Adaptation investments and homeownership

This article develops a model where ownership improves the efficiency of the housing market as it enhances the utility of housing consumption for some consumers. The model is based on an extended Hotelling–Lancaster utility approach in which the ideal variant of housing is obtainable only by adapting the home through a supplementary investment. Ownership offers low costs of adaptation, but has high contract costs compared with renting. Consumers simultaneously choose housing demand and tenure, and because of the different cost structure only consumers with strong preferences for individual adaptation of the home choose ownership. This article analyses the consumer’s optimization. The model provides an explanation for the observation that homeowners typically live in larger dwelling units than tenants. It also provides an explanation for a high price of housing services tending to reduce homeownership rates.     

The dynamic unsubstitutability of sterilization operations and neutral-intervention operations under dual exchange rates

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether neutral-intervention operations are a substitute for sterilization operations under the dual-exchange regime from the viewpoint of dynamic adjustment. It is found that both operations will generate quite different behavior throughout the adjustment process, although they are substitutable from the viewpoint of insulating money supply from the status of the current account. In addition, we also found that if the monetary authorities either intervene in the financial foreign exchange market or undertake sterilization operations in the open market, the dual-exchange regime will lose its insulation function to external financial disturbances.     

当前我国通货膨胀的成因分析及政策建议

我国CPI已连续13个月运行在6%以上,这意味着抑制通胀已成为我国政府亟待解决的问题。要有效抑制通胀,关键在于找到引起通胀的原因,再对症下药。本文首先简单介绍引起通胀的一般原因,然后,从我国经济管理制度演变的角度以及国际博弈的角度详细分析引起我国当前货币发行失控,进而引起我国持续通胀的原因。最后,对我国长期以来偏重外贸的经济发展战略和不合时宜的汇率制度提出改革建议,同时,这些建议也是控制我国当前通胀最为有效的措施。     

Biased valuations, damage assessments, and policy choices: The choice of measure matters

Damages from, for example, an oil spill can be measured by how much people are willing to pay to avoid them, or by the minimum compensation they demand to accept them; and decisions to clean up can be justified by the willingness to pay to do it or by the compensation necessary to forgo it. Contrary to the usual official and unofficial conventions that the choice of measure is of no matter, the empirical evidence and intuitions of most people strongly suggest otherwise. The appropriate choice of measure appears to turn, not on legal entitlements, but on the reference state people use to judge negative and positive changes — a criteria that is likely to call into question most estimates of the damages of increased health risks and the value of environmental mitigation efforts.     

Determinants of Swap Spreads in a Developing Financial Market: Evidence from Finland

This paper presents empirical evidence on the determinants of swap spreads in Finland using four years of data. Spreads exhibit a significant negative relationship with the amount of fixed rate deposits with banks, which reflects the importance of banks in the Finnish capital markets. Spreads are positively linked to business cycle and market risk factors such as the slope of the yield curve and the volatility of interest rates. The influence of hedging costs has become increasingly important over time, especially in longer dated swaps. A relationship is also observed between swap spreads and the external value of the currency.     

Impacts of price and exchange rate policies on pesticide use in the Philippines

Pesticide prices can influence producer decisions to apply pesticides as opposed to nonchemical means of pest control. Those prices are are turn influenced by price and exchange rate policies. The effective rate of protection for nine pesticides commonly applied to vegetables in the Philippines was calculated to determine whether government policies are creating incentives or disincentives to adopt more integrated pest management methods. Calculations found that direct price policies, primarily through an import tariff, tax pesticide use while an overvalued exchange rate subsidizes pesticide use. The net effect is a 6 to 8% pesticide subsidy. This subsidy results in economic surplus gains to vegetable producers and consumers when negative externalities associated with pesticide use are not accounted for. However, recent analysis of human health effects of pesticide use on rice in the Philippines demonstrates that these externalities can be substantial.     

Does the exchange rate regime matter for real shocks? Evidence from windstorms and earthquakes

Does the choice of exchange rate regime affect an economy's adjustment to real shocks? Exploiting the unpredictability and economic exogeniety of windstorms-hurricanes and typhoons-and earthquakes this paper assesses the often contrasting answers found in the theoretical literature. There is robust evidence that exchange rate flexibility helps an economy better adjust to real shocks. And consistent with the channels emphasized in the classic literature on exchange rates and shocks, differences in the behavior of the export sector help explain the different reactions between the two regimes.     

人民币汇率改革与外商直接投资的相关性分析

目前国内针对人民币汇率的研究很少涉及汇率与资本流动项目关系的研究，所得的结论大多都认为人民币汇率的贬值有利于我国的外商直接投资。本文探讨了汇率改革及相应的汇率变动在微观层面的影响，并对汇率改革前后外商直接投资变化的原因进行了分析。提出了发挥汇率改革的积极作用，促进外商直接投资健康有序地增长的建议。     

人民币实际汇率调整趋势与中国经济转型

1978年以来的人民币实际汇率呈现出长期的贬值态势,本文结合中国经济改革的历程深入分析了实际汇率贬值的内在机制,认为市场化进程中的制度变迁和技术进步是其根本原因。而目前经济的内外失衡所引发的实际汇率和名义汇率的升值压力,本质上是深层次市场化改革推进受阻后经济结构扭曲的外在表现。本文认为,以汇率形成机制改革为主要内容的名义的市场化改革只能缓解而无法根除这种压力,推行土地、劳动力和自然资源等要素价格在内的实际的市场改革才是纠正内外失衡,缓解汇率升值压力的治本之道。     

Mozambique Metical Exchange Rate Dynamics: Evidence of Fractional Co‐Integration in the USA and South African Rates

This paper studies the exchange rate dynamics of the Mozambique metical with respect to the US dollar and the South African rand. However, instead of using standard I(0)/I(1) techniques, we use long memory and fractionally integrated and co‐integrated models. Our results indicate that the two exchange rates are highly persistent, with orders of integration equal to or above 1. They also seem to be co‐integrated, with an order of integration close to albeit above 0 but with an AR coefficient very close to 1. Thus, although the two series seem to be fractionally co‐integrated, shocks in the long‐run relationship between the two variables are persistent and take a long time to disappear.