Balance of payments deficits,the adjustment cost and the optimum level of international reserves

Zusammenfassung Zahlungsbilanzdefizite, die Ausgleichskosten und die optimale H?he der internationalen Reserven. — Die Kosten des Ausgleichs eines Zahlungsbilanzdefizits durch eine Politik der Einkommenskürzung, eine Abwertung und induzierte kompensatorische Kapitalzuflüsse werden für eine Auswahl von fünfzehn L?ndern gesch?tzt. In dieser Stichprobe sind die Abwertungskosten und die Kosten von induzierten Kapitalzuflüssen niedriger als die Kosten einer reinen Einkommensdrosselungspolitik. Für Kanada, D?nemark und Südafrika stellt die Abwertung die billigste Anpassungspolitik dar. Das bedeutet, da\ es für diese L?nder vorteilhaft ist, flexible Wechselkurse zu haben. Anschlie\end wird die optimale H?he der internationalen Reserven auf der Grundlage der Formel von H. R. Heller berechnet; sie ist dann erreicht, wenn die marginalen Kosten des Ausgleichs des Zahlungsbilanzdefizits durch eine der drei Arten der Anpassungspolitik, die in dem Aufsatz beschrieben werden, gleich sind den Alternativkosten, die durch das Halten von internationalen Reserven entstehen. Die Verfasser stellen abschlie\end fest, da\ in ihrer Stichprobe die entwickelten L?nder, deren W?hrungen keine Leitw?hrungen sind, überschu\reserven besitzen, w?hrend die Entwicklungsl?nder über weniger Reserven verfügen, als optimal w?re.

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Résumé Les déficits de balance des paiements, les coüts d’ajustement et le niveau optimal des réserves internationales. — Sont estimés, pour un échantillon de quinze pays choisis, les coüts de l’ajustement d’un déficit de balance des paiements, ajustement au moyen d’une politique de réduction du revenu, d’une dévaluation et d’un afflux induit de capitaux compensatoires. Dans cet échantillon, les coüts de dévaluation et les coüts de l’afflux induit de capitaux sont plus bas que les coüts d’une pure politique de réduction du revenu. Pour le Canada, le Danemark et l’Union Sud-Africaine, la dévaluation représente la politique d’ajustement la moins coüteuse. Cela veut dire qu’il est avantageux pour ces pays de maintenir un système de cours des changes flexibles. Ensuite, le niveau optimal des réserves internationales est calculé sur la base de la formule de H. R. Heller. Ce niveau est atteint quand — au moyen d’une des trois politiques d’ajustement décrites dans cet article — le coüt marginal de l’ajustement du déficit de balance des paiements égale les coüts alternatifs d’une détention de réserves internationales. Finalement, les auteurs constatent que, dans leur échantillon, les pays développés, dont les monnaies ne sont pas des monnaies clef, possèdent un surplus de réserves, tandis que les réserves des pays á développer sont en dessous du niveau optimal.

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Resumen Déficit de balanza de pagos, el coste de compensatión y el volumen óptimo de réservas internationales. — El coste de compensación de un déficit de balanza de pagos mediante retractión de ingresos, devaluatión cambiaria o influjo de capital inducido se estima para una muestra de quince paises. Para esta muestra son los costos de devaluatión y de influjo de capital inducido menores que el coste de un pura retraction de ingresos. Para el Canadá, Dinamarca y Suráfrica la devaluation résulta ser la forma de ajuste más económica. Esto significa que séria ventajoso para estos paises tener tipos de cambio flexibles. A continuatión se calcula el volumen óptimo de réservas internacionales mediante la fórmula de H. R. Heller; el volumen es óptimo cuandoel coste marginal de compensaci?n del déficit de balanza de pagos mediante una de las très formas de ajuste, que se discuten en este artfculo, es igual a los costos alternatives que implica el mantenimiento de réservas internacionales. Los autores subrayan que en la muestra los paises desarrollados, cuyas monedas no son monedas de réserva, tienen réservas excesivas, mientras que los paises en desarrollo disponen de menos réservas de lo que séria óptimo.

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Riassunto Deficit délia bilancia dei pagamento, i costi di compensazione e le altezze ottimali délie riserve internazionali. — I costi délia compensazione di un deficit délia bilancia dei pagamenti per mezzo di una politica délia riduzione dei redditi, di una svalutazione ed afflussi compensativi indotti di capitale vengono valutati per una selezione di quindici Paesi. In questa prova a caso, i costi di svalutazione e quelli di afflussi indotti di capitale sono più bassi dei costi di una pura politica di strozzatura dei redditi. Per il Canadá, la Danimarca e il Sudafrica, la svalutazione rappresenta la politica di adattamento più a buon mercato. Ció significa che per questi Paesi è vantaggioso avère cambi flessibili. Successivamente viene calcolata l’altezza ottimale délie riserve internazionali sulla base délia formula di H. R. Heller; essa è allora raggiunta quando i costi marginali délia compensazione del deficit della bilancia dei pagamenti mediante uno dei tre modi della politica di adattamento che sono descritti nell’articolo sono uguali ai costi alternativi che sorgono per il mantenimento di riserve internazionali. Gli autori constatant) infine che nella loro prova a caso i Paesi sviluppati, le cui valute non sono monete guida, possiedono eccedenze di riserve, mentre i Paesi in sviluppo dispongono di minori riserve di quanto sia ottimale.

     

Tourism and internet adoption: a developing world perspective

This paper provides a new perspective of the realities faced by small tourism enterprises in the developing world. Given the well‐recognised value of the Internet in tourism, we sought to identify how entrepreneurs mitigate Internet adoption obstacles such as the inadequate and unreliable telecommunications infrastructure, the cost of the technology, and a lack of knowledge and skills that characterise developing nations. A qualitative study was performed on small tourism enterprises in rural and metropolitan areas of Malaysia and Ecuador. We found that entrepreneurs established ways to overcome obstacles, with some applying quite innovative solutions. This paper helps to understand the role of entrepreneurs in innovation adoption and improve knowledge of Internet appropriation among small tourism enterprises in developing nations. A number of transferable lessons are identified. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Currency Swaps and International Real Estate Investment

This paper examines the efficacy of currency swaps as a hedging mechanism for the exchange rate risk associated with foreign investment in real estate. Earlier studies have concentrated on short-term hedging instruments such as options and forward contracts. Currency swaps are better suited for use on investments with long-term holding periods such as real estate. The findings indicate that, although hedging United States real estate investments with currency swaps suppresses most of the risk induced by currency instability, the improvements are insufficient to produce diversification gains for foreign investors in the context of mean-variance portfolio performance.     

The Economics of Tropical Deforestation

This paper provides a survey of 'first wave' economic studies of tropical deforestation and land use. These studies of tropical forest land conversion are generally at the cross‐country level. We also conduct a synthesis cross‐country analysis of tropical agricultural land expansion. The results show that agricultural development is the main factor determining land expansion, but institutional factors have an important influence. Income effects tend to vary from region to region, and do not always display an 'Environmental Kuznets Curve' relationship     

Worker flows, job flows and unemployment in a matching model

Standard matching models of unemployment generate far too little volatility in unemployment and vacancies relative to the variation in the shock variables. Shimer (2005) showed that in US data the vacancy-to-unemployment ratio is about 26 times more volatile than the standard model predicts. He identified the flexibility of wages as the key issue and triggered a heated debate on possible improvements of the core model to accommodate these empirical facts. In this paper, we first document Shimer's facts for the UK and find them to be qualitatively similar to US facts. We then develop and calibrate a model based on the Mortensen and Pissarides approach that increases the volatility of the v/u ratio 20-fold compared to the standard framework. The key features of our model relate to the job creation decision by firms and the search options of workers. We allow these to search whilst employed, and firms to re-advertise jobs that have been quit from. This leads us to use a different job creation process, whereby potential vacancies, or job ‘ideas’, arise at a finite rate per period over a range of idiosyncratic productivities. Calibrating the model to UK data, we show that it delivers volatility in unemployment and vacancies much closer to, though still not as large as, that observed for the UK, whilst retaining the standard wage determination process.     

FOCUS: Business Ethics in Europe Current Developments in German Business Ethics

Germany is at the leading edge of European reflection on the nature and requirements of ethical business. Two scholars in the field provide a survey of the main lines of discussion in the current German business ethics scene, and discuss three important books which are helping set the scene for further developments. Prof. Dr. Horst Steinmann holds the Chair for Business Administration and Management at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Lange Gasse 20, D-90403 Nürnberg, and Dipl.-Hdl. Brigitte Kustermann is research assistant to the same chair.     

ASSESSING THE VIABILITY OF REUSABLE PACKAGING: A RELATIVE COST APPROACH

While environmentally friendly operations can provide a positive public image, firms wishing to reduce their environmental impact must initiate activities that reduce cost as well. Reusable container systems are one means of reducing environmental waste, but the economics of such systems has been somewhat uncertain to date. This research proposes a cost model to evaluate the combined impact of logistics and packaging costs on the container decision. Additionally, a simulation/regression analysis is used to analyze model results to determine the relative importance and interactions between container decision factors.     

Transitions from home to marriage of young Americans

The paper examines the impact of income on the transitions between home, living independently and first marriage of young Americans. A matching model is outlined, similar to that used in theories of job search, to explain the probability of marriage and living alone. A multiple‐state, multiple‐transition model which allows for correlated heterogeneity on the first and subsequent transitions is estimated. The results show that income has a strong and significant effect. The impact of unobserved heterogeneity is examined in detail. The impact of the young person's earnings on the transitions is explored through simulation. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.