Openness,Regional Trade Agreements and Growth: Evidence from Asia*

This paper assesses the relationship between regional trade agreements, trade integration and economic growth in 21 South and South‐East Asian countries over the period from 1980 to 2004. We aim to answer the following questions. First, how does the trade policy of a given country (and countries within the same region) affect a nation's domestic growth? Second, should developing economies in South and South‐East Asia engage in regional trade agreements (RTA) or move towards broad liberalization? Our results show that openness of either a single country or of its neighbors does not affect a nation's growth and that the impacts of RTA are unclear (if not detrimental to growth in some cases, once endogeneity is accounted for). Panel Granger‐causality tests running from openness to growth yield mixed results and some conclusions depend on the particular subsample under scrutiny.     

Is Decoupling Possible? Association between Affluence and Household Carbon Emissions in the Philippines

This paper investigates whether or not affluence is associated with carbon emissions at the household level in the Philippines. While there is abundant literature on this issue, limited studies are available for developing countries. We estimate household carbon emissions by combining input–output analysis with household expenditure. The results suggest that household carbon emissions are increasing non‐monotonically with a non‐existent turning point as households accumulate more assets. This is further supported by quintile estimates showing huge disparity in emissions between poor and rich households. Although household carbon emissions in the Philippines are not alarming, evidence suggests that it is likely households will lead a carbon‐intensive lifestyle as they become more affluent.     

(De-)Stabilizing two-country macroeconomic interactions in an estimated model of the U.S. and the Euro Area

In this paper a semi-structural macroeconomic model based on gradually adjusting wages and prices and hybrid, cross-over inflation expectation formation is analyzed and estimated with aggregate data of the U.S. and the Euro Area. Besides comparing, among other things, the determinants of the wage- and price inflation dynamics in both economies, the role of different macroeconomic transmission channels for the stability of the two-country system is investigated.     

货币危机的政治经济学解释:文献评述

作者从文献的角度对货币危机的政治经济学解释做了一次比较全面的梳理,从中可以看出国际金融政治经济学的研究特点和思维方式。在理论构建上,政治经济学的学者们完全沿用了经济学模型中的不完全信息和动态博弈论,引入了预期的形成以及市场交易者和政府之间的战略互动,从而成功地把各种政治和经济变量纳入到一个模型之内。他们的贡献是,把政治变量引入到市场交易者和政府的预期形成中,强调了政治变量以及作为一种信息的政治变量在市场交易者和政府预期中的作用或者地位,并强调了政治变量在市场交易者和政府之间战略互动或动态博弈过程中的作用,从而更好地解释了货币危机的原因,提高了预测货币危机的准确性。在实证研究上,政治经济学通过预期效用函数、战略概率模型等方式,较为成功地实现了对政治因素这个分类变量的模型化,较好地实现了对政治因素的量化分析。     

Managing Ethically Cultural Diversity: Learning from Thomas Aquinas

Cultural diversity is an inescapable reality and a concern in many businesses where it can often raise ethical questions and dilemmas. This paper aims to offer suggestions to certain problems facing managers in dealing with cultural diversity through the inspiration of Thomas Aquinas. Although he may be perceived as a voice from the distant past, we can still find in his writings helpful and original ideas and criteria. He welcomes cultural differences as a part of the perfection of the universe. His systemic approach leads one to place the problem in its proper context, and to reflect on it from the perspective of virtue ethics, with a central role for practical wisdom and giving primacy to neighborly love and natural moral law. Rather than a set of rigid standards with no consideration of diversity Aquinas focuses on the common human ground, which allows for the indispensable dialogue between different positions. When dealing with practical questions, the problem is one of finding the right balance between general principle and cultural specifics, tolerance, and dialogue, always guided by practical wisdom. In this way, Aquinas’ approach is neither rigid ethical universalism with no consideration for diversity nor moral relativism with no place for any transcultural and absolute morals.     

A single currency for the Economic Community of West Africa? An economic assessment

This paper assesses the economic support for the creation of an Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) monetary union encompassing all its 15 members, an objective that was set more than 30 years ago. In line with previous empirical research, our conclusion is that the adoption of a common currency by the whole region is not recommended. This work takes a step forward and assesses alternative ways to reduce the current number of currencies in circulation in the Community. Based on our results, we suggest (i) the merging of the currencies of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone into a single currency and (ii) the Gambia to join the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU).     

Vertical Intra-Industry Trade and Foreign Direct Investment between Japan and European Countries

In this paper, we provide an overview of the development of vertical intra-industry trade (VIIT) between Japan and various European countries, including both old and new EU members, as well as emerging Central and Eastern European countries. VIIT indices constructed in this paper cover a much wider range of margins of unit price ratio than existing studies. Our empirical model attempts to explain the distributional characteristics of VIIT through foreign direct investments (FDI), in addition to traditional determinants of IIT, such as differences in GDP per capita, average GDP, and smaller and larger GDPs. Our sample covers the period from 1988 to 2004 for bilateral trade between Japan and 31 European countries. Our econometric methodology for these panel data uses fixed-effect model estimation with a variable transformation determined by a Box-Cox approach. We find that intra-industry trade between European countries and Japan increases with their corresponding Japanese FDIs, especially for new EU member countries. Our results also indicate that it is important to measure a wider range of quality based on relative prices rather than the traditional ratio used in the literature.     

伊斯兰金融的未来

回顾伊斯兰金融的发展历程,从1963年成立首家伊斯兰银行,到2007年伊斯兰金融资产达到3000亿美元,伊斯兰金融发展迅速。文章通过实例剖析了伊斯兰债券与资产支持证券的异同,并从伊斯兰债券的金融本质入手,从宏观的角度展开对伊斯兰金融的未来前景的探讨,指出伊斯兰金融是传统伊斯兰融资体系适应全球化经济下的一种新模式探索,并期待着伊斯兰现代主义能够更好地促进伊斯兰金融的发展和成熟,使伊斯兰社会更好地融合到全球化的经济发展中。     

Yield curves from different bond data sets

Review of Derivatives Research - It is well known that zero coupon rates are not observable variables. Their estimation process may be cumbersome and time consuming. We explore the extent to which...