Inflation,interest and exchange rates in the transition1

Central and Eastern European economies have made extraordinary progress in their trade and exchange regimes. Surprisingly, instant convertibility was established for a great variety of exchange rate regimes. In spite of diversity, all these countries have followed a common pattern: severe initial undervaluation - the cost of speed and unrestricted trade - followed by rapid real revaluation and incipient protectionism. Since 1994 in many cases an embarrass de richesse has appeared: high capital inflows which are either inflationary or costly to sterilize. A major cause of these flows - or at any rate of the high cost of sterilization - is the presence of significant interest rate differentials higher than required to cover the risk of devaluation. These are the necessary consequence of a policy of positive real interest rates and of real revaluation from excessively undervalued exchange rates. Lower interest rates are recommended, both to stem financial capital inflows and to reduce the cost of their sterilization.     

Sources of Bank Interest Rate Risk

We investigate bank stocks'sensitivity to changes in interest rates and the factors affecting this sensitivity. We focus on whether the exposure of commercial banks to interest rate risk is conditioned on certain balance sheet and income statement ratios. We find a significantly negative relation between bank stock returns and changes in interest rates over the period 1991–1996. We also find that bank characteristics measured from basic financial statement information explain bank stocks'sensitivity to interest rate changes. These results suggest that bank managers, analysts, and regulators can use this information to assess the relative risk exposure of banks.     

When to accept a sequence of gambles

When is a sequence of gambles, which is initially rejected eventually accepted? The eventual acceptance is defined as a pair property between the utility function and the sequences of gambles. A sequence of gambles is accepted when the gambles follow a large deviation principle and the utility function is non-satiated and bounded from below in a certain way. The number of gambles required for acceptance is computed.     

Likelihood-based specification analysis of continuous-time models of the short-term interest rate

An extensive collection of continuous-time models of the short-term interest rate is evaluated over data sets that have appeared previously in the literature. The analysis, which uses the simulated maximum likelihood procedure proposed by Durham and Gallant (2002), provides new insights regarding several previously unresolved questions. For single factor models, I find that the volatility, not the drift, is the critical component in model specification. Allowing for additional flexibility beyond a constant term in the drift provides negligible benefit. While constant drift would appear to imply that the short rate is nonstationary, in fact, stationarity is volatility-induced. The simple constant elasticity of volatility model fits weekly observations of the three-month Treasury bill rate remarkably well but is easily rejected when compared with more flexible volatility specifications over daily data. The methodology of Durham and Gallant can also be used to estimate stochastic volatility models. While adding the latent volatility component provides a large improvement in the likelihood for the physical process, it does little to improve bond-pricing performance.     

市场拥挤、财政支出和税后资本平均产出关系分析

税后资本平均产出的高低对私人部门投资决策产生重要影响,但是我国自1994年分税制改革以来,税后资本平均产出处于不断下降趋势,与此同时,财政支出规模呈不断扩大趋势。本文在财政支出解决市场拥挤框架下分析了财政支出对税后资本平均产出的影响,在理论分析中,说明财政通过增加支出缓解市场拥挤来影响税后资本平均产出,其影响程度由税率、财政支出的产出弹性、市场拥挤程度决定。在实证分析中,计量检验了世界范围内和中国地方政府财政支出对税后资本平均产出的影响,并结合现实对计量结果给予解释。     

新兴市场国家的汇率波动与出口:一个经验分析

现有的中外文献已经对发达国家间的汇率波动与贸易之间的关系做了很多相关分析，但就汇率波动与贸易之间的关系没有取得一致性的结论。本文利用协整分析和误差修正模型，针对新兴市场国家的汇率波动与出口的关系进行了经验分析，结论是：汇率波动会在一定程度上抑制新兴市场国家的出口，但对某些新兴市场国家出口的影响并不明显，其影响程度随一国经济发展水平、经济规模和开放度的差异而有所区别。     

利率市场化能降低企业营运风险吗?——基于融资约束和企业金融化的双重视角

如何提高金融服务实体经济的结构性调节功能并促进企业有序运营与健康发展是金融供给侧结构性改革的重要目标。利率市场化改革作为金融领域最重要的改革之一,其在微观层面如何影响实体经济运行引起了高度关注。本文首先从理论上诠释了利率市场化通过缓解融资约束、抑制金融化进而降低企业营运风险的逻辑关系。为识别利率市场化与企业营运风险之间的因果效应,本文以中国人民银行2004年10月取消金融机构贷款利率上限和2013年7月取消金融机构贷款利率下限为外生冲击,基于融资约束差异构造准自然实验为上述理论推断提供经验证据。特别地,利率市场化每增加1单位标准差,企业营运风险平均约下降样本标准差的2.39%。异质性分析表明,利率市场化对企业营运风险的抑制效应在融资约束程度较高、行业竞争程度较高、投资机会较多的企业中尤为明显。本文研究对于进一步优化资源配置效率、实现金融与实体经济高质量发展具有一定参考意义。     

移动支付对中国家庭储蓄率的影响

中国的高储蓄问题由来已久,降低家庭储蓄率、提高消费有助于形成以国内大循环为主体、国内国际双循环相互促进的新发展格局。本文基于2017年和2019年中国家庭金融调查(CHFS)数据,实证研究了移动支付对中国家庭储蓄率的影响。结果表明,移动支付显著降低了家庭储蓄率。进一步研究发现,缓解流动性约束、信贷约束和扩大社会网络是移动支付降低家庭储蓄率的主要途径。此外,移动支付显著降低家庭为应对健康风险、医疗风险、失业风险、收入风险等不确定性而进行的预防性储蓄。地区异质性分析显示,移动支付对家庭储蓄率的影响在西部地区、四五线城市、农村地区更大。家庭特征异质性分析显示,移动支付对家庭储蓄率的影响在农业户口家庭、中低收入家庭、低受教育水平家庭中效果更加突出。本文研究为理解中国高储蓄问题提供了新的视角,可为制定相关政策提供参考依据。     

公开市场操作与利率期限结构行为——基于混频数据信息的研究视角

在混频数据信息环境中,精准识别公开市场操作(央行政策利率)和国债收益率曲线(基准利率体系)之间的关联机制至关重要,其影响了货币政策期限结构传导的有效性。本文在混频Nelson-Siegel(N-S)利率期限结构模型框架下,引入央行政策利率,揭示公开市场操作与利率期限结构(水平、斜率、曲度)因子之间的作用机制。实证结果表明:混频数据信息条件下,引入的公开市场操作信息显著改进国债收益率曲线的拟合效果;斜率因子冲击对公开市场操作具有显著的正向影响,而利率期限结构因子对政策调控的反应不敏感。进一步研究表明,2015年以来,公开市场操作对斜率因子的影响逐渐扩大,政策利率向国债收益率曲线的传导效率得到显著提高,我国现代货币政策框架日益健全。     

2006年诺贝尔经济学奖得主菲尔普斯理论述评

本文介绍了2006年诺贝尔经济学奖得主埃德蒙·菲尔普斯的主要理论贡献。他在宏观经济政策跨期权衡分析、“黄金律”与经济增长、宏观经济政策的“短期—长期”分析、“自然率”、构建宏观经济学的微观基础,以及结构性萧条与繁荣等诸多领域进行了开创性的研究。菲尔普斯的理论和主张对西方经济理论和经济政策的研究都有十分重大的影响,对我国宏观经济问题和政策的研究有一定借鉴意义。