since 1987 would peter out by the end of 1990. Because the 1980s decade was a turbulent period in the international environment, one might question the reliability of these projections since the economic relationships underlying the models could have changed. This review finds insufficient evidence of structural change or of sufficiently important omitted variables to justify seriously questioning the projections. However, this study also considers model and parameter uncertainty and concludes that continued improvement in U.S. external balance is within the realm of statistical probability—but, then, so is substantial worsening.     

全球经济失衡的调整趋势 ——基于美国中心的视角

本文对以美国为中心的全球经济失衡模式进行了趋势性分析。尽管外部失衡呈现出周期性的调整，但这些调整过程也是围绕着美国的经济和利益中心而展开的。对于美国而言，它并不需要刻意对其逆差大小进行调整，而主要通过金融渠道的资本流动收益为其贸易逆差提供融资；其外部失衡的调整是贸易失衡对象的转换，而不是贸易余额的逆转。对于顺差方，外部失衡的调整意味着贸易条件的恶化和经济结构的调整，出口贸易地位将逐步被弱化和替代。以美国为中心的全球经济失衡模式将继续存在，除非美元崩溃和美国经济霸主地位丧失。     

美中贸易收支与人民币汇率关系:实证分析

针对美中贸易收支与人民币汇率问题,经研究发现,汇率变动对贸易收支的影响是值得怀疑的,仅仅依靠人民币汇率变动是无法解决美中贸易逆差问题的。1994—2002年年度数据实证显示,美中贸易收支与人民币汇率(名义或实际汇率)之间没有稳定的关系;1998—2003年月度数据计量表明,美中贸易收支与人民币汇率之间没有长期稳定的协整关系。并且,依据美中两国月度统计数据计量的结论是相一致的。因此,“人民币升值论”或许更多的是基于政治而非经济因素,人民币汇率浮动并不能解决美中贸易逆差问题。     

全球失衡问题的资产组合方法——对美国的分析及对中国的启示

基于国际收支货币分析理论的资产组合方法是研究全球失衡问题的一个新视角.这一方法关注一国净外部资产头寸的累积及其可持续性,理解和评估外部失衡的关键是净外部资产变动过程中的价值效应.用该方法对美国外部失衡所做的研究能够得到较为乐观的结论.我国持续贸易顺差并没有带来相应程度的财富累积,我国外部头寸的价值效应为负.我国对贸易顺差进行调整时必须考虑外部头寸价值变动所产生的平衡效应.同时,我国应适当调整外部头寸结构以降低外部财富损失的风险并积极参与东亚金融合作以抵御风险.     

The Costs of U.S. Hegemony: Military power,military spending,and U.S. trade performance

For David Gordon and his collaborators in the social structures of accumulation (SSA) tradition, the willingness to threaten potential adversaries with military forces capable of acting on a global scale was seen to positively affect the U.S. terms of trade. U.S. hegemony yielded specific supply side benefits as favorable terms of trade reduced relative input prices and boosted profitability. Although Gordon and his co-authors recognize the potential costs of sustaining a large, globally active military apparatus, these costs are not incorporated in the econometric models supporting the SSA theory. This paper attempts to extend the SSA analysis by empirically measuring the effects of both military spending and military power on U.S. trade performance over the 1951–1987 period. It is shown that while military power and spending commitments may have positive effects on the terms of trade, these military variables had direct and indirect negative impacts on the U.S. net export balance and therefore domestic aggregate demand. In the context of a model of U.S. growth performance open to international transactions, the overall effect of the postwar military system on U.S. economic growth was likely negative in the cold-war era     

CREDIT,HOUSING COLLATERAL,AND CONSUMPTION: EVIDENCE FROM JAPAN,THE U.K., AND THE U.S.

The consumption behavior of U.K., U.S., and Japanese households is examined and compared using a modern Ando‐Modigliani style consumption function. The models incorporate income growth expectations, income uncertainty, housing collateral, and other credit effects. These models therefore capture important parts of the financial accelerator. The evidence is that credit availability for U.K. and U.S., but not Japanese, households has undergone large shifts since 1980. The average consumption‐to‐income ratio rose in the U.K. and U.S. as mortgage down‐payment constraints eased and as the collateral role of housing wealth was enhanced by financial innovations, such as home equity loans. The estimated housing collateral effect is similar in the U.S. and U.K. In Japan, land prices (which proxy house prices) continue to negatively impact consumer spending. There are negative real interest rate effects on consumption in the U.K. and U.S. and positive effects in Japan. Overall, this implies important differences in the transmission of monetary and credit shocks in Japan versus the U.S., U.K., and other credit‐liberalized economies.     

U.S. EXTERNAL ADJUSTMENT: IS IT DISORDERLY? IS IT UNIQUE? WILL IT DISRUPT THE REST OF THE WORLD?

This article focuses on the historical experience with U.S. external adjustment, that is, narrowings of the trade deficit. Using data from the past 35 years, we compare economic performance in episodes during which the U.S. trade balance declined against episodes during which it rose. We find that trade balance adjustment has been generally benign: U.S. real gross domestic product growth tended to fall but not to a statistically significant extent; housing construction slumped; inflation generally rose modestly; and although nominal interest rates tended to rise, real interest rates fell. The article then compares these outcomes to those in foreign industrial economies. We find that the economic performance of the United States during periods of external adjustment is remarkably similar to the foreign experience. Finally, we also examine the performance of the foreign industrial economies during the periods when the U.S. trade deficit widened and narrowed. Contrary to concerns that U.S. adjustment will prove injurious to foreign economies, our analysis suggests that the foreign economies fared reasonably well during past periods when the U.S. trade deficit narrowed. ( JEL F32, F41)     

The U.S. trade imbalance and real exchange rate: An application of the heterogeneous panel cointegration method

The United States economy suffers from persistent trade deficits, arising from the so-called ‘global external imbalance’. Can the depreciation of the US dollar improve this phenomenon? This study for the first time applies the heterogeneous panel cointegration method to examine the long-run relationship between the real exchange rate and bilateral trade balance of the U.S. and her 97 trading partners for the period 1973–2006. Using new annual data, the empirical results indicate that the devaluation of the US dollar deteriorates her bilateral trade balance with 13 trading partners, but improves it with 37 trading partners, especially for China. In the panel cointegrated framework, a long-run negative relationship between the real exchange rate and the bilateral trade balance exists for the U.S.     

Mexican real wages and the U.S. economy

This article examines real wage determinants from 1996 to 2014 across Mexican states. Real wages are determined in equilibrium by combining labor supply (years of education and population growth) and labor demand (mostly external factors) forces. Panel data models provide two main results. First, years of education and U.S. real GDP appear to be reliable predictors of wages in fixed effects models, with very marked changes after the U.S. 2008–2009 financial crisis and stronger effects on northern Mexican states. Second, dynamic panels confirm the role of foreign forces: positive from the U.S. economy and negative from the real exchange rate.     

U.S. bilateral trade balances and the dollar

U.S. bilateral export and import values with seven large trading partners are tested for real exchange rate effects over 1975–1985. The results suggest that dollar devaluation would have the most favorable impact on the U.S. trade balance in the case of Japan and the least favorable in the case of Canada.     

贸易统计差异与中美贸易平衡问题

本文研究发现(1)中美进出口计价方式不同和运输时滞导致双边贸易统计数据存在差异是自然的。(2)参照剔除香港转口毛利后中美贸易新估计值,1995—2003年美国对华出口低估年均在24%以上,从华进口高估年均在35%以上,而中国对美出口低估年均在20%以上,从美进口相对没变。(3)考虑服务贸易后,美中商品与服务贸易逆差估计值与中国对美贸易顺差新估计值已相当接近。上述结果得到IMF数据的证实。(4)外商在华直接投资增加会造成中国对美出口增加、对美贸易顺差增加。依据中美两国月度数据计量的结论是相一致的。这一结果证实中美贸易平衡问题已超越中美两国贸易范围而成为外商在华直接投资所引致的贸易逆差转移问题。剔除外资企业进出口贡献及贸易统计差异后,中国对美贸易估计值已非常趋近于美国对华贸易估计值。     

LONG-RUN GROWTH PROJECTIONS AND THE AGGREGATE PRODUCTION FUNCTION: A SURVEY OF MODELS USED BY THE U.S. GOVERNMENT

This paper examines the theory and method behind the long-run growth projections of four prominent models used within the U.S. government. The growth models of the Congressional Budget Ofice, the Social Security Administration, the Office of Management and Budget, and the General Accounting Office are all firmly based on the neoclassical framework of an aggregate production function, but several practical dfferences exist. Most notably, the CBO and GAO models endogenize capital accumulation, while the SSA and OMB simply assume that labor productivity growth will continue at historical rates. Although recent endogenous growth theory and the expanding empirical literature on cross-sectional variation emphasize alternative factors, the US. government agencies remain appropriately committed to the traditional, neoclassical framework as a tool for projecting long-run growth.     

THE LOOMING U.S. EXTERNAL DEBT: HOW SERIOUS IS IT?

This article examines the state of U.S. external debt accumulation, especially the rising burden of interest payments. It points out that the favorable yield differential between U.S. external assets and liabilities may be declining at the same time the United States has become the world's largest international debtor. The favorable yield differential has enabled the United States, which became a net debtor in 1987, to avoid making net interest payments on its international debt until 1994. However, servicing the increasing U.S. net international debt is likely to be a much greater burden in the future as the favorable yield gap wanes while net debt continues to grow.     

A note on the international transmission of inflation: The impact of U.S. inflation on Mexico

This paper investigates the relative impact of U.S. inflation and domestic monetary factors on the joint determination of inflation and the balance of payments of Mexico between 1950 and 1979. It also tests the hypothesis that the U.S. money supply has an additional, direct impact on Mexico's balance of payments.     

Fiscal stance,the current account and the real exchange rate: Some empirical estimates from a time-varying framework

This paper examines the time-varying time series processes of the interaction between government fiscal deficits, the current account balance and the real exchange rate for the U.K. and U.S. economies. This is achieved in a novel way by estimating a time-varying vector autoregression model that allows for time variation in the stochastic variance and autoregressive parameters. This paper finds that, contrary to results reported in the recent literature, government deficit shocks worsen the U.S. current account balance. In contrast, results based on the historical time series for the U.K. show evidence of fiscal deficits having actually improved the current account balance. However, in commonality, the time-varying estimates show that the impact of fiscal deficits on the U.K. and U.S. current account balance has fallen in magnitude over the past 20 years. The time-varying variance decomposition results illustrate that fiscal deficit shocks played a key role in driving U.K. current account and real exchange rate fluctuations throughout the 1980s. In contrast, fiscal deficit shocks have been a small factor in the variation of U.S. current account and exchange rate fluctuations over the past 25 years. The time-varying results in this paper do not support the view that future fiscal deficit reductions alone can eliminate U.K. and U.S. current account imbalances.     

Bank failures in the U.S.: A note on regulation Q

Bank failures in the U.S. have increased enormously since 1981. In order to explain this situation, certain factors have been identified—recession, the cost of funds to banks, and the Tax Reform Act of 1986. In addition, the interest rate ceilings imposed upon banks in the U.S. under Regulation Q (until its elimination) have been suggested as a possible contributing cause of the bank failure problem. The purpose of this paper is to provide an initial, formal, and empirical investigation into whether or not Regulation Q did influence the bank failure rate in the U.S. In fact, Regulation Q appears to have been a statistically significant contributor to the commercial bank failure rate.     

"汇率报复案"的逆向报复效应——舒默-格雷厄姆法案的美国代价

"舒默-格雷厄姆法案"是美国施压人民币升值的一个最重的筹码。该法案具有浓厚的贸易保护主义特征,其核心内容是"美国将对所有从中国进口的产品征收27.5%的惩罚性关税"。文章从理论和实证上证明了该法案对美国的通货膨胀、GDP和就业率都存在逆向报复效应;同时,通过因果检验及VAR模型测算了该效应的大小。文章的结论是,"舒默-格雷厄姆法案"的实施将导致美国每年损失约50万个就业机会,远大于因中国进口商品竞争而丧失的就业数量。美国应做的是进行痛苦的结构改革,除此之外,没有捷径;而中国也不会短视地受迫于各类"汇率报复案",打乱其汇率制度改革的节奏。     

THE ROLE OF EXCHANGE RATE IN SINO-U.S. BILATERAL TRADE

We use the error component two-stage least squares estimation method to examine the effects of the Sino-U.S. exchange rate and the weighted exchange rate between the United States and other Asian countries on the Sino-U.S. trade patterns. Our study suggests that both the exchange rates have contributed to China's increased trade surplus with the United States. China has imported intermediate goods from the Asian countries, produced final goods using its cheap labor, and exported those goods to the United States. This is especially true for bilateral trade of high-tech manufacturing goods. Our study also reveals that the U.S. bilateral trade balance could improve if China appreciates its currency (Yuan) against the U.S. dollar. ( JEL F14, F10, F19)     

Lessons for Europe from the U.S. Growth Resurgence

This paper analyses the sources of U.S. labour productivitygrowth in the late 1990s and presents projections for both outputand labour productivity growth. We show that investment in informationtechnology (IT) played a substantial role in the U.S. productivityrevival and that similar trends are evident in data for otherleading OECD countries. We then outline a methodology for projectingtrend output and productivity growth for the broadly definedU.S. economy. Our base-case projection puts trend productivitygrowth at 1.78 percent per year over the next decade with arange of 1.14 to 2.38 percent, reflecting fundamental uncertaintiesabout the rate of technical progress in IT-production and investmentin IT-equipment and software. Our central projection is belowthe average growth rate of 2.07 percent during 1995 -2000. Similarprojections for Europe must await more complete information.(JEL J2)     

美国塑料电子产业的起步与发展

进入21世纪以来，塑料电子逐步发展成为电子技术新革命的前沿科技领域。本文分析了美国科技界、产业界围绕塑料电子开展研发、提出创新理论、开发创新成果并促进成果转化的主要经验和措施，研究了美国在孕育和促进电子技术革命方面所发挥的作用。本文指出，美国塑料电子产业仍然处于发展初期，但展示出广阔的市场前景。