The new exchange rate policy in the Asian emerging economies – goodbye trouble,hello comfort?

In this paper, we discuss new aspects of exchange rate policy that can be observed in the Asian emerging economies. In the first place, we show the alternative regimes they may choose and their respective pros and cons. Secondly, we concentrate on the recent strategy of systematic undervaluation of one's currency – figuring prominently among ‘big’ Asian players such as China and India – and the most likely implications of such a strategy for domestic allocation, distribution and stabilization goals. With the background of Germany's experiences in 1969, almost on the eve of the Bretton Woods' system collapse, we model a speculative attack on an undervalued currency in the vein of the Flood–Garber seminal paper from 1984. Now, however, the country in concern (just like India and China) possesses strong rather than weak fundamentals. The continuous accumulation of international reserves, in addition, leads to the question of an ‘optimal management’ of foreign exchange reserves in Asian emerging economies with regard to size and composition. We finally propose a sequence of reforms/policies that should be implemented in those Asian emerging economies on their still long journey to a regime featured by autonomous monetary policy, flexible exchange rate and capital mobility. A brief summary and an outlook for future research close the paper.     

The determinants of foreign direct investment into European transition economies

Using a panel dataset of bilateral flows of foreign direct investment (FDI), we study the determinants of FDI from Western countries, mainly in the European Union (EU), to Central and Eastern European ones. We find the most important influences to be unit labor costs, gravity factors, market size, and proximity. Interestingly, host country risk proves not to be a significant determinant. Our empirical work also indicates that announcements about EU Accession proposals have an impact on FDI for the future member countries. Journal of Comparative Economics 32 (4) (2004) 775–787.     

Volatility in the knowledge economy

Summary. We seek to explain the economic volatility of the last 6 years, in particular the rapid expansion and contraction of the knowledge sectors. Our hypothesis is that these sectors amplify the business cycle due to their increasing returns to scale, growing faster than others in an upswing and contracting faster in a downswing. To test this hypothesis we postulate a general equilibrium model with two sectors: one with increasing returns that are external to the firm and endogenously determined - the knowledge sector - and the other with constant returns to scale. We introduce a new measure of volatility of output, a real beta, and derive a resolving equation, from which we prove that the increasing return sectors exhibit more volatility then other sectors. We validate the main results on US macro economic data of real GDP by industry (2-3 digits SIC codes) of the 1977-2001 period, and provide policy conclusions.Received: 18 March 2002, Revised: 16 February 2004, JEL Classification Numbers: D5, D58, E10, L50, L52, O38, O51.Correspondence to: Graciela Chichilnisky     

Ex ante contracting with endogenously determined communication plans

Summary. In this paper we introduce a new model of ex ante contracting for economies with asymmetric information to examine endogenously determined communication plans for information sharing in the interim stage. In contrast to the models used in previous research, in the present model agents negotiate not only on a contract of state contingent allocations but also on a communication plan, a set of rules describing how agents will reveal part of their private information at the interim stage to execute the trade contracts. We prove a result about the nested structure of the set of allocations implementable by various communication plans and establish the existence of core strategies for this cooperative game under various regularity conditions. Received: 4 March 1998; revised version: 17 September 1999     

Trade Structure and Trade liberalization: The emerging pattern between the EU and Transition Economies

The purpose of this study is to find empirical evidence for the assumption that trade liberalization unlocks the potential of the Transition Economies (TEs) to achieve technological upgrading, productivity progress and catching-up (in terms of income). The study examines the trade structure now emerging between the European Union (EU) and the TEs in the light of two sets of differently liberalized trade items identified by the European Agreements. The aim is to determine whether trade liberalization has helped to supersede the structures – reflected mainly in the low quality of products – inherited by the TEs from the command economy. The empirical results are interpreted in the light of the Flam-Helpman quality-cycle model. We find evidence of an ongoing division of labor between high quality products (EU) and low quality products (TEs) according to a cycle. The first stage comprises the already well established dominance of quality advantage products by EU countries producing and exporting high-quality products, which crowd out the TEs' production of similar products. The second stage is the exploitation of cost-advantages by TEs in less liberalized trade, and there they appear to achieve better results. All these results may be taken as support for an active government in TEs.     

现代国际贸易理论对中国对外贸易发展的启示

萨缪尔森认为在全球化进程中,中国在美国原来具有比较优势的领域里的技术进步,会导致美国贸易条件的恶化和福利的下降。但从现实数据看,中国在劳动密集型产品的出口扩大恶化了中国的贸易条件。从长远看,中国基于廉价劳动力为基础的纵向对外贸易的比重将逐步下降,而基于规模经济为基础的横向贸易的地位将逐渐上升。     

International Economies of Scale and the Gains from Trade

In this paper, we present a two-country trade model with external economies of scale that emerge on an international level but are partially localized in each country. First, we show that the larger country exports the good produced in an industry with external economies of scale in the trading equilibrium. Second, we investigate the welfare effects of trade for the following two cases: (I) the case where external economies are completely localized in autarky; (II) the case where external economies are internationally effective in autarky. In case (II), it is shown that trade can be welfare-decreasing for both countries.     

货币政策的国际溢出效应与国际协调研究进展

随着世界各国经济活动关联程度的不断增强,一国货币政策变动对其他国家经济社会发展的影响越来越显著,国家间的货币政策协调也愈加重要。在此背景下,有关货币政策国际溢出效应的研究日益丰富,货币政策的国际协调也逐渐受到关注。本文对货币政策国际溢出效应及国际协调领域的现有文献进行回顾和展望。从货币政策国际溢出效应研究的发展历程来看,1990年以前相关研究主要基于开放条件下的宏观经济模型及博弈论等进行理论探讨,1990年至2000年多数研究开始借助动态随机一般均衡模型和经济计量模型探究货币政策国际溢出效应的传导机制和渠道,2000年以后越来越多的研究将理论应用于对现实经济问题的解释,其中以探讨中心国家货币政策的国际溢出效应为主。从货币政策国际溢出效应的研究方法来看,相关研究大多通过控制货币政策的内生变化来获取货币政策的外生冲击,主流研究方法也逐渐从基于MFD模型的纯理论分析转向基于VAR系列模型的实证分析和具有一致性框架的DSGE模型分析。从货币政策国际溢出效应的传导渠道来看,早期文献大多认为汇率和贸易是主要渠道,随着全球经济金融一体化的推进,金融渠道的作用日益凸显,且比汇率渠道和贸易渠道传导更加迅速、后果更为严重,并逐渐成为近些年研究的重点。由于货币政策的国际协调在实践中存在一定难度以及经济下行压力较大下的货币政策调整空间较小,目前关于货币政策国际协调的研究相对较少,而且相关研究的观点并不统一。大部分学者认为随着世界经济联动趋势的不断增强,货币政策国际协调是必然趋势并有利于各国经济发展,而部分学者认为政策协调需要花费大量的时间和政治成本,货币政策的国际协调应慎重。现有研究已经取得丰硕成果,但仍需进一步深化和拓展：一是大多数文献仅考察中心国家货币政策对外围国家（新兴经济体）的单向溢出效应,有必要进一步考察货币政策的双向国际溢出效应;二是关于金融渠道的研究还不够完善,尤其是对货币政策不确定性冲击、全球金融风险传递等的研究较少,相关研究需要深化;三是关于货币政策国际协调的研究较少且观点不统一,尤其是对政策协调的有效路径缺乏系统研究,相关研究有待加强。中国学者应加强该领域的研究,尤其要在中国货币政策的国际溢出效应及其传导渠道、应对国外货币政策溢出效应的有效政策工具、促进货币政策的国际协调等方面取得突破。     

新兴经济体FDI流入的决定因素及中国的应对策略

吸引FDI流入是新兴经济体促进经济发展的重要手段,但FDI活动深受东道国区位因素的广泛影响。利用1995-2009年的面板数据,对新兴经济体吸引FDI流入的决定因素进行实证分析,结果表明:FDI与东道国聚集效应、市场规模、基础设施、资源禀赋、经济开放度显著正相关,但与东道国人力资本和政治风险负相关。因此,中国应该强化FDI的区域聚集效应、行业聚集效应和特定投资来源地聚集效应,保持经济稳定、持续的增长,加大对落后地区的基础设施建设的投入,构建全方位的对外开放体系和引资战略,实现经济持续快速发展。     

Law and credit constraints in transition economies1

Using a survey of over 4,000 firms in 21 transition economies, this paper investigates how legal extensiveness (law on the books) and legal effectiveness (law in practice) affect availability of bank finance. Our findings suggest that both law on the books and law in practice are important, but that they impact firms of different sizes differently. Small firms appear to be the most credit constrained in countries with weak creditor rights and with weak contract enforcement, while large firms are the most credit constrained in countries with weak courts and unclear and inconsistent laws pertaining to firms’ business operations.