Economic Policy Commons^™

Hong Kong Contingent Bank Capital Facility (Cbcf), David Tam, Steven Kelly

Journal of Financial Crises

On October 14, 2008, Hong Kong’s financial secretary announced the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) would use Hong Kong’s Exchange Fund to provide standby capital to banks if needed. The Contingent Bank Capital Facility (CBCF) was available until the end of 2010 to shore up depositor and investor confidence in the local banking sector and commenced in parallel with a broader set of announced measures including a consumer bank deposit guarantee. Twenty-three locally incorporated “Authorized Institutions” were eligible to access CBCF capital upon request. The provisioning of CBCF capital would be accompanied by enhanced oversight from the HKMA. The Hong …

Greece (2008) – Capital Injections, Manuel León Hoyos

Journal of Financial Crises

In October 2008, in the midst of the Global Financial Crisis (2007–09), the Greek government announced a €28 billion ($36 billion) government package. Greek Law 3723/2008, “Enhancement of Liquidity in the Economy in Response to the Impact of the International Financial Crisis,” was passed and approved under European Union State Aid rules. The Greek law provided for three voluntary programs: recapitalizations (€5 billion), guarantees (€15 billion), and securities (€8 billion). This case study exclusively examines the recapitalization program. In this program, the Greek government acquired convertible preferred shares in banks in order to build and maintain banks’ Tier 1 capital …

Germany Soffin Capital Injections, Priya Sankar

Journal of Financial Crises

The insolvency of Lehman Brothers in September 2008 and the subsequent global liquidity crisis spurred the German state to pass the Financial Market Stabilization Fund Act (Finanzmarktstabilisierungsfondsgesetz, “FMStFG”) establishing the Federal Agency for Financial Market Supervision (Bundesanstalt für Finanzmarktstabilisierung), or FMSA. Created in October 2008, it provided government support to ailing financial institutions. The FMSA supported German banks and maintained the stability of the German banking system, in part by establishing the Financial Market Stabilization Fund (Sonderfunds Finanzmarktstabilisierung), or SoFFin. SoFFin could provide capital injections and risk shield measures of €80 billion and also possessed a guarantee provision of up …

France Société De Prise De Participation De L’État (Sppe), Devyn Jeffereis

Journal of Financial Crises

As the Global Financial Crisis deepened, the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers on September 15, 2008, and ensuing contagion began affecting the French economy and financial system. France experienced declines in major economic indicators such as GDP, household consumption, and investment. In addition, the ensuing credit crunch in financial markets resulted in the seizing up of various lending markets. Due to conservative business practices, a consolidated market structure, and a sound regulatory framework, the French banks were relatively better situated than their European counterparts to weather the crisis. However, the French authorities instituted a precautionary recapitalization scheme in order to “restore …

Finland’S 1992 Capital Injection, Kaleb B. Nygaard

Journal of Financial Crises

Following a large-scale deregulation of the financial sector during the 1980s and subsequent massive credit expansion, a banking crisis in Finland caused a sharp contraction in the economy in the early 1990s. To prevent the collapse of the banking system, the government offered FIM 8 billion in capital injections. Parliament appropriated the funds in the spring of 1992 and terms were defined in June 1992. The program was open to all banks, in proportion to their size, regardless of their solvency. In the fall of 1992, FIM 7.9 billion was deployed to 56 cooperative banks and 22 savings banks of …

Danish Capital Injections Scheme 2009 (Dk Gfc), Priya Sankar

Journal of Financial Crises

Both the international financial system and Denmark were experiencing challenges in 2007 and 2008, and they came to a head in Denmark when Roskilde Bank experienced liquidity pressures in June 2008. As it became clear that Roskilde Bank was insolvent and no private solutions would be found, and as the global financial crisis worsened leading to the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, the Danish government decided to take stronger action. To ensure the short-term survival of Roskilde Bank, the national bank issued a non-limited credit facility. After it passed a deposit guarantee scheme in 2008 and established a Financial Stability Company, …

Austria: Finanzmarktstabilitätsgesetz (Finstag), Claire Simon

Journal of Financial Crises

Following the adoption of a joint framework by euro area countries in response to the intensifying financial crisis in October 2008, Austria enacted a package of measures including the Financial Market Stability Act (Finanzmarktstabilitätsgesetz, or FinStaG). In addition to permitting nationalization under certain circumstances, FinStaG allowed the Austrian government to use six specific measures to recapitalize credit institutions operating in Austria and Austrian insurance companies. According to FinStaG, €15 billion ($22 billion) could be used for this purpose, though this amount was later increased. Eight institutions received support through FinStaG, and the government granted capital and liquidity support totaling €21 …

Recruitment Machines, Community Power And Political Return On Investment (Proi): Economic Development Policy In The Age Of Amazon, Eric G. Griego Montoya

Political Science ETDs

ABSTRACT

A fundamental policy choice in economic development among local policy makers is the appropriate mix of “outside” strategies that use incentives to attract companies, and “inside” strategies that invest in smaller and local businesses. Using a mixed-methods research design, including national and state surveys along with qualitative analysis of interviews conducted with policy elites, I examine the role of ideology, elites, community, competition, social capital (trust and influence), and electoral politics in these policy decisions. I use new descriptive theoretical frameworks called “recruitment machines” and “Political Return on Investment (PROI)” to describe how and why local elected officials support …

Did Government Benefits Help Israeli Households Avoid Hardship During Covid-19? Evidence From A National Survey, Olga Kondratjeva, Talia Schwartz-Tayri, Sam Bufe, Stephen Roll, John Gal, Michal Grinstein-Weiss

Social Policy Institute Research

At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the government of Israel quickly introduced aggressive social distancing measures to curb the virus spread and adapted its unemployment insurance program in response to rising unemployment rates. This study examines the relationship between household income and the experience of material hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic in Israel, and investigates how the receipt of unemployment benefits moderated the relationship between income and material hardship. Using data from a household survey, we find a negative association between household income and the experience of material hardship. Moreover, middle-income households receiving unemployment benefits were more likely to …

The Coronavirus Pandemic And International Trade, E. Wesley F. Peterson

Cornhusker Economics

The Coronavirus pandemic has disrupted economic activities around the world. Many businesses had to cease operations and furlough or lay off their workers. The World Bank (2021) has reported that global economic output fell by 3.4% in 2020. The good news is that the massive infusion of financial support from many governments in high-income countries meant that the worst economic effects of the pandemic were mitigated, and a rapid recovery has begun to make up for the pandemic-related losses. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts that the global economy will grow by 5.9% in 2021 recovering the 2020 losses and …

Poverty In A North American Context, Nathanael Snow, Benjamin Pettus

White Papers

From the Introduction

Understanding the impact of poverty can be aided by careful measurement. Statisticians and economists, both within the government and in the private sector, collect and analyze such statistics.

Disagreement about the interpretation of those figures can make it difficult for most people to know how they should respond to specific cases of poverty they encounter. For a meaningful discussion to take place, the existing understanding should be presented. This report summarizes the existing research on poverty and provides the interested reader with resources to continue learning about the topic. This report does not offer policy advice or …

A Game Theoretic Study On Csr And Government Intervention For Sustainable Production, Katherine Ann J. Fernandez, Joshua Ryan C. Go, Jean Nicole L. Ng, Bianca Alanis Ysabel C. Redulla, Jason P. Alinsunurin, Dickson A. Lim, Mariel Monica R. Sauler

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

We use a game theoretic approach to assess how the government can influence firms’ CSR investment and production decisions to enhance social welfare, considering the negative externalities brought by unsustainable production and positive externalities brought by CSR investments. Using a Stackelberg duopoly as a base model and lump-sum tax as the government’s decision variable, we find that when the government chooses not to intervene, it results in greater environmental damage as firms will underinvest in CSR and overproduce in quantity to achieve profit maximization. As such, the model extends to the assumption that the government acts as a benevolent dictator …

Behavioral Bias In Occupational Fatality Risk: Theory, Evidence, And Implications, Perry Singleton

Center for Policy Research

Behavioral bias in occupational fatality risk is introduced to the theoretical framework of hedonic wages, yielding an endogenous risk ceiling that increases social welfare. Empirically, bias is most evident among workers with no high school diploma, who do not report relatively greater exposure to death in high fatality rate occupations. These findings suggest that extant population estimates of value of statistical life are biased downwards and should be factored by at least 1.35. Under reasonable assumptions, simulations suggest an optimal risk ceiling between 73.0 to 85.9 percentile of the population distribution of occupational fatality risk.

What Makes A Classmate A Peer? Examining Which Peers Matter In Nyc Elementary Schools, William C. Horrace, Hyunseok Jung, Jonathan L. Pressler, Amy Ellen Schwartz

Center for Policy Research

Generalizing the group interaction model of Lee (2007), we identify and estimate the effects of student level social spillovers on standardized test performance in New York City (NYC) elementary schools. We leverage student demographic data to construct within-classroom social networks based on shared student characteristics, such as a gender or ethnicity. Rather than aggregate shared characteristics into a single network matrix, we specify additively separate network matrices for each shared characteristic and estimate city-wide peer effects for each one. Conditional on being in the same classroom, we find that the most important student peer effects are shared ethnicity, gender, and …

Non-Tariff Measures And Their Impacts On Asean Economic Integration, Myrna S. Austria

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

Using a gravity model that accounts for the asymmetric effects of non-tariff measures (NTMs), the study examined the impact of the five most prevalent NTMs in the region on intra-ASEAN imports. The study found that all five NTMs are significant factors affecting intra-ASEAN imports. However, their effects vary at the sectoral level, by pairs of trading partners, and whether the products are covered by mutual recognition and harmonization agreements (MRA) or not. For example, sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures, in general, negatively affect imports and are trade-reducing. Exceptions are prepared foodstuff and medicinal products, both of which are covered by …

Expanded Child Tax Credit Payments Have Not Reduced Employment, Stephen Roll, Leah Hamilton, Yung Chun

Social Policy Institute Research

Approximately 60 million American children living in 35 million households are now receiving monthly payments from the federal government as part of the temporary Child Tax Credit (CTC) expansion. Recently, a debate has emerged over whether or not the expanded CTC will cause parents to leave the workforce. On one side of the debate, a large number of economists have argued that the CTC will not cause a reduction in employment. However, a recent study used a simulation approach to estimate that 2.6% of parents will exit the labor force as a result of the CTC.

The reports below address …

Exploring Optimal Lockdown Policies During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Cameron Bundy

Symposium Of University Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE)

COVID-19 has impacted public and economic health worldwide. To bolster the economy and maintain human life, economic and epidemiological research is vital. Nations have implemented lockdowns intent on slowing the spread of the virus. This research examines how lockdown parameter adjustments can help control a nations fatalities. The study incorporated an SIRD disease model that is simulated over a 200 day period. The goal of the research is to take the SIRD model and use it to create a minimization function that analyzes dynamics that best produce minimal loss of GDP as well as low loss of life in a …

Artificial Intelligence (Ai) Capacity In Mountain West Metros, Olivia K. Cheche, Ally M. Beckwith, William E. Brown Jr.

Economic Development & Workforce

This fact sheet highlights data on artificial intelligence (AI) growth in Mountain West metropolitan areas over the last several decades, as originally reported by Mark Muro and Sifan Liu from the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program. The Brookings report examines how various metros across the United States contribute towards AI technology creation and business activity.

Nevada Campaign Financing: U.S. House Of Representatives, 2020, Kristian Thymianos, Olivia K. Cheche, William E. Brown Jr.

Elections & Governance

In the 2020 election cycle, Nevada’s U.S. House of Representatives delegation fundraised a combined total of $9,994,636. This fact sheet summarizes the campaign donations and expenditures of these representatives. The data are collected from the Open Secrets website.

Robust Dynamic Panel Data Models Using ��-Contamination, Badi H. Baltagi, Georges Bresson, Anoop Chaturvedi, Guy Lacroix

Center for Policy Research

This paper extends the work of Baltagi et al. (2018) to the popular dynamic panel data model. We investigate the robustness of Bayesian panel data models to possible misspecification of the prior distribution. The proposed robust Bayesian approach departs from the standard Bayesian framework in two ways. First, we consider the ε-contamination class of prior distributions for the model parameters as well as for the individual effects. Second, both the base elicited priors and the ε-contamination priors use Zellner (1986)'s g-priors for the variance-covariance matrices. We propose a general "toolbox" for a wide range of specifications which includes the dynamic …