Optimal foreign debt for Egypt: A stochastic control approach

This study assesses the foreign debt policy in Egypt and contrasts it versus the optimal policy during the period 1985–2008. It also presents a forecast of the optimal debt during the period 2009–2014. The optimal debt policy was derived using an open economy model for Egypt. The uncertainties in the model stem from the uncertainties in the interest or debt service payments and the uncertainties in the rate of return on investments. The stochastic control approach was used to find the optimal debt policy. It was found that Egypt could borrow externally as long as the trend in the rate of return on investments exceeds the trend in the real interest rate or the trend in the rate of the debt service payments. The analysis finds that Egypt's foreign debt was higher than the optimal level before 1997. After 1997, foreign debt seems to converge to the optimal level. However, Egypt's foreign debt is still below its optimal level which results in an opportunity cost for the economy to grow, otherwise, GDP could have recorded a favorable increase.     

双边WTO协议对我国外贸制度的影响

与WTO成员举行双边谈判是“入世”的必要程序，谈判结果体现为中国的“承诺”，构成了中国“入世”的基本条件，并净引发我国外贸制度的改革，例如，对外贸主体范围的限制将逐步取消，外贸权与内贸权将逐步融合，数额管理和许可证管理的任意性将受到限制，服务领域将成为对外开放的主要领域等等。此外，政府外贸管理的力度将逐步减弱，外贸服务的职能将日益加强。总之，本文试图说明：加入WTO对我国贸易经济带来的挑战正在步步逼近。     

International Rent Sharing and Domestic Labour Markets: A Macroeconomic Analysis

Compared to international trade relations relatively little is known about the role foreign direct investment linkages play in the transmission of disturbances from one country to the next. Inspired by the microevidence on profit sharing within multinational corporations and within industries, we investigate for six countries whether a cross-border rent-sharing phenomenon can be identified at the macroeconomic level. The rent-sharing hypothesis implies that an increase in foreign profitability should boost wages and/or employment in the domestic economy. We find corroborative evidence for Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. US labour market conditions, by contrast, are not affected by changes in profitability in other countries. JEL no. E32, F23, F40, J23, J31     

外国直接投资对我国税收正负影响的实证分析

本文实证分析了外国直接投资对我国税收的正负影响.结论认为,虽然外国直接投资极大地促进了我国税收的增长,但给予外资较高程度的税收优惠也在一定程度上侵蚀了我国的税基,减少了我国的税收收入.由于税收优惠并非吸引外资的显著因素,有必要分步骤地进行现有税收制度改革,最终统一内外资企业的税收制度.     

Foreign Direct Investment,Transactions Linkages,and the Performance of the Domestic Sector

Using data from the UK Census of Production, including foreign ownership data, and information from UK industry input-output tables, this paper examines whether the intensity of transactions linkages between foreign and domestic firms affects productivity growth in domestic manufacturing industries. The implications of the findings for policies promoting linkages between multinational and domestic firms in the UK economy are outlined.     

Transnational corporations' strategies and foreign trade patterns in MERCOSUR countries in the 1990s

Market-seeking strategies predominate in the recent FDI boomin MERCOSUR countries. In the trade performance of transnationalcorporation affiliates a sort of ‘asymmetric integration’is clearly visible: they produce for the internal market and,to some extent, for the regional one, while import inputs andfinal goods from developed countries (and a significant partof these trade flows is intra-firm). Thus, even if affiliatesobtained productivity gains in the 1990s, they have not yetbeen reflected in a significant increase in exports, and evenless in extra-regional exports. Hence, the foreign direct investmentboom seemingly has not yet contributed to a better insertionof MERCOSUR countries into the world economy.     

GDP growth and currency valuation: The case of the dollar

One popular view on the strength of the US dollar around the turn of the century is that the higher growth in the US compared to Europe had stimulated foreigners to buy American assets, thereby driving up the exchange rate. In this paper a modified portfolio balance model is presented, in which it is shown that the impact of output growth on the exchange rate depends crucially on the origin of this growth. An improvement of the output gap is shown to actually depress the exchange rate whereas an increase in potential output growth leads to an appreciation, especially if this improvement is likely to be persistent. In an empirical example, it is shown that the equilibrium real dollar rate is indeed positively affected by high trend growth in the US, whereas it is negatively affected by a positive output gap. The model outperforms the random walk in forecasting future real dollar rates one to eight quarters ahead.     

Corporate cash flow and stock price exposures to foreign exchange rate risk

This paper estimates the foreign exchange rate exposure of 6917 U.S. nonfinancial firms on the basis of stock prices and corporate cash flows. The results show that several firms are significantly exposed to at least one of the foreign exchange rates Canadian Dollar, Japanese Yen and Euro, and significant exposures are more frequent at longer horizons. The percentage of firms for which stock price and earnings exposures are significantly different is relatively low, though it increases with time horizon. Overall, the impact of exchange rate risk on stock prices and cash flows is similar and determined by a related set of economic factors.     

The informativeness of domestic and foreign investors’ stock trades: Evidence from the perfectly segmented Chinese market

This paper uses the perfect market segmentation setting in China's stock market to compare the information content of the stock trades of domestic and foreign investors. We study 76 firms that issue both A-shares (for domestic investors) and B-shares (for foreign investors) and compare the price discovery role of the two segmented markets in China. Before Feb 19, 2001, the A-share market led the B-share market in price discovery, as the signed volume and quote revision of the A-share market had strong predictive ability for B-share quote returns, but not vice versa. After Feb 19, 2001, because some domestic investors were allowed to invest in the B-share market, we find evidence for a reverse causality from the B-share to the A-share market. Nevertheless, the [Hasbrouck (1995). One security, many markets: determining the contributions to price discovery, Journal of Finance 50, 1175–1199.] information share analysis reveals that A-shares continue to dominate the price discovery process.     

中国外汇储备与货币供给量的关系——基于双对数模型

2001年以来,持续的双顺差促使外汇储备量迅速积累,人民币升值压力增大,为了维持人民币汇率的稳定,政府不得不加大货币投放量来回笼外汇市场上过多的外汇。通过建立外汇储备和货币供给量(M1、M2)之间的双对数模型,进行实证分析得出结论:外汇储备的增加确实推动了中国货币供应量的增加,并且外汇储备变动给M1带来的影响大于M2。因此,应适当控制外汇储备规模消除外汇储备超额增长的制度性原因,完善货币政策工具,积极进行金融创新。