De Facto Exchange Rate Regime Classifications: An Evaluation

There exist several statistically-based exchange rate regime classifications that disagree with one another to a disappointing degree. To what extent is this a matter of the quality of the design of these schemes, and to what extent does it reflect the need to supplement statistics with other information (as is done in the IMF’s de facto classification)? It is shown that statistical methods are good at the basics (distinguishing some type of peg from some type of float), but less helpful in other respects, such as determining whether a float is managed, particularly for countries that are not very remote from their main trading partners. Different measures of exchange rate volatility have been used but are not primarily responsible for differences between classifications. The theoretical underpinning of particular classification schemes needs to be more explicit.     

Farm Producers, Past and Present

The pace of technological advance in agriculture appears to have quickened since 1966 producing a dichotomy in the way agricultural products are produced. The production of agricultural commodities is being concentrated. Large farms are becoming larger and producing an increasing proportion of agricultural products. At the same time small and part-time farms are growing as a proportion of all farms, though their contribution to the economy in proportional terms is becoming smaller despite their large numbers.
Agricultural production is being concentrated among fewer, larger, more specialized operations, dependent upon purchased inputs, borrowed capital and more integrated with the food processing and distribution sectors. The benefits from such changes have been a highly productive food system, abundant supplies of quality, inexpensive food products and higher incomes for both those who farm and those who leave for non-farm employment opportunities.
Change, however, has come at a cost to the traditional structure of Canadian agriculture. For instance, a consequence has been an increase in the proportion of food being produced by farms organized as family corporations, integrated industrial corporations, family trusts and large proprietorships. Change has also meant declining opportunities and higher barriers to entry so that fewer people have the means to become established in agriculture. Greater mechanization and capitalization have meant fewer jobs in agriculture, and this in turn has meant a smaller rural population and the demise of some rural communities.
As farms become larger it becomes more difficult for subsequent generations to purchase them as the capital invested and credit requirements exceed amounts that can be paid for in one generation. The growth in organizational structures such as corporations or trusts which leave the farm business intact, beyond the life of the proprietor, seems in-evi table.     

中国海外并购屡遭挫折

[英国路透社3月20日]中信证券与贝尔斯登的合作计划已经搁浅,这可能是中国海外并购活动的最新一次失败案例。     

The gains from variety in the European Union

Over the last decade, European Union members have experienced a steady increase in imports. This increase was accompanied by a strong growth in the number of imported goods and trading partners, suggesting positive welfare gains for consumers via an extended set of consumption possibilities, as pointed out in the ??New Trade Theory??. In this paper, we apply the methodology developed by Feenstra (Am Econ Rev 84(1):157?C177, 1994) and Broda and Weinstein (Q J Econ 121(2):541?C585, 2006) to structurally estimate the gains from imported variety for the 27 countries of the European Union using highly disaggregated trade data at the CN-8 level from Eurostat for the period from 1999 to 2008. Our results show that, within the European Union, especially ??newer?? and smaller member states exhibit high gains from newly imported varieties. Furthermore, we find that the majority of the gains from variety for consumers stems from intra-European Union trade.     

The Signalling Channel of Central Bank Interventions: Modelling the Yen/US Dollar Exchange Rate

This paper presents a theoretical framework analysing the signalling channel of exchange rate interventions as an informational trigger. We develop an implicit target zone framework with learning in order to model the signalling channel. The theoretical premise of the model is that interventions convey signals that communicate information about the exchange rate objectives of the central bank. The model is used to analyse the impact of Japanese FX interventions during the period 1999–2011 on the yen/US dollar dynamics.