Growth,Real Exchange Rates and Trade Protectionism since the Financial Crisis

Existing evidence suggests that protectionist activity since the financial crisis has been muted, raising the question whether the historically well‐documented relationship between growth, real exchange rates and trade protectionism has broken down. We use a novel and comprehensive dataset that stretches beyond the traditionally considered tariff and trade defense measures to study the responsiveness of trade policies to business cycles and price competitiveness in the time period since the financial crisis. We find that the specter of protectionism has not been banished. Countries continue to pursue more trade‐restrictive policies when they experience recessions and/or when their competitiveness deteriorates. Our results suggest that the global economy continues to be exposed to the risk of a creeping return of trade protectionism.     

Exploring accounting-sustainability hybridisation in the UK public sector

The transformative potential of accounting-sustainability hybrids has been promoted and problematized in the literature. We contribute to this debate by exploring, theoretically and empirically, the role of accounting in shaping and reshaping sustainability practices. We develop a holistic framework which we use to analyse the governing and mediating roles of accounting-sustainability hybrids in the Environment Agency (of England and Wales) and West Sussex County Council. Our analysis identifies that local accounting-sustainability hybrids contribute positively to improving eco-efficiency, have some impact on eco-effectiveness, but limited bearing on social justice. Emerging assemblages of accounting-sustainability hybrids create capacity for wider sustainability transformations, particularly through their mediating roles. However, a number of factors combine to frustrate further sustainability transformations within these organisations and those they are charged with governing. These factors include the structural constraints of the accounting-sustainability hybrids, influenced by a relatively weak local sustainability programmatic and the pressing need to meet increasing service delivery expectations in a period of severe resource constraints.     

An empirical analysis of inventory turnover behaviour in Greek retail sector: 2000-2005

In this study we investigate the determinants of inventory turnover. The study is based on an econometric analysis of inventory behaviour using an inventory turnover model. The empirical implementation of the model was conducted on a sample of financial data for 566 Greek retail firms for the period 2000-2005. By employing panel data techniques it was found that inventory turnover ratio is negatively correlated with gross margin and positively correlated with capital intensity and a measure of sales surprise.Decomposing the variance into its components associated with year, firm and retail segment effects, we found that a substantial amount of inventory turns variability is due to segment-wise effects. Moreover, the inventory turnover reaction to different sales changes was also studied. It was estimated that changes in sales bring on bigger changes when firms operate in sales-declined region. These results are useful in identifying methods and applications to improve inventory performance among firms and over time.     

Corporate Political Activities and the SEC's Oversight Role in the IPO Process

We study how a regulator (Securities and Exchanges Commission; SEC) responds to IPOs that have a higher political profile. We find that IPOs with issuers (intermediaries) that actively pursue political strategies receive more (less) SEC comment letters than IPOs without such actors. Cross-sectional analysis reveals that the IPO's political environment moderates the relationship between social pressure for more corporate transparency and SEC scrutiny. Additional tests indicate that the political activities of issuers (intermediaries) contribute to a less (more) efficient IPO process. Overall, our findings suggest that politically active intermediaries have stronger incentives to accurately portray the IPO financial reporting environment than politically active issuers because they have greater reputational and political capital at stake; quite simply, the former have more to lose. We draw out the implications for theory, in terms of agency and reputation.     

Is there a yen optimum currency area? Evidence from 18 Asian and Pacific economies

This paper examines the macroeconomic costs and benefits of adopting a common currency (the yen) for 18 Asian and Pacific countries. Economic theory suggests that the main benefit is enhanced price stability, while the main cost is higher business-cycle volatility if the adopting country’s output is not sufficiently correlated with that of Japan. Using data from 1960–2001, the paper finds that the estimated cost and benefit measures exhibit substantial variability across the countries and are often positively correlated: countries (such as Bangladesh or Nepal) that have a lot to gain from adopting the yen, also have a lot to lose from it; while other economies (such as Singapore, Thailand, or Taiwan) that have little to lose by adopting the yen, have also little to gain by it. The empirical results can be also used to compare net benefits for individual countries, showing, for example, that Korea is a more promising candidate for adopting the yen than Pakistan or Malaysia.     

The Canadian Dollar and Purchasing Power Parity during the Recent Float

This paper re-examines the purchasing power parity (PPP) concept for five bilateral Canadian dollar exchange rates. The Johansen cointegration technique is employed. Evidence is found in favor of PPP when wholesale prices are used but not when consumer prices are utilized; whereas, in all but one case, it is not possible to reject the symmetry and proportionality hypotheses. Furthermore, it is shown that the dimension of the cointegration space may exhibit sample dependency, but the estimated coefficients are stable in recursive estimations. Finally, by implementing the multivariate KPSS test for the null hypothesis of cointegration, Johansen's results are overturned.     

Low Inflation vs. Stable Inflation: Evidence from the UK, 1688–2009

This paper investigates the relationship between inflation and inflation volatility. Using annual data from 1688 to 2009, the results show that UK inflation and its volatility have been positively correlated when inflation exceeds a certain value, but negatively correlated when inflation is below this threshold. The evidence also suggests that the break in the relationship occurs between annual inflation rates of 0.6% and 5.5%, which includes both the 2% inflation target of many central banks, and the 3.5% break point predicted by the New Keynesian model of Coibion et al. (2012).     

Openness to Trade and the Potency of Monetary Policy: How Strong is the Relationship?

Economic theory suggests that an economy's openness to international trade reduces the ability of monetary policy to affect output. Using quarterly data from the 1960:1–1993:4 period for a set of eight countries (Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Africa, the U.K., and the U.S.A.), this article's empirical results support this theoretical prediction: the more open the economy, the smaller the output effects of a given change in the money supply. This finding, robust across all the different specifications and estimation methods examined, has straightforward implications for stabilization policy. Moreover, it suggests that an economy's net benefit from joining a monetary union is increasing with the economy's openness to foreign trade.     

Current Account Imbalances and Real Exchange Rates in the Euro Area*

Global current account imbalances have been one of the focal points of interest for policymakers during the last few years. Less attention has been paid, however, to the diverging current account balances of the individual euro area countries. In this paper we consider the dynamics of current account adjustment and the role of real exchange rates in current account determination in the EMU countries. After controlling for the effects of income growth, we find the relationship between real exchange rates and current accounts to be substantial in size and subject to nonlinear effects. We find that real exchange rates can offer further insights, beyond the effects of the income catch‐up process, relevant to current account determination in the EMU.