Narrow Results

The effect of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on other macroeconomic and financial variables has been the subject of prior research investigations. However, a dearth of work explicitly examines the connection between EPU exchange rate changes. By utilizing both nonlinear ARDL (NARDL) and multiple threshold NARDL (MTNARDL) models, we add to the body of literature by analyzing the nonlinear impact of EPU on exchange rates. The MTNARDL model, which distinguishes between the impacts of very small changes in the EPU from very large changes in the EPU on the exchange rate, is an expanded version of the NARDL model. The MTNARDL results confirm an asymmetric effect of EPU on exchange rates in the long run for all sample countries, contrary to the NARDL estimates, which show that EPU has an asymmetric effect in Brazil, Turkey, and China only. Similarly, only one country is supported by NARDL estimates for the short-run asymmetric effect, but MTNARDL estimates support the effect in five countries. Therefore, in our study, the MTNARDL model aids the prior literature in examining the more comprehensive impact of EPU on the exchange rates.

This paper studies the dynamic relationship between stock prices and exchange rates in the Brazilian economy. We use recently developed unit root and cointegration tests, which allow endogenous breaks, to test for a long run relationship between these variables. We performed linear, and nonlinear causality tests after considering both volatility and linear dependence. We found that there is no long run relationship, but there is linear Granger causality from stock prices to exchange rates, in line with the portfolio approach: stock prices lead exchange rates with a negative correlation. Furthermore, we found evidence of nonlinear Granger causality from exchange rates to stock prices, in line with the traditional approach: exchange rates lead stock prices. We believe these findings have practical applications for international investors and in the design of exchange rate policies.

This article examines the relationship between exchange rates and stock prices in eight Asian countries. We test for cointegration and Granger causality for both individual countries using the Gregory and Hansen cointegration test that accommodates a structural break in the cointegrating vector, and for a panel using the Westerlund panel Lagrange multiplier (LM) cointegration test that allows for multiple structural breaks in the level of the individual cointegrating equations. Our results for individual countries suggest that the only country for which exchange rates and stock prices are cointegrated over the entire period is Korea where there is a weak long-run unidirectional Granger causality running from exchange rates to stock prices. Employing the panel LM cointegration test with multiple structural breaks, we find that exchange rates and stock prices are not cointegrated. We conclude that for the eight Asian countries, exchange rates and stock prices primarily have only a contemporaneous effect on each other that is reflected in the short-run intertemporal comovements between these financial variables.

Foreign exchange rate (forex) forecasting has been the subject of several rigorous investigations due to its importance in evaluating the benefits and risks of the international business environments. Many methods have been researched with the ultimate goal being to increase the reliability and efficiency of the forecasting method. However as the data are inherently dynamic and complex, the development of accurate forecasting method remains a challenging task if not a formidable one. This paper proposes a new weight of the fuzzy time series model for a daily forecast of the exchange rate market. Through this method, the weights are assigned to the fuzzy relationships based on a probability approach. This can be implemented to carry out the frequently recurring fuzzy logical relationship (FLR) in the fuzzy logical group (FLG). The US dollar to the Malaysian Ringgit (MYR) exchange rates are used as an example and the efficiency of the proposed method is compared with the methods proposed by Yu and Cheng et al. The result shows that the proposed method has enhanced the accuracy and efficiency of the daily exchange rate forecasting opportunities.

China's currency, the renminbi (RMB), has occupied a central role in the debate over the sources of global imbalances. As policymakers around the globe seek to establish the foundation for a sustained recovery from the world's most serious financial crisis in over 70 years, the pressure on the Chinese currency regime continues to mount. Nevertheless, there appears little consensus regarding the extent to which the RMB is actually undervalued despite the fact that the issue has been intensely contested for several years. In reviewing the debate, the current paper points to some pitfalls in assessing the extent of the RMB misalignment. In addition, we elucidate the sources of disagreements while updating the misalignment estimates by exploiting the latest set of data.

This paper examines the key characteristics of Singapore's exchange rate-centered monetary policy; in particular, its managed float regime which incorporates key features of the basket, band and crawl system popularized by Williamson (1998, 1999). We assess how the flexibility accorded by this framework has been advantageous in facilitating adjustment to various shocks to the economy. A characterization of the countercyclical nature of Singapore's exchange rate policy is also offered, with reference to recent work on the monetary policy reaction function and estimates of Singapore's behavioral equilibrium exchange rate. We also review previous econometric analysis which provides evidence that Singapore's managed float system may have helped to mitigate the spillover effects of such increased volatility into the real economy. The track record of Singapore's managed float regime over the past two decades suggests that intermediate regimes are a viable alternative to the so-called "corner solutions", especially when supported by consistent macroeconomic and microeconomic policies as well as strong institutions.

After the East Asian crisis in 1997, the issue of whether stock prices and exchange rates are related or not have received much attention. This is due to realization that during the crisis the countries affected saw turmoil in both their currencies and stock markets. This paper studies the non-linear interactions between stock price and exchange rate in Malaysia using a two regimes multivariate Markov switching vector autoregression (MS-VAR) model with regime shifts in both the mean and the variance. In the study, the Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI) and the exchange rates of Malaysia ringgit against four other countries namely the Singapore dollar, the Japanese yen, the British pound sterling and the Australian dollar between 1990 and 2005 are used. The empirical results show that all the series are not cointegrated but the MS-VAR model with two regimes manage to detect common regime shifts behavior in all the series. The estimated MS-VAR model reveals that as the stock price index falls the exchange rates depreciate and when the stock price index gains the exchange rates appreciate. In addition, the MS-VAR model fitted the data better than the linear vector autoregressive model (VAR).

Exchange rates are important indicators of the economic power of countries, directly affected by the international trading patterns and relations. Since almost every pair of countries in the globalized world are economically and financially related, exchange rates can be evaluated as nodes of a global financial network to make meaningful inferences.

In this study, a financial network approach is conducted by evaluating the movements of the most traded 35 currencies against gold between years 2005 and 2017. Using graph theory and statistical methods, the analysis of economic relations between currencies is carried out, supported with geographical and cultural inferences. A risk map of currencies is generated through the portfolio optimization. Another approach of applying various threshold levels for correlations to determine connections between currencies is also employed. Results indicate that there exists a saddle point for correlation threshold as 0.9 which results in a robust network topology that is highly modular and clustered, also dominantly displaying small-world and scale-free properties.

This paper investigates the degree of volatility and asymmetric behavior of real exchange rates in East Asian. Exponential generalized autoregressive heteroskedasticity (EGARCH) is deployed to estimate the volatility of the exchange rate returns before and after the 1997 Asian financial crisis. We found that the EGARCH (1,1) specification fits the monthly currency series of the Asian currencies well, suggesting that volatility in exchange rates is time varying and asymmetric. The results show that before the crisis, only three currencies displayed evidence of asymmetries in their conditional variance. After the sharp fall in their currencies, all but one showed a significant increase in volatility and asymmetric effect. We conclude that the crisis caused a contagion that spread through the currency markets. The results of this study underline the importance of economic and political stability in the member countries for the stability of the regional economy.

This paper looks at how Singapore's exchange rate regime has coped with exchange rate volatility, by comparing the performance of Singapore's actual regime in minimizing the volatility of the nominal effective exchange rate (NEER) and the bilateral rate against the US dollar with some counterfactual regimes and the corresponding performance of eight other East Asian countries. In contrast to previous counterfactual exercises, we apply a more disaggregated methodology for the trade weights, a larger number of trade partners and ARCH/GARCH techniques to capture the time-varying characteristics of volatility. Our findings confirm that Singapore's managed floating exchange rate system has delivered relatively low currency volatility. Although there are gains in volatility reduction for all countries in the sample from the adoption of either a unilateral or a common basket peg, particularly post-Asian crisis, these gains are relatively low for Singapore, largely because of low actual volatility. There are additional gains for non-dollar peggers from stabilizing intra-east Asian exchange rates against the dollar if they were to adopt a basket peg, especially post-crisis, but the gains for Singapore are again relatively modest. Finally, the conclusion from previous counterfactual studies that there is little difference between a unilateral basket peg and a common basket peg in terms of stability reduction is confirmed.

Global financial integration intensified in the period leading up to the Great Financial Crisis, as was witnessed by the growth of cross-border banking, capital flows, and gross external capital positions. For small, open economies (SOEs) that have lifted restrictions on capital movements, global financial integration seems to have undermined the scope for independent monetary policy, even if these countries had adopted a flexible exchange rate regime. Monetary policy transmission was weakened through the interest rate channel, as long-term rates in SOEs became increasingly correlated with long rates in large, advanced countries. The exchange rate channel was unstable, however, with exchange rates diverging from fundamentals as uncovered interest rate parity failed to hold over relevant periods and capital flows were volatile. These tendencies can contribute to monetary and financial instability when they interact badly with other economic and financial risks that can face small, open, and financially integrated economies. This was the case in Iceland. A fundamental rethinking of policy frameworks and tools has been underway in SOEs in the wake of the crisis. Potential policy instruments include foreign exchange intervention, enhanced prudential rules on foreign exchange risks, macroprudential tools, better alignment of fiscal and monetary policy, and even selective capital flow management tools.

This study empirically investigates the dynamic effects of Japan’s quantitative easing (QE) policy on industry-specific business activity using a time-varying parameter model and monthly data spanning 2001–2006. This model yields more reliable and precise results than earlier fixed effects models using quarterly data. The first major finding is that the effect of QE on yen–dollar exchange rates varied during the sampled period and is most evident in the final phases, whereas its effect on stock prices persisted almost continuously. Second, QE’s effect on Japan’s real economy — i.e., on industrial production — varies by industry and over time. Most notably, QE raised production via yen–dollar depreciation in the machinery sector (e.g., general and transport machinery) and the sector including chemicals, non-ferrous metals and iron and steel during its latter phases. This study is the first to investigate how unconventional monetary policy influences Japan’s real economy by analyzing the real exchange rate during the second half of QE implementation in Japan.

This research employs VAR models, impulse response function, forecast error variance decomposition and bivariate GJR GARCH models, to explore the dynamic relationship between foreign investment and the MSCI Taiwan Index (MSCI–TWI). The estimations of the VAR, impulse-response functions and predicted error variance decomposition tests show that stronger feedback effects exist between net foreign investment and MSCI–TWI. In particular, our results demonstrate that the MSCI–TWI has the greatest influence over the decision-making processes of foreign investors. Also, we see that exchange rates exert a negative influence on both net foreign investment dollars and the MSCI–TWI. In addition, US–Taiwan interest rate difference has a positive influence on net foreign investment dollars and a negative influence on the MSCI–TWI. As for asymmetric own-volatility transmission, negative shocks in the MSCI–TWI tend to create greater volatility for itself in the following period than positive shocks. Our research indicates an asymmetric information transmission mechanism from net foreign investment to MSCI–TWI markets. Moreover, the estimated correlation coefficient shows that MSCI–TWI and net foreign investment dollar have a positive contemporaneous correlation.

To forecast the non-stationary data is quite difficult when compared with the stationary data time series. Because their variances are not constant and not stable like the second data type. This paper presents the implementation of fuzzy time series (FTS) into the non-stationary time series data forecasting, such as, the electricity load demand, the exchange rates, the enrollment university and others. These data forecasts are derived by implementing of the weightage and linguistic out-sample methods. The result shows that the FTS can be applied in improving the accuracy and efficiency of these non-stationary data forecasting opportunities.

We show that carry trade excess returns and forward premia of exchange rates possess persistent and clear business-cycle patterns. Our results contradict the peso model of hedged carry trade developed by [Burnside, C., M. Eichenbaum, I. Kleshchelski, and S. Rebelo, 2011, Do Peso Problems Explain the Returns to the Carry Trade?, Review of Financial Studies 24(3), 853–891.] and the overconfidence model of carry trade developed by [Burnside, C., B. Han, D. Hirshleifer, and T. Y. Wang, 2011, Investor Overconfidence and the Forward Premium Puzzle, Review of Economic Studies 78(2), 523–558.]. Our results support equilibrium asset pricing models and share the habit formation view of [Verdelhan, A., 2010, A Habit-Based Explanation of the Exchange Rate Risk Premium, Journal of Finance 65(1), 123–145.] that requires countercyclical risk premia. In bad times, when risk aversion is high and domestic interest rates are low, investors require positive currency excess returns. Consistent with [Lustig, H., N. Roussanov, and A. Verdelhan, 2014, Countercyclical Currency Risk Premia, Journal of Financial Economics 111(3), 527–553.] the cyclicality of excess returns is associated with the cyclicality of forward premia. We find that the persistence in forward premia and excess returns is related to their cyclicality. Our results are robust to the [Lustig, H., N. Roussanov, and A. Verdelhan, 2011, Common Risk Factors in Currency Market, Review of Financial Studies 24(11), 3731–3777; Lustig, H., N. Roussanov, and A. Verdelhan, 2014, Countercyclical Currency Risk Premia, Journal of Financial Economics 111(3), 527–553.] high-minus-low (HML) and “dollar carry trade” portfolios.

This study focuses on the unequal relationship between energy consumption and its determinants. Past studies have not examined how minor and substantial currency value changes affect energy consumption in the organization for economic cooperation and development (OECD) countries. This study compares the effects of modest and significant exchange rate (ER) changes on energy demand (ED) in OECD countries, which include Greece, Belgium, Ireland, Denmark, Portugal, Norway and Italy. Our work adds to the literature by distinguishing the effect of small to significant changes in currency fluctuations. We do this with a sophisticated model, an updated multiple threshold nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (MTNARDL). Next, we compare the model’s outcomes to conventional nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) and autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) models. According to NARDL and ARDL estimates, co-integration is present in the context of Belgium. However, the MTNARDL model division of series suggests cointegration in all sample countries. It implies that this model is superior to previous ones. We conclude with policy recommendations based on the results of our inquiry.

Higher education has long been marked by externalities and information asymmetries. In a globalised world economy, universities find themselves in an increasingly competitive market, no longer generally serving essentially local markets. At the institutional level, increased priority is accordingly placed on reputation, ranking, marketing activities, and teaching performance. Institutional ranking still depends essentially on research performance, but conflicting tensions manifest themselves regarding research and teaching activities. In some cases, fees from non-domestic (overseas) students now account for a significant proportion of annual operating costs of universities, and marketing activities are an increasingly important part of university life. At a more general level, the influx of foreign students makes its mark not just on the host institutions, but also on the host economy. Education is now sometimes a major export activity, e.g., in Australia. As such it is a stakeholder (like tourism more generally) in national economic debates about exchange rates and major determinants of fluctuations in them, e.g., as the current Australian mineral boom pushes the terms of trade and the national exchange rate higher, to the detriment of education exports. With large numbers of Chinese, Indian and other students from developing nations providing a large pool of fee payers looking for both a university and a country to study in, academic offerings — combined with ability to acquire English (or other) language proficiency, and even visa and residence rights — have taken on an enhanced economic significance as ‘education tourism’ asserts itself as a major industry.