CFDS Discussion Paper Series

CFDS is publishing the CFDS Discussion Paper Series focused on studies on financial economics, finance, macroeconomics, and international economics to give all researchers related to our center and Henan University, as well as members of our cooperation partners a chance to publish their ideas and reach a broader academic audience. CFDS Dicsussion Papers are indexed on RePEc.

 

 

Makram El-Shagi / Bashir Muhammad

CFDS Discussion Paper 2019/2

Abstract

In this paper we assess the effect of institutional similarity on foreign direct investment. In a large panel of bilateral FDI stocks that covers roughly 190 countries both as host and source country of FDI we demonstrate that it is not similarity in general, but similarity with respect to government involvement in markets and with respect to corruption that matters. Our finding is robust to a large set of different panel estimators and specifications of the gravity model that is underlying our estimation.

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Makram El-Shagi, Steven Yamarik

CFDS Discussion Paper 2018/6

Abstract

Since the end of the Bretton Woods system, promoting capital account liberalization has been one of the tenants of the IMF. Capital account liberalization was deemed one of the 10 pillars of what was often dubbed the Washington Consensus. Yet things changed drastically with the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. From 2009 to 2012, comments from top IMF officials and staff reports displayed quite clearly that the IMF had revised its position where capital controls could be part of the toolkit. In this paper, we assess the role of the IMF in capital account liberalization from 1995 to 2015. We use a midpoint-inflated ordered probit model to estimate the effects of being under IMF conditionality on capital controls, allowing for different effects for pre- and post-Financial Crisis. We find that the IMF did indeed drive liberalization of capital inflows in the precrisis era, but stopped doing so in the post-crisis period.

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Rongrong Sun

CFDS Discussion Paper 2018/5

Abstract

This paper uses the event study to estimate the impact of various monetary policy announcements on market interest rates in China over the 2002-2017 period. I find that financial markets understand the quantitative signals better: the market response to an announced adjustment of the regulated retail interest rate and the required reserve ratio is positive and significant at all maturities of bond rates, but smaller at the long end of the yield curve. However, the market barely responds to announced changes in the qualitative policy stance index, which contains limited vague information and is easily anticipated. Two newly introduced central bank lending rates do not appear to be sufficient to replace the retail interest rate and the reserve ratio in guiding market rates in the post-deregulation era. My results suggest that the PBC adopts a publicly announced short-term interest-rate operating target regime, similar to the Fed’s federal funds rate target.

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Rongrong Sun

CFDS Discussion Paper 2018/4

Abstract

This paper reviews the retail interest-rate-control deregulation in China over the 1993-2015 period and provides a preliminary assessment of the PBC’s replacement monetary framework. I show that the interest-rate controls triggered the development of deposit substitutes that banks used to circumvent the restrictions, which in turn drove deposits out of commercial banks. Concerned by deterioration of bank profits and build-up of financial frangibility, the PBC has been pushing strongly for interest-rate liberalization. I quantify the distortionary effects of these controls: disintermediation, a rising shadow banking system and financial repression. Despite the official lift-off of the controls, the retail interest rates are still subject to the PBC’s window guidance and other pricing mechanism guidance. The interest-rate corridor does not function well in confining money market rates. This suggests that the PBC adopt a target money market rate system.

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Michael Funke / Rongrong Sun / Linxu Zhu

CFDS Discussion Paper 2018/3

Abstract

Household borrowing in China has increased considerably in recent years, raising concerns about the household sector’s vulnerability and implications for the stability of the financial system. We construct a number of granular debt-burden indicators at the level of individual Chinese households and calculate the share of households that are financially vulnerable using the three available waves (2011, 2013 and 2015) of China’s Household Finance Survey. Overall loan-to-value (LTV) ratios appear safe and sound at first glance, but closer scrutiny reveals that Chinese households in the lowest income quintile face high vulnerability and struggle to meet their debt commitments. Our stress tests suggest that Chinese households in higher quintiles, despite the huge increase in household indebtedness, are not particularly vulnerable to declining incomes or falling house prices.

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Enzo Dia / Lunan Jiang / Lorenzo Menna / Lin Zhang

CFDS Discussion Paper 2018/2

Abstract

We describe the existence of a substantial dispersion of interest margins charged by commercial banks among Chinese provinces and find empirically that the main drivers of interest margins are resource costs. We build a parsimonious dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model featuring both banking and production sectors that we calibrate at both the national and provincial levels. Our model can explain a considerable share of the interest margin charged at the provinicial level, and we find evidence that when Chinese banks adopt a technology imposing the same capital share across provinces, their productivity becomes substantially lower. Since the differences in wages in Chinese provinces are substantial, the adoption of a common technology implies an inefficient industrial structure for the banking industry and a substantial cost for the economy. The adoption of a standardized technology also generates a stronger response of the loan rate to productivity shocks, and thus the capability of banks to smooth regional idiosyncratic productivity shocks hitting firms declines substantially.

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Makram El-Shagi, Steven Yamarik

CFDS Discussion Paper 2018/1

Abstract

This paper presents updated estimates for state-level capital and investment for 1950 to 2015. We improve upon the procedure of Garofalo and Yamarik (2002) and Yamarik (2013) by using quantity measures to apportion the mining capital stock and a geometric pattern of depreciation to derive investment data. In an empirical application we use our data to estimate the production function and a simple growth model. We find coefficient estimates that support constant returns to scale and a 1/3 output elasticity of capital. These results are consistent with past regional and cross-country papers, supporting the plausibility of our data.

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Makram El-Shagi, Lin Zhang

CFDS Discussion Paper 2017/5

Abstract

We assess the role of silver price fluctuations on Chinese trade and GDP during the late Qing dynasty, when China still had a bimetallic monetary system where silver was mostly used for trade. Using a structural VAR with a newly proposed small sample bias correction and blockwise recursive identication, we identify the impact of silver price shocks on the Chinese economy from 1867 to 1910. We find that silver price changes have substantial impact on trade, but barely affect GDP. Our results can partly be applied to the analysis of the role of vehicle currencies in today's emerging economies.

 

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Jan Klingelhöfer, Rongrong Sun

CFDS Discussion Paper 2017/4

Abstract

We study the Chinese experience and provide evidence that central banks can play an active role in safeguarding financial stability. The narrative approach is used to disentangle macropudential policy actions from monetary actions. We show that reserve requirements, window guidance, supervisory pressure and housing-market policies can be used for macroprudential purposes. Our VAR estimates suggest that well-targeted macroprudential policy has immediate and persistent impact on credit, but no statistically significant impact on output. Macroprudential policy can be used to retain financial stability without triggering an economic slowdown, or as a complement to monetary policy to offset the buildup of financial vulnerabilities arising from monetary easing. The multi-instrument framework enables central banks to achieve both macroeconomic and financial stability.

 

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Makram El-Shagi, Yizhuang Zheng

CFDS Discussion Paper 2017/3

Abstract

In this paper we reexamine the literature on money demand in China published both in English and Chinese language. Over the past 30 years - starting with the paper by Chow (1987) there has been a regular stream of papers assessing the Chinese money demand function. The literature is mostly focusing on income elasticity, stability, and - which is special for
China - the adequate choice and quality of data. In particular regarding stability of money demand, we find a substantial publication bias towards rejecting stability. When controlling for publication bias, and focusing on longer time periods, our paper strongly suggests stable long run money demand in China.

 

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Makram El-Shagi, Lunan Jiang

CFDS Discussion Paper 2017/2

Abstract

Although China’s monetary and financial system differs drastically from its Western counterpart, empirical studies covering this vast economy (the largest by some accounts) have often been simple reestimations or recalibrations of models that have originally been designed to describe US or European monetary policy. In this paper, we aim to provide an assessment of Chinese monetary policy and in particular monetary policy transmission through the bond market into the real economy, which takes into account the peculiarities of the Chinese market. Namely, our model includes both China’s modern attempts at a market based policy shock as well as the “authority” based monetary policy that is a relic of the original banking system; it considers the special nature of the Chinese treasury bond market which is separated in two independent markets with very limited direct arbitrage opportunities between almost identical assets, and finally it incorporates the role of real estate, which played an essential role in China during the last decade.

 

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Jonathan Benchimol, Makram El-Shagi

CFDS Discussion Paper 2017/1

Abstract

Governments, central banks, and private companies make extensive use of expert and market-based forecasts in their decision-making processes. These forecasts can be affected by terrorism, which should be considered by decision makers. We focus on terrorism, as a mostly endogenously driven form of political uncertainty, and use new econometric tests to assess the forecasting performance of market and professional in‡flation and exchange-rate forecasts in Israel. We show that
expert forecasts are better than market-based forecasts, particularly during periods of terrorism. However, forecasting performance and abilities of both market-based and expert forecasts are signifi…cantly reduced during such periods. Thus, policymakers should be particularly attentive to terrorism when considering in‡flation and exchange-rate forecasts.

 

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Makram El-Shagi, Lin Zhang

CFDS Discussion Paper 2022/2

Abstract

In this paper, we demonstrate the importance of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) for the conduct of fiscal policy in China using both a structural VAR based on macroeconomic data and a panel model utilizing firm-level data. We show that SOEs respond fundamentally differently to fiscal policy shocks than non-SOEs. Our results strongly indicate that SOEs are not merely competition to non-SOEs but rather that their resources are leveraged as part of fiscal policy to support and stabilize the private economy.   

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Yihao Xue, Qiaoyu Liang, Bing Tong

CFDS Discussion Paper 2022/1

Abstract

Based on a New Keynesian model with a transient interest rate peg and energy inputs in production, we examine the impact of China’s interest rate liberalization on the transmission of energy supply shocks. Theoretical analysis shows that in the face of negative supply shocks, output decreases less or even increases while inflation rises more under a fixed interest rate compared with a flexible interest rate. We construct the Divisia energy index based on Chinese data to test the model predictions. We identify energy supply shocks following the strategy of Kilian (2009) and obtain impulse responses using the local projection method proposed by Jord`a (2005). The empirical results are consistent with our model predictions.

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Makram El-Shagi, Lunan Jiang

CFDS Discussion Paper 2023/1

Abstract

In this paper, we assess the impact of the Medium-term Lending Facility (MLF), an instrument recently introduced by the People's Bank of China (PBoC), on treasury and corporate bond yields. This instrument and, more specifically, the transmission of its use through treasury bond yields to corporate bond yields plays a major role in the more market-based policy the PBoC envisions for the future. Using a semi-parametric local projection framework, we show that the mechanism is already fairly effective, allowing the PBoC to manipulate the entire yield curve.

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2023 CFDS Discussion Papers

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CFDS Discussion Paper Series