Some observations on MMT: what’s right,not right,and what’s too simplistic

Business Economics - Three observations on modern monetary theory (MMT): (1) What’s right is not new—Consolidating public finance, whether it’s held on a balance sheet of the Fed...     

Editorial

Original Papers

Editorial     

Incentive Complementarity in China’s Rural Enterprises

Complementarity between incentive instruments is a central theme of theoretical research in industrial organization. However, despite its importance, empirical evidence on the existence of complementarities is limited. We identify complementarities between incentive mechanisms using a dataset on rural firms in China. Using a panel regression framework, we confirm that significant complementarities exist in terms of the impact of incentive instruments on the performance of firms. In order to evaluate the robustness of our results we account for unobserved differences in firm quality using fixed effects and instrumental variables regressions. Support for the complementarity hypothesis is found after controlling for unobserved heterogeneity.     

United States - The Downgrade Scenario

Summary The US debt-ceiling negotiations in Washington are showing little progress as the 2 August deadline approaches.Based on the latest proposals under discussion, the chances of a debt-ceiling hike which also incorporates USD 4trn worth of deficit cuts over the next decade are slim.This is important, as it means that S&P is likely to downgrade the US sovereign rating from AAA to AA, even if the debt ceiling is raised.Note that in an interview with Dow Jones, one of S&P's credit analysts said that to avoid a downgrade, the US needs to agree to reduce the fiscal deficit by over USD 4tm over the next ten years.This is what S&P sees as the required amount to prevent the total government debt-to-GDP ratio from rising.Therefore, a debt-ceiling deal with deficit cuts falling short of this could mean a downgrade by at least one of the three key rating agencies.     

The effects of exchange rate trends and volatility on export prices: Industry examples from Japan,Germany, and the United States

Review of World Economics - Die Wirkungen von Trends und Schwankungen der Wechselkurse auf die Exportpreise: Beispiele aus der Industrie Japans, der Bundesrepublik und der Vereinigten Staaten. -...     

The Influence of Monetary Conditions on the Response of Interest Rate Futures to M1 Releases: 1976–1998

Abstract:   This study examines the response of T‐bill and T‐bond futures prices to weekly M1 announcements over the period March 1976 to November 1998 conditioned upon monetary operating procedures and the stance in monetary policy. In concurrence with previous studies, this study finds that unanticipated increases in M1 are negatively related to changes in T‐bill and T‐bond futures prices. However, when the data is sorted by monetary regime, the stance in monetary policy, and direction of money surprise, we find evidence to support the several competing theories historically suggested by Cornell (1983b) to explain the impact of money supply announcements.     

THE DEALERS' PRICE/SIZE QUOTE AND MARKET LIQUIDITY

We model trading in a competitive securities market where informed traders and liquidity traders transact with dealers. The dealers' entire published quote is modeled: bid-ask prices and the number of shares the dealer is willing to buy/sell at these prices (i.e., size quotes). We argue that size quotes are a more informative indicator of market liquidity than the bid-ask spread's adverse-selection component. Moreover, the size quotes reveal several market characteristics that cannot be inferred from the bid-ask spread's adverse-selection component alone. The model generates a number of empirically testable predictions that clarify certain key elements of market liquidity.