Country and currency diversification of bond investments: do they really make sense for Swiss investors?

The inclusion of hedged or unhedged foreign currency bonds within a strategic asset allocation is a crucial decision which should be analyzed carefully. The goal of this paper is to provide a contribution to this analysis by focusing particularly on the time horizon of the investment. Results are analyzed from the perspective of a Swiss investor. We find that over the last 21 years, investing in bonds denominated in Swiss Francs has been clearly less efficient in terms of risk-adjusted returns than investing in a hedged global bond portfolio. For short-term investors, we find robust evidence against the hypothesis of investing in unhedged foreign currency bonds. The picture changes dramatically, however, when we consider an investment horizon of 6 years and the normal case of balanced portfolios including also equities and domestic bonds. In this case, the optimal strategy for the period we analyzed would have been to hedge only the exposure to US dollar bonds.      

Optimal investments for risk- and ambiguity-averse preferences: a duality approach

Ambiguity, also called Knightian or model uncertainty, is a key feature in financial modeling. A recent paper by Maccheroni et al. (preprint, 2004) characterizes investor preferences under aversion against both risk and ambiguity. Their result shows that these preferences can be numerically represented in terms of convex risk measures. In this paper we study the corresponding problem of optimal investment over a given time horizon, using a duality approach and building upon the results by Kramkov and Schachermayer (Ann. Appl. Probab. 9, 904–950, 1999; Ann. Appl. Probab. 13, 1504–1516, 2003). Supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft through the SFB 649 “Economic Risk”.     

完善地方财政体制相关问题思考

地方财政体制的完善是目前中国财税体制改革的重点和难点之一.在论证多级地方财政体制存在必要性的基础上,分析了中国目前四级地方财政体制存在的问题,提出从政府级次和财政层次方面对其进行重新规划,并从事权和支出范围、财权以及转移支付制度三个方面对完善各级地方政府间的财政关系提出相应对策.     

中国GDP增长与CPI:关系、均衡与“十二五”预期目标调控

通货膨胀率和经济增长率之间动态关系的认识是宏观调控的基础,然而,目前在线性和静态的分析框架内未能揭示出通货膨胀和经济增长的复杂动态关系。本文运用1996—2009年GDP增长率、CPI与M2增长率的季度数据建立我国经济增长与通货膨胀的非线性动力系统模型(GDP-CPINLDS),揭示了我国最优的季度GDP增长率和CPI,以及零通货膨胀的季度GDP增长率。总体上,我国经济增长与通货膨胀处在次优化的非均衡运行状态,两者呈现出同向性变动的特点。最优调控实验表明,仅调节M2增长率不能完全实现"十二五"调控目标。文章建议"十二五"期间要以调控GDP增长为导向,以从紧货币政策为基础,配合多种调控手段,形成强有力的联合调控机制,以确保GDP增长率和CPI目标的最优实现。     

Optimal fiscal policy in the Uzawa-Lucas model with externalities

Summary. This paper devises a fiscal policy by means of which the first-best optimum equilibrium is attained as a market equilibrium in the Uzawa-Lucas model when average human capital has an external effect on productivity. The optimal policy requires the use of a subsidy to investment in human capital which can be financed by a tax on labor income. Lump-sum taxation is not required to balance the government budget either in the steady state or in the transitional phase. Physical capital income should not be taxed. Alternatively, the optimal growth path can be attained by means of a subsidy to human capital. Received: March 21, 2002; revised version: September 4, 2002 RID="*" ID="*" Financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology through PNICDYIT grant SEC2002-03663 is gratefully acknowledged.     

卖空机制的审计收费效应研究

卖空机制作为一种金融创新,如何在提高证券市场定价效率的同时,有效发挥外 部治理功能、改善公司治理、间接推动国内资本市场健康发展成为理论和实践中的一项重要 课题。运用多元回归模型对国内卖空机制改变审计风险、进而影响审计收费行为的实证检验表 明,随着股票卖空比率的上升,公司审计收费也相应增加。而股票卖空比率与公司审计费用受 制度环境影响显著,在市场化水平较高的地区,公司审计面临来自投资者更大的压力。此外, 公司审计收费与股票卖空比率的正相关关系会因卖空机制的存在变得更加显著。     

Optimal Taxes and Tariffs with Private Information

The implications of private information regarding a worker’s skills for optimal tax policy in an open economy are explored. Two cases are considered. In one general skills are private information and in the other sector-specific skills are private information. It is shown that for a small open economy tariffs and other equivalent trade distortions are not part of the optimal tax policy in either case. In both cases the optimal policy distorts the labor–leisure choice but only in the case of sector-specific skills as private information are labor allocation decisions distorted. For a large country, distortions that are equivalent to the standard optimal tariff formula characterize the optimal tax policy.

Limited asset markets participation, monetary policy and (inverted) aggregate demand logic

This paper incorporates limited asset markets participation in dynamic general equilibrium and develops a simple analytical framework for monetary policy analysis. Aggregate dynamics and stability properties of an otherwise standard business cycle model depend nonlinearly on the degree of asset market participation. While ‘moderate’ participation rates strengthen the role of monetary policy, low enough participation causes an inversion of results dictated by conventional wisdom. The slope of the ‘IS’ curve changes sign, the ‘Taylor principle’ is inverted, optimal welfare-maximizing discretionary monetary policy requires a passive policy rule and the effects and propagation of shocks are changed. However, a targeting rule implementing optimal policy under commitment delivers equilibrium determinacy regardless of the degree of asset market participation. Our results may justify Fed's behavior during the ‘Great Inflation’ period.     

The exchange rate and optimal monetary policy rules in open and developing economies: Some simple analytics

Using a simple, tractable model, this paper revisits and expands upon issues relating to optimal monetary policy rules (MPRs) in open economies. The optimality of the rule is explored through various specifications of a central bank loss function as it is the loss function that offers insight into central bank preferences. Many of the issues on this topic have centred on the role of the exchange rate: Is it optimal for the policy instrument to react to the exchange rate? What is the role of the exchange rate in a domestic inflation targeting vs CPI inflation targeting? Does a fear of floating have any bearing on the way optimal MPRs are constructed? While this paper is not empirical, the analysis is relevant for central banks in open and developing economies that face a choice between allowing exchange rates to float (and adopting an inflation targeting regime) and engaging in some degree of exchange rate fixity.     

Safe Minimum Standards in Dynamic Resource Problems: Conditions for Living on the Edge of Risk

Safe Minimum Standards (SMSs) has been advocated as a policy rule for certain environmental problems where uncertainty about risks and consequences are thought to be profound. This paper explores the rationale for such a policy within both static and dynamic frameworks and derives conditions for when SMS can be summarily dismissed as a policy choice and for when SMS can be defended as an optimal policy based on standard economic criteria. It turns out that these conditions can be checked with quite limited information about damages and risks. In order to analyze the SMSs in a dynamic setting, we develop a method for solving optimal control problems when state space is divided into risky and non-risky sub-sets.