Market crises and Basel capital requirements: Could Basel III have been different? Evidence from Portugal,Ireland, Greece and Spain (PIGS)

Basel III represents a crucial step in strengthening the capital rules underlying banking operations, aimed at reducing the probability and severity of a systemic crisis. Alongside two supplementary capital buffers, the Basel Committee of Banking Supervision imposed severe pressure on the Value-at-Risk based Internal Models Approach in order to increase. This is to increase the capital base by adding the stressed Value-at-Risk component in an effort to reduce reliance on internal models while keeping the Standardized Approach avenue open. However, even though those measures might appear theoretically correct, evidence gathered for long and short exposures in Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain highlights several defects in Basel III. We emphasize that leptokurtic models, primarily those derived from Extreme Value Theory, should be enforced in the regulations given their superior performance in market crises, and that Basel II could have shielded against 2008 mayhem provided that heavy-tailed techniques had been employed.     

The choice of exchange rate regimes in the MENA countries: a probit analysis

This paper analyses empirically the determinants of exchange rate regime choice in 17 MENA countries. For this purpose, we use both de jure and de facto regime classifications test and estimate a series of binomial and multinomial probit models. Regressions results highlight the important influence of two factors: trade openness and oil export capacity.     

Analyzing Heterogeneous Stock Price Comovements Through Hybrid Approaches

This paper studies the hypothesis of stock price comovements between the US market and four different regions (the G6, the BRICS, the MENA (Middle East North Africa) during calm and crisis periods. Using different econometric approaches (BEKK-GARCH model, cointegration tests, and panel cointegration tests), we checked the interdependence of these markets in the short and the long term. Our findings point to the importance of heterogeneity linked to the stock price adjustment process, inviting individual analysis to be carried out according to market specificities in the aim of identifying countries that are sources of investment opportunities. We also highlighted the presence of time-varying stock price comovements that significantly increased after the subprime crisis. This enabled us to specify periods and regions that can still provide promising diversification benefits. Investigation of this issue is of interest for investors and bankers in order to improve their portfolio choices, diversification strategies as well as risk management.     

How Can Globalization Affect Income Distribution? Evidence from Developing Countries

ABSTRACT

The standard Hecksher-Ohlin-Samuelson framework claimed that foreign trade benefits developing countries, but many empirical studies suggest otherwise. After analyzing data on income deciles from the World Income Distribution Database for 66 developing countries, we found that trade openness benefits underprivileged people in affluent countries but not in developing countries. Also, external financial flows and democracy in conjunction do not exert significant effects, suggesting that these variables might affect income distribution through different channels. Finally, we reinforce the Kuznets inverted-U hypothesis; namely, the presence of an economic development threshold beyond which low-income deciles would increase.