International Finance最新文献

This paper examines the role of monetary-policy uncertainty (MPU) in driving business cycles in emerging economies. We employ a Bayesian vector autoregression model with stochastic volatility as the mean for different emerging economies. We find that MPU works as a crucial driver of business cycles in emerging economies. First, we show that an MPU shock can trigger instability in emerging economies by provoking risk/volatility in both financial and exchange-rate markets. Second, an MPU shock can lead to a decline in both output growth and capital inflows in emerging economies. Our empirical results suggest that the central banks of emerging economies should attempt to improve transparency in their monetary policy-making by increasing the effectiveness of public communication and forward guidance.

This study investigates time-varying roles of people's expectations in driving the US housing price and quantity dynamics using a Threshold Vector Autoregressive model. The expectation measure, a good-time-to-buy (GTTB) index, works as the threshold indicator to classify pessimism and optimism phases, and represents the model-based measure of uncertainty. There is strong evidence for regime switches in responses to shocks across the two phases. The results show that good and bad shocks play similar roles in housing markets. Tiny responses of GTTB to both large good and bad shocks in the two regimes suggest “too bad to be believed” and “too good to be believed” patterns. The estimation is biased as volatility shocks are neglected in the housing boom and bust.

This paper investigates inflation convergence among European countries by using sector-level data for the period between 1997:M1 and 2019:M12. Panel unit root tests at the country-sector level are conducted by using moving windows, which are useful for analyzing changes in inflation convergence and the corresponding speed of convergence over time. The results suggest that there is evidence for inflation convergence for the majority of sectors within Europe, although certain countries have experienced disruptions, especially during the 2008 financial crisis. Regarding the speed of inflation convergence, the average half-life across European countries decreased from about 15 months to about 8 months during the sample period. Important sector-level implications follow for European Union (EU) candidate countries and non-euro EU member countries in regard to the Maastricht Treaty.

Is investor overconfidence a major source of stock-market trading volume? This study refers to the work of Grossman and Odean, introduces the assumption of investor overconfidence and empirically examines the influence of investor overconfidence on market trading volume in China's A-share market through a vector autoregressive model estimation and Granger causality test. We find that overconfidence and self-attribution exist in China's A-share market. When the market is on an upswing, investors attribute large returns to the accuracy of their private information and the quality of their investment abilities; thus they trade more frequently, causing trading volume to increase more quickly. Conversely, when the market is on a downswing, investors attribute their investment losses to uncontrollable external factors; thus they become unwilling to trade, causing trading volume to shrink rapidly.

Financial structure, the degree to which a country's financial system is market- or bank-based, matters for economic outcomes. Hence, it is important to understand the drivers of financial structure. This paper sheds light on this issue and explores a specific mechanism in the evolution of financial structure, namely convergence. Financial structure is shown to converge across countries over time. This pattern remains similar even after controlling for macroeconomic and institutional factors, or for banking sector characteristics. It is not specific to a region, and appears to be similarly strong around the globe. However, financial structure convergence is somewhat weaker in the emerging market and developing economies relative to the advanced economies. Given the role of financial structure in economic performance, these findings have implications for macroeconomic and financial policies. Moreover, bridging cross-country gaps in financial structure has potential consequences for income differences across countries.

Governments are responsible for economic policy implementation, and their actions affect financial and capital market outcomes. Specifically, the way fiscal policy is conducted matters when credit agencies have to decide on how to rate a sovereign. This paper empirically assesses the effect of a new time-varying measure of fiscal counter-cyclicality on the sovereign credit ratings of the main agencies: Fitch, Standard & Poor's, and Moody's. I focus on a heterogeneous sample of 63 advanced and developing economies between 1980 and 2015. First, we find that the degree of fiscal counter-cyclicality is generally positive and has been increasing over time, being larger in advanced economies. Second, the more counter-cyclical a fiscal policy is, the better the assessment a rating agency gives to that country, particularly if it is an advanced one. This suggests that fiscal prudence and stabilization concerns are rewarded. Our results are robust to several sensitivity and robustness checks.

We examine the temporal dynamics of the historical series of real interest rates for France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain pre-1730 and post-1800, the United Kingdom, and the United States stretching back to the 14th century. We use the Robinson approach to determine the fractional order of integration and examine both linear deterministic trends and multiple smooth breaks. In the latter case we make use of the Chebyshev polynomials in time. With the exception of two countries (Italy and France), where the linear model appears more appropriate, our results reveal evidence that real interest rates are driven by the interaction between nonlinearities in the deterministic trends and fractional integration processes. They suggest that real interest rates are mean-reverting but not as persistent as suggested in the literature. In particular, the nonlinear model with autocorrelated errors provides no evidence of long memory, which questions most of the literature on real interest rates. The implications of these results are relevant to evaluate the effectiveness of policy interventions and the theoretical implications of different macroeconomic models as shocks affecting real interest rates will dissipate by themselves.

This paper examines currency manipulation policies in foreign exchange markets. In particular, we focus on whether a country has implemented one-sided interventions that mostly lean against the appreciation wind in foreign exchange markets. Using quarterly data from 1998:Q1 to 2017:Q2 for 10 emerging countries, we find that China, Singapore, and Taiwan engaged in one-sided interventions. A further rolling regression analysis shows some moderate evidence that Taiwan is the only country conducting one-sided interventions on a continuing basis.

Using a unique data set of information ratings (IRs) for firms listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange from 2001 to 2018, we examine the impact of information asymmetry on capital structure decisions in China. We determine that firms with higher IRs have fewer debt issuances and lower leverage. This negative relationship is consistent for firms listed on the Main Board, Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) board and Growth Enterprise Market (GEM) board. We further decompose IR into accounting-associated and nonaccounting-associated components and find that both are negatively correlated with leverage. Additional analyses reveal that for firms listed on the SME and GEM boards, the nonaccounting-associated component exhibits a stronger relationship with leverage than does the accounting-associated component. Our results suggest that information asymmetry is instrumental in capital-structure decision-making.