Time-varying term premium in T-bill futures rate and the expectations hypothesis

This paper examines time-varying term premium in the T-bill futures rate to determine its significance for the expectations hypothesis (EH). Similar to previous studies on the T-bill forward rates, our data reject the joint hypothesis of the EH and the rational expectations hypothesis (RE). Under the assumption of zero rational expectational error, we find a substantial variation of term premium in the futures rate over time. Furthermore, the lower bound of the expected term premium variance is significantly positive when the rational expectational error is allowed to be nonzero. These findings are inconsistent with the EH. In addition, a relatively high ratio of the lower bound of the expected term premium variance to the prediction error variance implies that the poor predictive power of the futures rate should not be attributed mainly to the market's rational expectational errors.     

Testing the forward rate unbiasedness hypothesis during the 1920s

This paper reexamines the forward rate unbiasedness hypothesis (FRUH) during the 1920s and it contributes to the literature as follows: first, it utilizes a database that includes currencies not studied before, as well as the 3 month forward rates; second, it applies three different approaches to test for cointegration and it shows that the choice of the technique is not of crucial importance; third, it tests for the temporal stability of the cointegration results; finally, it tests for the existence of the FRUH in the short run, by means of error correction models, whereas previous studies focused on cointegrated vectors only. Our analysis shows that for countries that did not undergo major financial turmoil during that period, there exists more favorable evidence for the FRUH.     

Stickiness, synchronization, and passthrough in intrafirm trade prices

About 40 percent of all U.S. international trades occurs between related parties, or intrafirm, such as trades between a parent and subsidiary of the same multinational corporation. This paper uses a transaction-level dataset that distinguishes arm's length from intrafirm trades to demonstrate that for differentiated products, intrafirm prices are characterized by (1) less stickiness, (2) less synchronization, and (3) greater exchange rate passthrough.     

Payroll taxes and VAT in a labor-turnover model of the ‘natural rate’

We explore the effects of the tax structure in our version of the labor-turnover model of unemployment. We show that for a closed economy, a shift to increased payroll taxation offset by a lighter VAT rate raises the natural rate of unemployment. However, for a small open economy whose interest rate is given by the world rate, the tax shift is neutral for employment. Extending the analysis to a two-country world exhibiting free international capital mobility, we show that a tax shift in either one of the countries raises the natural rate in both economies.     

The response of U.S. natural gas futures and spot prices to storage change surprises: Fundamental information and the effect of escalating physical gas production

We study the behavior of U.S. natural gas futures and spot prices on and around the weekly announcements by the U.S. Energy Information Administration of the amount of natural gas in storage. We identify an inverse empirical relation between changes in futures prices and surprises in the change in natural gas in storage and that this relation is not driven by the absolute size of the surprise. The evidence also indicates prices react first in the futures market for natural gas with that information then flowing to the spot market. Post 2005, corresponding to a period of significant increases in the production of natural gas in the United States, the response of prices to storage surprises was larger in absolute value. No evidence is found of economically meaningful reactions to the surprise other than on the date the storage news is released. The results demonstrate the importance of fundamental information in the formation of natural gas prices.     

Reconsidering the natural rate hypothesis in a New Keynesian framework

This paper formulates a stylized New Keynesian model in which each individual firm can select the frequency of its price adjustments. The endogeneity of contract duration has a dramatic impact on the magnitude of the aggregate effects of steady-state inflation. With a plausible calibration of the magnitude of menu costs and other structural parameters, this model predicts a relationship between steady-state inflation and the frequency of price adjustment that is reasonably close to the empirical findings of cross-country studies. Furthermore, at moderate inflation rates, steady-state inflation generates relative price distortions that have a non-trivial impact on aggregate output, but this impact wanes and eventually disappears at much higher annual inflation rates because the frequency of price adjustment approaches that of the flexible-price economy.     

Mean-variance cointegration and the expectations hypothesis

The present paper sheds further light on a well-known (alleged) violation of the expectations hypothesis of the term structure (EHT): the frequent finding of unit roots in interest rate spreads. We show that the EHT implies (i) that the nonstationarity stems from the holding premium, which is hence (ii) cointegrated with the spread. In a stochastic discount factor framework, we model the premium as being driven by the integrated variance of excess returns. Introducing the concept of mean-variance cointegration, we actually find cointegration relations between the conditional first and second moment of US bond data.     

Cointegration and forward and spot exchange rate regressions

We investigate the relationship between cointegration models of the current spot exchange rate, s_t, and the current forward rate, f_t, and cointegration models of the future spot rate, s_t+1, and f_t and the implications of this relationship for tests of the forward rate unbiasedness hypothesis (FRUH). We show that simple models of cointegration between s_t and f_t imply complicated models of cointegration between s_t+1 and f_t. Consequently, standard methods are often inappropriate for modeling the cointegrated behavior of (s_t+1, f_t)′ and we show that the use of such methods can lead to erroneous inferences regarding the FRUH.     

关于健全资源补偿机制完善价格体系的思考

在中国 ,作为生产要素的自然资源和劳动力资源的价格水平偏低 ,与其自身的价值严重背离 ,使得价格体系处于严重扭曲的状态 ,这是市场经济不完善的重要原因 ,也是与国家市场价格水平错位的关键所在。现在面对入世的巨大挑战 ,深入研究一下自然资源价值与价格问题是很有必要和具有现实意义的     

Testing the Friedman-Phelps natural rate hypothesis using survey data: An instrumental variable approach

In this paper, a simple expectations-augmented Phillips Curve consistent with the Friedman-Phelps Natural Rate Hypothesis is estimated using the instrumental variable technique and a survey measure of expected inflation. The results support the NRH because the estimated coefficient on expected inflation is not significantly different from one, the value implied by the NRH.     

Firm growth and efficiency in the banking industry: A new test of the efficient structure hypothesis

In this paper we propose a new test of the efficient structure (ES) hypothesis, which predicts that efficient firms come out ahead in competition and grow as a result. Our test has significant advantages over existing ones, because it is more direct, and can jointly test the so-called quiet-life hypothesis, which predicts that in a concentrated market firms do not minimize costs. We then apply this test to large banks in Japan. Consistent with the ES hypothesis, we find that more efficient banks become larger. We also find that market concentration reduces banks’ efficiency, which supports the quiet-life hypothesis. These findings imply that there is an intriguing growth–efficiency dynamic throughout banks’ life cycle, although our findings also suggest that the ES hypothesis dominates the quiet-life hypothesis in terms of economic impact.     

On information release and the January effect: Accounting-information hypothesis

Since most firms select December fiscal year-ends, theJanuary effect is a fiscal year-end accounting effect, according to the accounting-information hypothesis. This hypothesis attributes the unusually large stock returns in January to higher risk, caused by uncertainty about the impending announcement of firm performance. The empirical evidence does not support the hypothesis. Small firms with non-December fiscal year-ends fail to display a fiscal year-end effect. Yet all small firms, regardless of their fiscal year-end month, exhibit large January returns.     

The behavior of money and other economic variables: Two natural experiments

The object of this paper is to test the performance of the quantity-theory model and the related proposition of monetary neutrality in a context in which, to use Bernanke's phraseology, “money move[d] for reasons that [were] plausibly unrelated to the current state of the economy.” We investigate this question using data from two recent episodes of monetary-policy regime change – the move to floating exchange rates throughout the industrialized world following the breakdown of Bretton Woods in the early 1970s and the shift toward less expansive monetary policy that to varying degrees took place in these countries a decade or so later. The results of this exercise are highly positive. The money–price relationship that we observe is fully consistent with theory – growth shifts in the nominal stock of money and in the price level are highly correlated and bear a one-to-one relation to one another. Growth shifts in exchange rates are significantly related both to growth shifts in relative price levels and to growth shifts in relative excess supplies of money. The classical neutrality proposition – in this context superneutrality – in general, receives strong, though not totally unambiguous, support.     

基于产出缺口的菲利普斯曲线对我国通胀预测的研究

基于菲利普斯曲线理论中产出缺口与通货膨胀率的关系,应用卡尔曼滤波方法估算我国的潜在产出与产出缺口,通过格兰杰因果关系验证产出缺口与通货膨胀的因果关系,并建立产出缺口的菲利普斯曲线模型进行通货膨胀预测。实证结果表明该模型能够较好地预测我国通货膨胀,从而能为制定相应的货币政策提供良好的参考。     

政府清廉、财政政策与经济增长

减速治理背景下,政府官员廉洁程度与财政政策有效性之间的动态关系引起社会广泛关注。基于赋予转移概率以时变特征的MS-TVTP模型,研究发现：中国腐败治理取得阶段性成果,但并未呈现持续性改善趋势;政府廉洁状况的改善有助于财政政策有效性的提高,也有利于经济扩张区间的相对延长,最终促进经济增长,但由于中国尚处于腐败较为严重区间且改善程度有限,导致这一促进作用并不十分突出;此外,信贷政策对经济增长的促进作用已十分有限。     

中国资本产出、资本回报与资本流向之谜——基于劳动力价格扭曲视角

本文通过建立生产部门的要素买方垄断市场均衡模型,利用1996—2016年中国省级面板数据测算中国劳动力价格扭曲程度,并使用固定效应模型(FE)及面板固定效应的工具变量(IV)估计方法加以分析,从劳动力价格扭曲视角解答了中国资本产出、资本回报与资本流向之谜,即中国经济如何在赶超阶段面临资本深化不断加剧和TFP增长乏力的情况下,依靠劳动力价格扭曲实现低资本产出与高资本回报水平共存,从而维持长期高速资本积累以及优质的资本流向结构。实证研究表明:劳动力价格扭曲降低了资本产出效率,但这并不能掩盖由劳动力向资本方转移的垄断利润对资本回报的直接补贴,因此劳动力价格扭曲对中国维持高资本回报水平起到了重要的支撑作用,并通过高资本回报水平实现了地区资本快速积累,劳动力价格扭曲对资本流向的积极作用还体现在抑制资本"脱实向虚"及吸引外资流入。因此,应正视劳动力价格扭曲在赶超阶段的特殊作用,在矫正扭曲的过程中循序渐进,更积极采取措施规避其对资本回报和资本流向可能产生的不利影响。