The Dynamic Effect of Devaluation on the Balance of Payments of a Small Debt-Ridden Open Economy*

This paper derives a precise necessary and sufficient condition for devaluation to eventually improve the balance of payments in domestic currency, using assumptions more appropriate for a small open economy than those of Marshall-Lerner. It will be shown that, following devaluation, the balance of payments deteriorates over a short period before it gradually improves– the so-called J-curve effect The duration of this short period will be shown to depend on the magnitude of trade elasticities, lag-coefficients, unhedged foreign debt denominated in foreign currency, interest rate and current account deficit     

Does Monetary Policy Affect Income Inequality in the Euro Area?

This paper examines how the ECB's expansionary monetary policy affects income inequality in 10 euro area countries over the period 1999–2014. We distinguish two channels—labor-market and financial—through which monetary policy can have distributional effects. The labor-market channel is captured by wages and employment and the financial channel by asset prices and returns. We find that expansionary monetary policy in the euro area reduces income inequality, especially in the periphery countries. The labor-market channel enhances the equalizing effect: monetary expansion reduces income inequality stronger by raising wages and employment. There is limited evidence for the financial channel.     

State Curriculum Mandates and Student Knowledge of Personal Finance

This study analyzes the relationship between high school students’ scores on a test of personal financial literacy and their state's personal finance curriculum mandate. At the time of the testing, twenty of the thirty‐one states included in the study had some kind of educational policy in the area of personal financial management. The results of the study show that curriculum mandates, broadly defined, are not generally associated with higher students’ scores. However, students in states that required specific financial education course work scored significantly higher than those in states with either a general mandate or with no mandate.     

Amakudari: The Post‐Retirement Employment of Elite Bureaucrats in Japan

This paper analyzes the amakudari practice in Japan. Amakudari refers to a process in which government agencies contact the private firms that they regulate, asking them to provide employment for their retiring elite bureaucrats. Upon employment at the private firms, bureaucrats may collude with their former colleagues in the ministries they worked for to secure lucrative government contracts, avoid regulatory inspections, or obtain preferential treatment for their new employers. This paper provides an explicit formalization of the implicit collusion between the regulator and the regulated.     

Lazy Prices

Using the complete history of regular quarterly and annual filings by U.S. corporations, we show that changes to the language and construction of financial reports have strong implications for firms’ future returns and operations. A portfolio that shorts “changers” and buys “nonchangers” earns up to 188 basis points per month in alpha (over 22% per year) in the future. Moreover, changes to 10-Ks predict future earnings, profitability, future news announcements, and even future firm-level bankruptcies. Unlike typical underreaction patterns, we find no announcement effect, suggesting that investors are inattentive to these simple changes across the universe of public firms.     

佛家观点与精神分析解剖自我

以佛家与精神分析解剖自我,在人生的自我心灵旅程中具有非常深奥的意义。面对人生各种挫折苦难,心灵安乐是维系生命力的源泉。佛教的主要目的是寻求人生的自我面目,而精神分析是对精神疾病的一种治疗的方法;佛教对人生则是一条拯救精神之路。另一方面提出自我问题的焦点落在自觉与无意识的相互关系。即致力于使自我转变成为超我。     

Optimal Growth Strategy under Dynamic Threshold

We consider an economy in which the technology exhibits nonconvexities due to fixed costs associated with production. Taking into account the incentives for investment to decrease fixed costs, we characterize the circumstances under which an underdeveloped economy can catch up with the developing ones. We show that it is optimal to get rid of the fixed costs inherent in production in finite time provided that the initial level of fixed costs are not too high and the technology for reducing fixed costs is sufficiently efficient. Indeed, we obtain that even though the income disparities may be very persistent and can be perceived as poverty traps, economies with not very high initial fixed costs and sufficiently efficient technology for reducing fixed costs would ultimately converge to the same steady state level of per capita income.