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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
U.S. Current Account Debate With Japan Then, With China Now, Hiro Ito
U.S. Current Account Debate With Japan Then, With China Now, Hiro Ito
Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations
This paper examines two U.S. current account deficit episodes, one in the 1980s and the other in the current 2000s, in which Japan and China, respectively, are the current account surplus countries that are criticized for contributing to the deficits. In both periods, U.S. policy makers pointed out the underdeveloped and closed financial markets of the current account surplus countries and advocated for these countries to fix the deficiencies, a position akin to the current “saving glut” argument. In both episodes, the current account surplus countries have criticized the United States for its low saving, especially public saving (the “Twin …
East Asia And Global Imbalances: Saving, Investment, And Financial Development, Hiro Ito, Menzie David Chinn
East Asia And Global Imbalances: Saving, Investment, And Financial Development, Hiro Ito, Menzie David Chinn
Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations
We investigate the role of budget balances, financial development and openness, in the evolution of global imbalances. Financial development – or the lack thereof – has received considerable attention as a possible contributing factor to the development of persistent and expanding current account imbalances. Several observers have argued that the depth and sophistication of US capital markets have caused capital to flow from relatively underdeveloped East Asian financial markets. In this paper, we extend our previous work by examining the effect of different types and aspects of financial development. Our cross-country analysis, encompassing a sample of 19 industrialized countries and …
Global Current Account Imbalances: American Fiscal Policy Versus East Asian Savings, Menzie David Chinn, Hiro Ito
Global Current Account Imbalances: American Fiscal Policy Versus East Asian Savings, Menzie David Chinn, Hiro Ito
Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations
We consider the origins of global current account imbalances. We first discuss how the expansion of the US current account deficit and the decrease in global real interest rates can be reconciled with the widespread view that American expansionary fiscal policy is partly the source of current trends. We then investigate empirically the medium-term determinants of the current account using a model that controls for factors related to institutional development. In addition to the conventional macroeconomic factors, we examine a series of environmental factors, including the degree of financial openness and the extent of legal development. We find that for …
Current Account Balances, Financial Development And Institutions: Assaying The World “Saving Glut”, Menzie David Chinn, Hiro Ito
Current Account Balances, Financial Development And Institutions: Assaying The World “Saving Glut”, Menzie David Chinn, Hiro Ito
Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations
We critically assess several of the key assertions underlying the global saving glut hypothesis. First, we investigate whether the behavior of the U.S. current account behavior is anomalous in light of previous industrial country experience. Second, we determine whether East Asian current account balances are predictable using standard macroeconomic variables, augmented with institutional factors. Finally, we investigate whether higher levels of financial development in key East Asian economies would result in smaller current account surpluses. We find that a one percentage-point increase in the budget balance would increase the current account balance by 0.10 to 0.49 percentage-points for industrialized countries, …
What Matters For Financial Development? Capital Controls, Institutions, And Interactions, Menzie David Chinn, Hiro Ito
What Matters For Financial Development? Capital Controls, Institutions, And Interactions, Menzie David Chinn, Hiro Ito
Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations
We extend our earlier work, focusing on the links between capital account liberalization, legal and institutional development, and financial development, especially that in equity markets. In a panel data analysis encompassing 108 countries and twenty years ranging from 1980 to 2000, we explore several dimensions of the financial sector. First, we test whether financial openness can lead to equity market development when we control for the level of legal and institutional development. Then, we examine whether the opening of the goods sector is a precondition for financial opening. Finally, we investigate whether a well-developed banking sector is a precondition for …