The time-to-maturity pattern of futures price sensitivity to news

This paper examines the effect time-to-maturity has on how sensitive futures prices are to news flows. Unscheduled daily news flows that relate to the underlying asset of a futures contract are related to the daily realized volatility of futures to calculate a price-news sensitivity ratio. The observed pattern follows an inverted U-shape relationship and has a bearing on whether the maturity effect will be noticeable in a futures contract. This paper also shows that by examining the peak-to-maturity of the price sensitivity to news pattern, it is possible to better identify which contracts are more likely to yield higher volatility.     

Forecasting using heterogeneous panels with cross-sectional dependence

In this paper, we focus on forecasting methods that use heterogeneous panels in the presence of cross-sectional dependence in terms of both spatial error dependence and common factors. We propose two main approaches to estimating the factor structure: a residuals-based approach, and an approach that uses a panel of auxiliary variables to extract the factors. Small sample properties of the proposed methods are investigated through Monte Carlo simulations and applied to predict house price inflation in OECD countries.     

The effect of oil price shocks on asset markets: Evidence from oil inventory news

We quantify the reaction of U.S. equity, bond futures, and exchange rate returns to oil price shocks driven by oil inventory news. Across most sectors, equity prices decrease in response to higher oil prices before the 2007/2008 crisis but increase after it. Positive oil price shocks cause a depreciation of the U.S. dollar against a broad range of currencies but have only a modest effect on bond futures returns. The evidence suggests that changes in risk premia help to explain the time-varying effect of oil price shocks on U.S. equity returns.     

Impact of macroeconomic surprises on the Brazilian yield curve and expected inflation

This study investigates how unexpected announcements in Brazilian and U.S. macroeconomic indicators affect the term structure of nominal interest rates, as well as implicit inflation expectations and real interest rates. Using daily data from March 2005 to December 2012, we employ an extended Vector Error Correction Model to take into account nonstationarity and the long-term equilibrium among different maturities of those curves. We found empirical evidence that macroeconomic surprises, domestic (Brazilian) and external (U.S. American), which lead the market to believe that there might be a higher risk of inflation or an overheated economy, raise nominal interest rates, implicit expected inflation and real interest rates. Surprisingly, in relation to the efficient-market hypothesis, we found that some macroeconomic surprises have a lagged effect on the yield curves. We also tested the impact of the global financial crisis of 2007–09 and found that the crisis affected significantly the direction and magnitude of the responses to macroeconomic news.     

The determinants of commercial banking profitability in low-, middle-, and high-income countries

Using a broad bank-level dataset and the GMM estimator technique described by Arellano and Bover (1995), this paper analyses how bank-specific characteristics, macroeconomic variables, and industry-specific factors affect the profitability of 10,165 commercial banks across 118 countries over the period from 1998 to 2012. Grouping the countries according to three income levels, we show that the determinants of bank profitability included in our model can explain existing profitability differences among commercial banks in low-, middle-, and high-income countries. The profitability determinants vary quite widely across the different levels of income in terms of significance, sign and size of the effect. The level of income has thus an important impact on the determinants of bank profitability.     

Central banks and macroeconomic policy choices: Relaxing the trilemma

Macroeconomic policy choices in open economies are constrained by the trilemma according to which the objectives of exchange rate stability, monetary independence and capital mobility cannot be attained jointly. This paper shows that foreign exchange interventions provide an effective instrument to relax the trilemma. An active reserve policy allows central banks to pursue independent monetary and exchange rate policies when the capital account is liberalised.We use the framework of the portfolio balance model to show that exchange market interventions may substitute for capital controls. Both allow a country to achieve the other two objectives of the trilemma. Our empirical analysis of a large country panel data set covering the period 1970–2010 confirms this theoretical insight: the weighted sum of the three trilemma objectives increases in the degree of foreign exchange market intervention. The capacity to relax the trilemma constraint has increased over time and has been most effective in emerging markets.     

The response of U.S. natural gas futures and spot prices to storage change surprises: Fundamental information and the effect of escalating physical gas production

We study the behavior of U.S. natural gas futures and spot prices on and around the weekly announcements by the U.S. Energy Information Administration of the amount of natural gas in storage. We identify an inverse empirical relation between changes in futures prices and surprises in the change in natural gas in storage and that this relation is not driven by the absolute size of the surprise. The evidence also indicates prices react first in the futures market for natural gas with that information then flowing to the spot market. Post 2005, corresponding to a period of significant increases in the production of natural gas in the United States, the response of prices to storage surprises was larger in absolute value. No evidence is found of economically meaningful reactions to the surprise other than on the date the storage news is released. The results demonstrate the importance of fundamental information in the formation of natural gas prices.     

浅析宏观经济政策对金融市场的影响

近几年来,国内经济的发展可谓势头猛增,国家出台了一系列的宏观经济政策,这些宏观经济政策对我国金融市场的发展具有一定的影响。本文就国家的宏观经济政策对我国的金融市场产生的影响进行浅析评论。     

湖南宏观经济模型与经济波动

针对湖南经济波动的剧烈程度高于全国这一事实,建立一个湖南经济波动的预警模型.同时以政府消费和出口为先决变量,以GDP、居民消费和投资为内生变量,利用3SLS法建立一个联立方程组作为湖南的宏观经济模型.模型分析表明,政府消费对GDP等重要变量的乘数效应较大,因而应加大对政府消费的调控.在此基础上,结合ARMA模型和宏观经济波动模型对2010年以前的GDP、消费和投资增长率进行预测,通过系统化分析方法量化以上变量的无警区间,结果表明湖南未来几年的GDP、消费和投资波动将趋于稳定.     

收入分配、金融发展与宏观风险：一个文献综述

从收入分配角度解释金融危机是当前国际上正在热烈讨论的重要议题。本文旨在对这一研究领域的发展历程和最新进展做一个简单的综述。文章沿着收入分配研究的两条发展脉络——基于要素的收入分配理论和基于人际的收入分配理论——展开,并且分别考察了金融发展在两条路径的逻辑链条中起到的作用。最后,在回顾文献的基础上．提示出我国经济中潜在的宏观风险,得到对中国有借鉴意义的结论和启示。