The optimal exchange rate regime for a small country

This paper examines the welfare comparisons between a freely floating, a managed floating, and a pegged exchange rate regime. We compare the expected loss under these regimes by modifying and generalizing Hamada’s (2002) model to accommodate intervention policy. We consider the de jure and de facto classifications, where the former is defined by the officially stated intentions of the monetary authorities, while the latter is based on the actually observed behavior of the nominal exchange rate. We first examine the exchange rate regimes from the central bank’s policy stance and the actual exchange rate policy. Next we assume that the regime which the private sector perceives according to an official announcement may be different from the one adopted actually by the central bank. We examine nine combinations of the de jure and de facto regimes. We interpret that, whenever they are different, there is informational friction between the central bank and the private sector. We show that the welfare level of a small country under freely floating is no less than that under other regimes, and that with some restrictive conditions, the de facto pegged or de facto managed floating is close to freely floating. This partly explains “Fear of floating” and “Fear of pegging”.     

Toward better Japan-Europe economic relations

Present economic relations between Japan and Europe are marred by misunderstanding and ignorance of one another's positions, Mr. Ichikawa stresses here. Neither side has anything to gain from the continuance of this situation: a new phase—one of understanding and cooperation—must be begun. *** DIRECT SUPPORT *** A02GP021 00002     

Sustainability of Monetary-cum-Exchange Rate Policy in China

This paper theoretically considers the long-run sustainability of China’s monetary-cum-exchange rate policy under the impossible trinity. Two different models are examined: One sterilizes current net foreign assets (NFAs) and the other focuses on NFAs realized in the previous period. Under the de facto opening of financial flows, sterilization yields a negative risk premium in uncovered interest parity (UIP) that triggers a feedback increase among capital inflows. Here, stability depends on the magnitudes and the combination of structural and policy parameters. It is shown that if current capital inflows are sterilized, the monetary-cum-exchange rate policy in China offers a sustainable solution for exchange rates that are relatively stringently managed. However, such a solution can be obtained for relatively flexible or moderately managed rates if sterilization policy is implemented on the previous period’s inflows.     

Cordon Pricing and Land‐Use Regulation

This study explores the simultaneous imposition of cordon pricing and land‐use regulations in a continuous and closed monocentric city with homogeneous households. Results reveal the optimal level of a single cordon toll and its location and the optimal floor area ratio (FAR) regulation, clarifying what distortions remain in the existence of cordon pricing and FAR regulation. Among other results, this paper shows that, with an optimal cordon toll, FAR regulation should alternate between a minimum and a maximum regulation, both inside and outside the cordon line.     

The Concentration of State-Owned Enterprises and the Role of Internal Capital Transactions in General Corporations; the Case of Textile and Clothing Industry in Vietnam

MOCT-MOST: Economic Policy in Transitional Economies -     

Difference-Equations Solution of Exchange Rate Dynamics

The paper focuses on an appropriate and consistent theoretical as well as empirical model of the rational-expectations version of the asset-market approach to exchange rate determination. Using a "sticky-price" monetary model, and formulating the model by a difference-equations system, explicit solutions are obtained as functions of forcing variables extending to past dates only. This "backward-looking" characteristic of the solution is in stark contrast to conventional "forward-looking" models, and alleviates empirical investigation because of the need for past data only. This discrete dynamic model is superior to the corresponding continuous model, because its solutions neither exhibit the empirically unfounded "overshooting" behavior, nor have saddle-point (in)stability. Rather, the exchange rate is shown to follow an oscillatory path with asymptotic stability, and this seems to replicate the actual movements closely approximated by a random-walk process.     

International trade in narcotic drugs: Implications for global security

This paper gives a compact analysis of the scope and limits of current anti-narcotic efforts, explaining the international security implications of an American-led ‘war’ on international drug trade. An overview of central arguments that support prohibition is provided, with emphasis on the point that distorted information about the addictive potentials of illicit substances has failed to reduce the growing number of new recruits into the drug habit. Factors sustaining the increasingly lucrative drug trade are discussed, together with the sociopolitical problems associated with the use of marijuana, cocaine, and heroin. The paper argues that the drug war is a costly failure; that it fuels social ills which sustain the momentum of drug-related crimes on a world-wide basis. The concluding section presents alternative proposals for future action on the drug problem, including legalization, domestication, and a range of regulatory measures.     

Distance optimization approach to ratio-form efficiency measures in data envelopment analysis

This paper examines the development pattern of the DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) research field using Social Network Analysis. Nine stylized facts are verified: it is shown that the distribution of research performance is highly skewed, satisfying a power law, and that collaborative research activity is concentrated achieving higher performance. Moreover, economics and OR (operations research)/MS (management science) groups developed without collaboration until the 1980s; however, the merger of the two groups began in 1994 with the collaboration of frontier researchers. Now the two groups have merged significantly, but they are still identifiable. Finally, research hubs and the emergence of new groups are examined. Nine stylized facts show that DEA has developed with unique attributes. Although it shares common characteristics with other academic fields, including a highly skewed distribution of publications and expansion of the network over time, the DEA field has had a pattern of development that is different from those of other academic fields. Independent development and interrelated evolution between economics and OR/MS contributed to the exchange of knowledge of these two separate fields.