Finance Commons^™

Trade Integration, Income Divergence, And Global Imbalances, Haiping Zhang

Research Collection School Of Economics

We embed financial frictions and sector-specific minimum investment requirements (MIR) in a two-factor, two-sector, overlapping-generation model and showthat whether trade integration leads to convergence of the income levels among member states depends on their level of financial development. It helps reconcilethe mixed empirical evidence on trade integration and income dynamics in differentgroups of countries from the institutional perspective. In the recent decades, trade globalization has allowed developed countries to specialize towards the high-MIR, high-return production stages and tasks through international fragmentation of production and global sourcing. In our model, the “sectors” can be interpreted broadly as production stages and tasks. …

Remittances Without Borders, Tan Swee Liang, S. N. Venkataramanan, Anil Kishora

Research Collection School Of Economics

A Pan-Asian Mobile Remittance Platform might just be the next big disruption in global remittances. One out of every 28 people lives in a country that they were not born in. As migrants, they are estimated by The World Bank to send home US$636 billion in 2017, with three-quarters remitted to developing countries. These remittances form a significant percentage of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of many of these developing countries. Given their magnitude and contribution to national economies, even a small reduction in remittance cost adds billions to these local economies. Mobile-to-mobile cross border remittances have recently shown that …

Mexico Consensus Economic Forecast, Volume 18, Number 4, Thomas M. Fullerton Jr., Adam G. Walke

Border Region Modeling Project

No abstract provided.

Mexico Consensus Economic Forecast, Volume 18, Number 3, Thomas M. Fullerton Jr., Adam G. Walke

Border Region Modeling Project

No abstract provided.

Is There A Future For The Euro?, Augustine H. H. Tan

Research Collection School Of Economics

A Greek exit could spell the euro zone's disintegration. The Greek referendum last Sunday resoundingly backed its embattled government over its tortuous negotiations with the Troika of the European Central Bank (ECB), the European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Greece is now back at the negotiating table, which may ease the terms of loan repayment and lighten the reforms demanded or it may lead to a Grexit.

Greece Caught In Death Spiral, Augustine H. H. Tan

Research Collection School Of Economics

The country is trapped between twin evils akin to the sea monsters Scylla and Charybdis that threatened Odysseus' voyage.

Greece Caught In Death Spiral, Augustine H. H. Tan

Research Collection School Of Economics

The country is trapped between twin evils akin to the sea monsters Scylla and Charybdis that threatened Odysseus' voyage.

Role For Singapore In Mobile Phone Remittances, Tan Swee Liang, Singanallore Narayanan Venkataramanan, Anil Kishora

Research Collection School Of Economics

As sending money home this way takes off, the country can provide a Pan-Asian platform

Three Essays On Capital Regulations And Shadow Banking, Diny Ghuzini

Dissertations

The shadow banking sector is a sector that is comprised of financial intermediaries that do not have access to central bank funds and performs their activities outside the regular banking system. This sector had been rapidly growing in most developed economies. This dissertation focuses on the behavioral difference and interaction of the traditional and shadow banking sectors as displayed by the relative asset position of both sectors, their risk-taking positions, and their business-cycles properties.

The first essay examines the impact of minimum capital requirements on the share of shadow to total banking assets. Previous literature has argued that increased regulation …

Gender Bias In Microlending: Do Opposites Attract?, Kanyinsola Adepoju

Master's Theses

This study exploits a quasi-random assignment of clients to loan officers using a unique database and survey from a large microfinance bank in Nigeria to show that opposite-sex preferences affect credit demand and supply. We find that clients matched to loan officers of the opposite gender are more likely to receive credit and are more likely to return for an additional loan with the credit lender.

Mexico Consensus Economic Forecast, Volume 18, Number 2, Thomas M. Fullerton Jr., Adam G. Walke

Border Region Modeling Project

No abstract provided.

China's Yuan: Asia's Future Anchor Currency?, Hwee Kwan Chow

Research Collection School Of Economics

The yuan is becoming more widely used in pricing and settling intra-regional trade and investment. Asian currencies' movements are likely to shift more in tandem with the yuan, leading to it becoming one of Asia's lead currencies. Singapore is now the world's second-most- important offshore yuan trading hub after Hong Kong.

The Gettysburg Economic Review, Volume 8, Spring 2015

Gettysburg Economic Review

No abstract provided.

Sustainable Microfinancing: Improving Microenterprise's Traditional Measures Of Success, Stephen R. Watson

Graduate Research Papers

Microfinance has over three decades of experience serving the needs of the poor on earth. Unfortunately, academia and the secular world are divided on its effectiveness to lift the impoverished from the bottom of the economic pyramid. India is the focus of this paper, but measures of microfinace success are essentially universal. This paper examines the metrics used to evaluate programs and their benefit to India's poor. Current estimates find 2.8 billion people survive on less than $2 per day. Subsistence living impacts nutrition, shelter, sanitation, transportation and access to healthcare and education. India's caste system creates discrimination and overpopulation …

Mexico Consensus Economic Forecast, Volume 18, Number 1, Thomas M. Fullerton Jr., Adam G. Walke

Border Region Modeling Project

No abstract provided.

World Bank, Agriculture And Policy: A Case Study In Ghana And Ethiopia, Steven Margel

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis tests the effectiveness of the World Bank’s agricultural-aid policy by examining case studies in Ghana and Ethiopia in the period of 2000-2010. Each study examines the policy context, project/program success, overall human development results, and threats to sustainability, of agricultural aid. The primary hypothesis of the paper is that participatory processes and inclusive institutions will prove to be decisive factors. Each case is tested against this political view of aid in addition to three additional images (Destructive, Ineffective, Effective Technical), in order to ensure a comprehensive review.

The Ghana case showed a lack of participation in forming the …

Malaysian Equities: A Sector Analysis Of Risk And Normality, Robert J. Powell

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This study uses Value at Risk (VaR) and Conditional Value at Risk (CVaR) metrics to measure the relative riskiness of sectors for Malaysian equities. VaR is a widely used volatility measure, but only measures risk below a specified threshold, whereas CVaR looks at risk beyond that threshold. The study finds that the relative risk of sectors changes with changing economic circumstances as measured by VaR, but remains significantly the same as measured by CVaR. Parametric (normally distributed) measures of VaR are compared to nonparametric measures, and it is found, consistently across all sectors, that parametric measures are not suitable measures …

Two Essays On Governance At The National And Corporate Level, Laura Savory Miller

HCBE Theses and Dissertations

ESSAY 1
We examine the effect of governance environment on the composition of a country's external capital structure, specifically foreign equity investment. In addition to the absolute quality of the host country's governance environment, we consider the host country's governance quality relative to that of the source (investor) country. Unlike previous studies, which utilize country totals, we examine foreign investment positions between pairs of individual countries. Our sample includes 3,891 bilateral investment positions among 49 source countries and 69 host countries for years 2009 through 2011. We find that relative governance, rather than absolute governance, plays a role in foreign …

Mexico Consensus Economic Forecast, Volume 17, Number 4, Thomas M. Fullerton Jr., Adam G. Walke

Departmental Papers (E & F)

No abstract provided.

Integration Of Central And Eastern European And The Euro-Area Financial Markets: Repercussions From The Global Financial Crisis, Lucjan T. Orlowski, Anna Tsibulina

WCBT Faculty Publications

We examine integration of financial markets and banking sectors in Central and Eastern Europe and the euro area. We study co-movements between government bond and equity markets of Germany and those of Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, as well as Slovenia and Slovakia (the two recent euro members). We assume that financial integration is essential for subsequent monetary convergence, as it will enable the euro candidates to mitigate systemic risk and avert potentially destabilizing shocks. Government bond yields of the Czech Republic and Poland show high correlation with German yields, in contrast to those of the remaining countries. Equity returns of …

Exchange Rates And Export Structure, Wen-Tai Hsu, Yi Lu, Yingke Zhou

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper studies whether changes in the exchange rate affect a country’s export structure, using an arguably exogenous sudden appreciation of renminbi on July 21, 2005 as the main source of identification. Employing combined regression discontinuity and difference-in-differences approach, we show that China’s export structure became more similar to that of the developed countries after the currency appreciation. We also find that the majority of the appreciation effect comes from the inter-firm resource reallocation rather than the inter-region or intra-firm resource reallocation.

The Role Of The International Monetary Funds (Imf) In The East Asian Debt Crisis Of 1997, Yaro Sadek Tahirou

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

During the East Asian Financial crisis in particular, the IMF has been criticized of promoting international cooperation because of the supervised enforcement of its rules. The purpose of this research is to find out how the IMF responded to the East Asian debt crisis and whether or not its responses were the best possible responses to this crisis. Through my research, I talked about the causes of the East Asian financial crisis, the role of the IMF in the international monetary system, and if the IMF responses to Thailand, South Korea and Indonesia were the best responses or not. After …

Mexico Consensus Economic Forecast, Volume 17, Number 3, Thomas M. Fullerton Jr, Adam G. Walke

Departmental Papers (E & F)

No abstract provided.

International Transmission Of Interest Rates And The Open Economy Trilemma In Asia, Hwee Kwan Chow

Research Collection School Of Economics

There has recently been much discussion on the relevance of the open economy trilemma in the context of deepening financial integration of countries across the world (see for instance, Rey (2013) and Devereux and Yetman (2014)). The open economy trilemma is an important issue for the countries in Asia not least because their financial systems are small and exchange rate stability is crucial to their economic growth. This paper investigates whether the economies in Asia are still bound by the "impossible trinity" by examining the interest rate transmission from the US to the region before and after the onset of …

Trade And Financial Integration, Extensive Margin, And Income Divergence, Haiping Zhang

Research Collection School Of Economics

We revisit the classical question on economic integration and income convergence in a two-sector OLG model with financial frictions and sectoral heterogeneity in minimum investment requirements (MIR, hereafter). The extensive margin of investment is a critical channel through which aggregate income may become a determinant of comparative advantage. Free trade allows the rich (poor) country to specialize partially or completely in the high-MIR (low-MIR) sector which has a high (low) return endogenously. The specialization effect interacts with the neoclassical effect, which may lead to income divergence among inherently identical countries. Similarly, financial integration may also lead to income divergence through …

The Viability Of Mercosur In The Face Of The Euro Crisis, Philip A. Murry

Economics Undergraduate Honors Theses

This research examines the successes and challenges of the European Union, especially in the face of the crisis of 2008 and 2009. Based on the current structures of the European Union and Mercosur, this paper looks to assess the viability of further integration of Mercosur using the evolution of the European Union as a model of reference. Analysis of key economic measures provides the framework for assessment, with a special focus on the asymmetries between member countries within Mercosur. Differences in debt-to-GDP ratios, regional trade levels, and exchange rate fluctuations are the primary indicators used to provide policy recommendations for …

Mexico Consensus Economic Forecast, Volume 17, Number 2, Thomas M. Fullerton Jr., Adam G. Walke

Departmental Papers (E & F)

No abstract provided.

An Analysis Of Risk-Taking Behavior For Public Defined Benefit Pension Plans, Nancy Mohan, Ting Zhang

Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

This paper presents the first comprehensive study on the determinants of public pension fund investment risk and reports several new important findings. Unlike private pension plans, public funds undertake more risk if they are underfunded and have lower investment returns in the previous years, consistent with the risk transfer hypothesis. Furthermore, pension funds in states facing fiscal constraints allocate more assets to equity and have higher betas. There also appears to be a herding effect in that CalPERS equity allocation or beta is mimicked by other pension funds. Finally, our results suggest that government accounting standards strongly affect pension fund …

Central Bank Of Nigeria Annual Report And Statement Of Accounts For The Year Ended 31st December 2014, Central Bank Of Nigeria

CBN Annual Report

Annual Report and Financial Statements of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the year ended 31st December, 2014. In general, 2014 has been a very eventful and challenging year for the Bank, the country, and the world at large. In the course of the year, the Bank underwent significant changes in its governance composition. In 2014, the global economy witnessed considerable vulnerabilities characterized by fragile growth and weak economic outlook. Global growth recovery was modest and continued to be threatened by strong downside risks, as a result of sharp drop in commodity prices, escalating geo-political tensions, and heightening threats …

The Rise Of Private Equity In China: A Case Study Of Successful And Failed Foreign Private Equity Investments, June Kim

CMC Senior Theses

China's transition from a planned economy to a market economy has brought about remarkably rapid economic growth. Year after year, China boasted of double-digit growth rates since the early 1990s. Attracted by China's so-called "economic miracle," foreign investors began entering the Chinese market hoping to benefit from the country's vast array of financial opportunities. Private equity, particularly a leveraged buyout, was an unfamiliar concept in China until late 1990s. Now China has become the most attractive destination among emerging markets for private equity investment. Global private equity firms are currently raising billions of dollars for funds focusing on China because …