Identification of a basket peg: the model specification controversy

A controversy has been triggered by the Chinese exchange rate regime shift from a single currency peg to an alleged basket peg. The controversy is about the specification of the model used to represent the basket as three models have been used: levels, log levels and first log differences. It is suggested that one way to confirm the validity or otherwise of a model is to use data on the special drawing rights exchange rate since the currency weights are known. The results show that the estimated weights are almost identical no matter which model and which numeraire is used. However, nonnested model selection criteria show that the best model is that written in levels, simply because this is what is used in practice by central banks adopting basket pegs.     

Exchange rate volatility–economic growth nexus in Uganda

The global financial crisis has disrupted trade and capital flows in most developing economies, resulting in an increased volatility of exchange rates. We develop an autoregressive distributed lag model to investigate the effect of exchange rate volatility on economic growth in Uganda. Using data spanning the period 1960–2011, we find that exchange rate volatility positively affects economic growth in Uganda in both the short run and the long run. However, in the short run, political instability negatively moderates the exchange rate volatility–economic growth nexus. These results are robust to alternative specifications of the economic growth model.     

一个时变系数协整回归模型及应用研究

本文通过扩展现有Johansen协整回归模型,允许协整回归模型的系数具有时变特性,并且利用切比雪夫时间多项式来模型化时变系数,提出一个能够捕捉平滑时间转换的时变误差修正模型,并利用极大似然法进行估计。此外,本文还构建了一个用于检验Johansen非时变协整作为原假设的似然比检验,并推断其渐近服从卡方分布。最后应用本文所提出的时变系数协整回归模型检验了人民币汇率购买力平价,结果表明人民币对美元名义汇率、国内消费者价格指数以及美国消费者价格指数之间存在时变协整关系,但系数的符号与理论预期不一致。     

Better the devil you know: The influence of political incumbency on Australian financial market uncertainty

The Australian federal election cycle, which occurs approximately every 3 years, causes much media attention and invokes indecision regarding investment decisions in both the real economy and financial markets. This paper constructs measures of political uncertainty and formally explores their relationship with market uncertainty, as measured by implied volatility. The empirical evidence suggests that increasing (decreasing) levels of uncertainty around the election result induce higher (lower) levels of market uncertainty. In a case of the market preferring the devil it knows, an increasing (decreasing) likelihood of the incumbent party, whose economic policies are well-known, winning the election, reduces market uncertainty. The results remain significant even after controlling for a number of macroeconomic variables, and when an alternative GARCH framework is considered.     

Do exchange rate changes have symmetric or asymmetric effects on the trade balance? Evidence from U.S.–Korea commodity trade

Previous studies of the effects of exchange rate changes on Korea’s trade balance have assumed symmetry between currency depreciation and appreciation. In this paper, we distinguish between the two to show that the effects at the industry level are in fact asymmetrical in most industries for Korea’s bilateral trade with the U.S. We employ an auto-regressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach using quarterly data for the period 1989–2014 for the 79 3-digit industries in which trade between Korea and the U.S. took place. Overall, our model incorporating differentiated responses for appreciation versus depreciation reveals a more significant impact of the exchange rate on commodity trade between Korea and the U.S. than a more standard model that imposes symmetry.     

Time varying pass-through: Will the yen depreciation help Japan hit the inflation target?

This paper argues that the exchange rate could be a powerful transmission channel of the effects of ongoing “unconventional” monetary policies in Japan. It is shown that exchange rate pass-through to domestic prices, once considered near-extinct, has come back strong in recent years. This is especially true for those items that households purchase frequently. Evidence based on VARs as well as TVP-VARs indicates that a 25% depreciation of the yen would produce a 2% increase in the prices of those items. This could have an additional benefit of raising the public’s expectation about future inflation, as their beliefs are often said to be influenced by their daily observations about prices of those items that they buy frequently.     

Outlook无法访问Exchange邮箱问题的解决对策

随着计算机网络的飞速发展，Exchange邮件服务器的应用也日渐广泛。而在众多的客户端软件中基于Exchange2007邮件系统首先客户端应是Microsoft Outlook。文章介绍了如何解决Microsoft Outlook无法访问Exchange邮箱的问题。     

论欧元汇率波动：一个欧美博弈视角

欧元自1999年面世以来,其走势和前景引起众人关注,许多人纷纷利用购买力平价等各种汇率决定理论对其汇率走势进行预测,然而其汇率变化仍然出乎意料,欧元从最初的一路狂跌,到2002年以来强劲上扬。传统经济学理论无法预测和解释欧元的波动,而欧美博弈,尤其是美国政府的态度,对于欧元的波动影响颇大。欧元虽然潜力巨大,但是冲击美元的霸主地位尚需时日。     

The real dollar-yen exchange rate,asymmetries in trade flows and the current account in a perfect-foresight model for developing East Asia

This paper explores permanent, unanticipated shocks in the yen-dollar exchange rate in a perfect-foresight, infinite-horizon, representative-agent model for an open, semismall economy that produces a single good, imports intermediate inputs and investment goods from Japan and competes with Japan in external markets. Therefore, the model captures some of the features of the developing countries of East Asia. External debt is constrained by a country-risk premium that depends on the level of external debt. The capital stock is maintained and incremented by an endogenous mixture of Japanese and home goods. An appreciation of the dollar against the yen is neutral for external indebtedness and the trade account in the long run, but raises the capital stock, consumption and hence welfare in the long run; the home currency depreciates against the dollar but appreciates against the yen. Whether a cycle of current account surpluses followed by current account deficits or vice versa is generated depends on the initial response of the shadow value of external debt.