The evolving renminbi regime and implications for Asian currency stability

The Chinese authorities described the management of the renminbi after its 2005 unpegging from the US dollar as involving a basket of trading partner currencies. Outside analysts have detected few signs of such management. We find that, in the 2 years from mid-2006 to mid-2008, the renminbi strengthened gradually against trading partners’ currencies within a narrow band. In mid-2008, the financial crisis interrupted this experiment and the bilateral renminbi/dollar exchange rate stabilised at 6.8. The 2006-2008 experience suggests that a shared policy of gradual nominal effective appreciation renders East Asian currencies quite stable against one another. Such a shared policy would create favourable conditions for regional monetary cooperation.     

Complementary credit networks and macroeconomic stability: Switzerland's Wirtschaftsring

The Swiss Wirtschaftsring (“Economic Circle”) credit network, founded in 1934, provides residual spending power that is highly counter-cyclical. Individuals are cash-short in a recession, and economize by greater use of WIR-credits. A money in the production function (MIPF) specification implies that transactions in WIR form a stabilizing balance that makes up for the lack of ordinary currency. Thus, unlike the ordinary money, WIR money is negatively correlated with GDP in the short run. This implication is confirmed by empirical estimates. Such credit networks play a stabilizing role that should be considered in monetary policy.     

The Determinants of Foreign Currency Hedging–Evidence from Hong Kong Non-Financial Firms

Hong Kong is one of the largest trading economies in the world. Business opportunities attract the presence of more and more multinational companies and different currencies. Hedging currency risks has become an important and vital activity for a success business entity in Hong Kong. This paper empirically tests the determinants of foreign currency hedging for a large sample of Hong Kong non-financial firms. The findings are potentially useful for increasing firms’ economic benefit and shareholders’ wealth as well as improving the economic efficiency of currency hedging for companies in Hong Kong as well as in the mainland of China. JEL classification: F30, G32, G33     

内外部条件视角下的人民币国际化

本文认为人民币国际化受到内外条件的约束,短期内不具有可行性。对于一个发展中的大国,人民币国际化的压力反映了中国经济发展战略调整的必要性,而不能成为盲目推动人民币国际化的理由。     

Currency Substitution and Money Demand in Euroland

This paper tests the stability of the demand for money in the euro-area in the context of an open economy. A sample consisting of quarterly data covering the 1982:2–1999:3 period is considered. The main finding is that the U.S. dollar long-term interest rate plays a significant role in the European money demand relationship. This result holds for different combinations of variables forming the vector auto-regressive system and suggests that international monetary interdependency may be an important factor influencing the ECB monetary policy.This paper draws on an earlier version and was prepared while the author was at the Bank of Portugal (the usual disclaimer applies). It was presented at the 2003 Meeting of the Economic Modelling Network. The author acknowledges Luis Catela Nunes, Carlos Santos, Carlos Robalo Marques, Nuno Alves, and an anonymous referee for their helpful suggestions.     

Currency Unions: Some Lessons from the Euro-Zone

Whilst there are many sizeable benefits from currency union, the main disadvantage is often the difficulty of adjusting to an asymmetric shock. Such adjustment is easier when the separate countries (regions) in such a union have flexible labour markets, and when there is a federal fiscal system to ease the adjustment process. The euro-zone has neither. We show that the trends in relative unit labour costs have in several recent cases been worsening relative competitiveness, thereby putting the euro-zone under greater centrifugal pressure. Nevertheless the costs of ‘exit’ are so high that it would only probably occur as a consequence of political mis-calculation.

为什么我国国际收支自动调节机制会失灵

自1994年人民币汇率并轨以来，我国几乎连续保持了经常项目和资本项目双顺差的国际收支格局．这种规模顺差的持续存在，实际上已表明了我国国际收支自动调节机制根本不起作用，从而无法有效化解对人民币越来越大的升值压力。因此，本文拟考察国际收支自动调节机制的运作原理，试图解开它在我国失灵的根源，以寻求调节我国国际收支失衡，化解人民币升值压力的有效方法。