Regime changes and fiscal sustainability in Kenya

Kenya's fiscal policy landscape is characterized by primary deficit spending forcing the government to rely on debt to meet its objectives. The justification often being that as a developing economy, annual growth rates and future prospects may in the short run justify the uptake of debt to finance infrastructural development. However, given potential fiscal limits, fiscal cycles usually alternates between sustainable and unsustainable regimes and this has a bearing on long run sustainability. This study therefore sought to investigate the nature of fiscal policy regime in Kenya and the extent to which fiscal policy is sustainable in the long run taking into account periodic regime shifts. Markov switching models were used to endogenously determine fiscal policy regimes. Regime switching tests were used to test whether No-Ponzi game condition and debt stabilizing condition were met. The results established that regime switching model was suitable in explaining regime sustainable and unsustainable cycles. An investigation of fiscal policy regimes established that both sustainable and unsustainable regimes were dominant, and each lasted for an average of four years. There was evidence to imply the existence of procyclical fiscal policy in Kenya. Regime switching tests for long run sustainability suggested that the No-Ponzi game condition weakly holds in the Kenyan economy. Regime-based sensitivity analysis indicated that persistence of unsustainability regime for more than 4 years could threaten long-run fiscal sustainability.     

Performance pay and changes in U.S. labor market dynamics

A shift in the design of labor compensation occurred at around the mid-1980s in the U.S. and deals with an increased role of performance pay in driving the cyclical movements of wages. Using a DSGE model we show that this structural change accounts at least qualitatively for many observed changes in the U.S. labor market dynamics. It generates the disappearance of the procyclical response of labor productivity to non-technology shocks and the reduction of the contractionary effects of technology shocks on hours. Moreover, it is conducive to a drop in the volatility of output, a parallel increase in the volatility of wages and to changes in unconditional correlations consistent with what documented in the U.S. between the pre- and post-1984 periods.     

银行杠杆的顺周期行为与流动性关系问题研究

银行的高杠杆及其顺周期行为是一个与宏观经济波动以及银行自身多方面相关的重要问题。鉴于此,本文就银行杠杆的顺周期行为及其影响因素进行研究,并通过建立面板联立方程模型研究了与流动性之间相互作用的复杂关系。实证结果表明：我国商业银行杠杆存在顺周期行为,但不同类型银行之间存在差异。国有商业银行的杠杆顺周期行为并不十分明显,而较小规模的商业银行则强于平均水平。银行的贷款占比和存款占比对杠杆顺周期行为的影响存在非对称性,表现为贷款占比的增加放大了杠杆的顺周期行为,存款占比的提升则存在减缓的效果。银行杠杆与流动性之间存在相互作用关系,两者呈反方向变化,即银行杠杆越高,其流动性水平越低。考虑到杠杆本身的顺周期行为,那么银行通过提高杠杆水平扩张资产规模时,同样存在着流动性短缺风险。杠杆率监管要求的提出并不会显著影响银行盈利能力,而流动性要求的提高则会降低银行盈利能力。     

Optimal fiscal policy in a small open economy with limited commitment

We introduce limited commitment into a standard optimal fiscal policy model in small open economies. We consider the problem of a benevolent government that signs a risk-sharing contract with the rest of the world, and that has to choose optimally distortionary taxes on labor income, domestic debt and international transfers. Both the home country and the rest of the world may have limited commitment, which means that they can leave the contract if they find it convenient. The contract is designed so that, at any point in time, neither party has incentives to exit. We define a small open emerging economy as an economy where the limited commitment problem is active in equilibrium. Conversely, a small open developed economy is an economy in which the commitment problem is not active. Our model is able to rationalize some stylized facts about fiscal policy in emerging economies: i) the volatility of tax revenues over GDP is higher in emerging economies than in developed ones; ii) fiscal policy is procyclical in emerging economies; iii) emerging economies may “graduate” from procyclical fiscal policy and adopt countercyclical policies in the long run.     

银行资本充足率监管与信贷波动研究

随着资本监管在全球范围内的普遍实施,资本充足率标准成为影响银行行为的一个重要约束条件。由于资本监管的存在,会使得经济周期内银行信贷的波动幅度加大,进而加剧经济周期波动。次贷危机后,巴塞尔委员会出于宏观审慎监管的考虑,一方面提高了银行资本充足率监管要求,另一方面要求建立逆周期资本缓冲机制。本文从银行的监管机制出发,考察在银行业宏观审慎监管框架下,受资本充足率提高和建立资本缓冲的影响,通过银行信贷最优选择的比较静态分析表明,资本缓冲的大小是银行信贷对经济波动的敏感性的根本性影响因素,提高资本充足率会增强银行信贷的顺周期性波动。     

Determinants of cyclical properties of the price-cost margin in US manufacturing industries

Supergame theoretical predictions tell that oligopoly pricing may be procyclical or counter-cyclical. Industry by industry analysis shows that the speed of industry growth and the size of fixed cost are crucial in distinguishing characteristically counter-cyclical industries from procyclical industries. Counter-cyclical industries are characterized by high growth of demand and low fixed costs. Procyclical industries are characterized by low growth of demand and high fixed costs.     

逆周期财政政策能够控制政府债务风险吗?——理论变迁与经验数据分析

文章基于经济理论变迁,梳理了近代以来西方预算平衡与政府债务理论变迁的主要趋势,探讨了古典经济学年度预算平衡理论与凯恩斯财政革命后的周期预算平衡理论,及其对政府债务风险管理的影响。在此基础上,文章使用跨国面板数据实证分析了发展中国家财政周期选择对政府债务风险的影响,研究发现采取逆周期财政政策的国家能够更好地约束债务风险,该实证结果在不同债务警戒标准下均保持稳健。当前,为了有效约束财政风险,我国应避免进入顺周期财政陷阱,建立可控债务风险的逆周期财政调控机制。     

Disagreement with procyclical beliefs and asset pricing

We consider a pure exchange economy with incomplete information in which the expected growth rate of endowment is unobservable. The economy is populated by two investors, one is rational, but the other irrationally believes that the dynamics of endowment exhibit procyclical feature. Such different opinions about the dynamics of endowment process produce persistent disagreement between the investors. We show that model-implied riskfree rate is procyclical. Further, the procyclical beliefs not only explain the excess volatility puzzle, but also help to explain the mixed results about the relationship between the investors’ belief dispersions and stock return. Moreover, we uncover that the rational investor prefers to short stock positions in good times as the degree of the other investor’s irrationality increasing.