Reserve requirements as a macroprudential instrument – Empirical evidence from Brazil

Emerging market central banks are often reluctant to raise interest rates when facing credit booms driven by capital inflows, and they instead use reserve requirements as an additional instrument. We compare the macroeconomic effects of interest rate and reserve requirement shocks by estimating a structural vector autoregressive model for Brazil. For both instruments, discretionary tightening results in a credit decline. Contrary to an interest rate shock, however, a positive reserve requirement shock leads to an exchange rate depreciation, a current account improvement, and an increase in prices. The different effects highlight the role of reserve requirement policy as a complement to rather than a substitute for interest rate policy. The results support the bank lending channel as the main transmission mechanism for reserve requirement policy.     

Accounting for reserves

Views on the effectiveness of sterilized reserve intervention vary. Sterilized intervention is generally seen as ineffective in advanced countries while persistent intervention by some emerging markets is often cited as contributing to undervalued exchange rates and current account surpluses. This paper argues that capital controls reconcile these views. We find strong and highly robust evidence that sterilized intervention is fully offset by outflows of private money in countries without controls, while controls partially block this offset. For a country with extensive capital controls, every dollar in additional reserves increases the current account by some 50–100 cents. This is mainly offset by an opposite adjustment in the current account of the United States—the dominant reserve currency issuer with the deepest and most liquid bond markets—with a smaller diversion to emerging markets.     

Rules for a lender of last resort: An historical perspective

The Federal Reserve was established in 1913 to be a lender of last resort. Paul Warburg, its principal architect had in mind that a U.S. central bank would follow Bagehot׳s strictures ‘to lend freely at a penalty rate’ in the face of a scramble for high powered money. Yet the Federal Reserve Act never spelled out how the Fed was supposed to act as an LLR. This omission came to the fore in the Great Contraction 1929 to 1933 when the Fed failed to prevent four banking panics which turned a serious recession into the Great Contraction. Reforms in the 1930s corrected some of the Fed׳s failures but clamped down on financial activity for 40 years. The financial crisis problem returned in the 1970s with financial liberalization. The Fed abandoned Bagehot׳s strictures and adopted the ‘Too big to fail’ doctrine and ‘creative ambiguity’. This policy shift contributed to moral hazard and created new threats to financial stability with the rise of the ‘shadow banking system’. The subprime mortgage crisis prompted the Fed to take unprecedented LLR activities which have opened up a Pandora׳s box of perils. The Fed has moved away from rules based policy in its LLR function.     

莫莫格自然保护区土地利用变化及驱动力分析

基于莫莫格自然保护区1989、2000、2007、2012年4期LandsatTM遥感影像数据,运用遥感、地理信息系统以及景观生态学方法,对研究区土地利用与景观格局动态变化进行定量分析。结果表明:在过去的二十年里,莫莫格自然保护区的土地利用方式发生了显著变化,耕地净增加14403.02hm2,其中林地、草地对耕地的增长贡献最大;而湿地则不是单调变化的,其中1989年~1997年湿地面积减少24359.14hm2,1997年~2007年增加6009.237hm2,2007年~2012年增加2983.47 hm2;此外,在研究时段内研究区域的景观异质性有波动性变化,景观格局变化趋势与土地利用变化规律趋同。     

论自然保护区的公众参与法律制度

我国目前对于自然保护区的立法级别较低,制定《自然保护区法》势在必行。在《自然保护区法》中,应当大量引入公众参与与监督制度,组织志愿者来加入保护自然保护区的工作,这样更加有利于对自然保护区的建设与保护。     

我国进出境动植物检疫体系科学技术储备及保障机制研究

通过分析比较国内外科学技术储备及保障机制发展现状,探讨中国特色的进出境动植物检疫体系运行保障措施,从加强科技知识设备和人才储备、加强组织保障、强化政策支持等方面提出科学技术储备及保障机制的相关建议。     

Strategic public land use assessment and planning in Victoria,Australia: Four decades of trailblazing but where to from here?

While various attempts have been made to establish strategic environmental assessment (SEA) processes and institutions in various jurisdictions within Australia, the success of these often short lived attempts at institutional approaches for managing public land use conflict has been patchy. The experience in the State of Victoria has been somewhat different, with public land use assessment and planning having been informed by a series of independent statutory bodies since 1970 (the Land Conservation Council, Environment Conservation Council, and Victorian Environmental Assessment Council). These SEA bodies have played a major role in mediating environmental conflict over public land use, and have significantly contributed to the increased size and coverage of Victoria's protected area system. However, while there has always been a statutory body in operation, the roles and responsibilities of these bodies have been subject to significant legislative change, with existing bodies replaced by new bodies in 1997 and 2001. Justifications for these reforms included changing circumstances and new understandings about environmental management, as well as changing views about public administration. As a way of contributing to enhancing the design of institutions and processes for strategic environmental assessment, this paper provides an assessment of Victoria's approach and discusses possible future directions.     

管理层权力、产权性质与股权激励契约设计

以中国上市公司2006~2012年公告的股权激励计划为研究对象,运用主成分分析法合成管理层权力的综合变量,研究管理层权力对股权激励契约设计的影响,结果发现:管理层权力越大,股权激励强度越高,激励契约中设定较长有效期的概率越低;相比非国有公司,国有公司的管理层权力对股权激励契约设计的影响力显著更强。     

四川省片口自然保护区野生药用植物资源现状

在传统野外调查方法的基础上，对四川省片口自然保护区内的野生药用植物资源的资料进行了详尽的统计分析、归纳分类，基本掌握了该区野生药用植物资源的现状：有野生药用植物567种，隶属于121科317属；提出了开发利用对策。     

大兴安岭呼中自然保护区生态旅游业发展初探

呼中国家级自然保护区是我国最大的寒温带针叶林生态系统保护区，区内蕴藏着丰富多彩的旅游资源；对保护生态旅游业的开发原则、开发项目、旅游管理、发展前景等几个方面作了阐述。