Working Papers
2004
February 1, 2004
An Option-Based Approach to Bank Vulnerabilities in Emerging Markets
Description: We measure bank vulnerability in emerging markets using the distance-to-default, a risk-neutral indicator based on Merton's (1974) structural model of credit risk. The indicator is estimated using equity prices and balance-sheet data for 38 banks in 14 emerging market countries. Results show it can predict a bank's credit deterioration up to nine months in advance. The distance-to-default, hence, may prove useful for bank monitoring purposes.
February 1, 2004
The Decentralization Dilemma in India
Description: Already in precarious shape, the financial health of India’s states took a turn for the worse in the late 1990s when state deficits and debt rose sharply. While India is among the world’s most decentralized economies, greater decentralization is not the root cause of this situation. Panel estimation techniques find evidence that the trend rise in deficits reflects problems of transfer dependence and moral hazard that undermine states’ incentives to control deficits.
February 1, 2004
Imperfect Capital Mobility in an Open Economy Model of Capital Accumulation
Description: This paper introduces a tractable capital market friction mechanism that allows a break of the parity between domestic and external interest rates and generates a gradual evolution of capital stock and other macroeconomic variables-in contrast to the instantaneous convergence found in models with interest rate parity. The friction, derived from explicit microfoundations, is such that the cost of new loans is an increasing function of net borrowing.
February 1, 2004
Trade Liberalization and Firm Productivity: The Case of India
Description: Using a panel of firm-level data, this paper examines the effects of India's trade reforms in the early 1990s on firm productivity in the manufacturing sector, focusing on the interaction between this policy shock and firm and environment characteristics. The rapid and comprehensive tariff reductions-part of an IMF-supported adjustment program with India in 1991-allow us to establish a causal link between variations in inter-industry and intertemporal tariffs and consistently estimated firm productivity. Specifically, reductions in trade protectionism lead to higher levels and growth of firm productivity, with this effect strongest for private companies. Interestingly, state-level characteristics, such as labor regulations, investment climate, and financial development, do not appear to influence the effect of trade liberalization on firm productivity.
February 1, 2004
Equity Prices, Credit Default Swaps, and Bond Spreads in Emerging Markets
Description: This paper examines equilibrium price relationships and price discovery between credit defaul swap (CDS), bond, and equity markets for emerging market sovereign issuers. Findings suggest that CDS and bond spreads converge despite various pressures that arise in the market. In most countries, however, we do not find any equilibrium price relationship between the bond and CDS markets and the equity markets. As for price discovery, our results are mixed. This stands in contrast to the empirical findings on corporate issuers in the United States and Europe.
February 1, 2004
How Much Do Trading Partners Matter for Economic Growth?
Description: This paper empirically examines the extent to which a country's economic growth is influenced by its trading partner economies. Panel estimation results based on four decades of data for over 100 countries show that trading partners' growth and relative income levels have a strong effect on domestic growth, even after controlling for the influence of common global and regional trends. One interpretation is that conditional convergence is stronger, the richer are a country's trading partners. A general implication of the results is that industrial countries benefit from trading with developing countries, which grow rapidly, while developing countries benefit from trading with industrial countries, which have relatively high incomes.
February 1, 2004
Rational Speculation, Financial Crises, and Optimal Policy Responses
Description: This paper develops a theory of the onset of financial crises by solving for the optimal trading strategies of speculators in financial markets, in a model where each speculator tries to coordinate her trades with the market's by observing the decisions of other speculators, while simultaneously trying to preempt the market. The interaction and resolution of these two conflicting incentives are analyzed under alternate central bank policy regimes. Our model explains how imperfect information structures prevent traders from exploiting profitable opportunities and suggests how large traders help alleviate this problem by undertaking risky arbitrage early in the investment process, in return for higher profits, if successful. The central bank's defense strategy is a parameter of this model. We compare the likelihood of a crisis under alternate defense strategies and show that credible monetary authorities can provide a better defense of exchange rate regimes against adverse shocks by not disclosing their commitment value to the market.
February 1, 2004
Monetary Magic? How the Fed Improved the Flexibility of the U.S. Economy
Description: Extending recent theoretical contributions on sources of inflation inertia, we argue that monetary uncertainty accounts for sluggish expectations adjustment to nominal disturbances. Estimating a model in which rational individuals learn over time about shifts in U.S. monetary policy and the Phillips curve, we find strong evidence that this link exists. These results bring into question the standard approach for evaluating monetary rules by assuming unchanged private sector responses, help clarify the role of monetary stability in reducing output variability in the United States and elsewhere, and tell a subtle and dynamic story of the interaction between monetary policy and the supply side of the economy.
February 1, 2004
Armington Elasticities in Intermediate Inputs Trade: A Problem in Using Multilateral Trade Data
Description: This paper finds that the estimates of Armington elasticities (the elasticity of substitution between groups of products identified by country of origin) obtained from multilateral trade data can differ from those obtained from bilateral trade data. In particular, the former tends to be higher than the latter when trade consists largely of intermediate inputs. Given that the variety of intermediate inputs traded across borders is increasing rapidly, and that the effect of this increase is not adequately captured in multilateral trade data, the evidence shows that the use of multilateral trade data to estimate Armington elasticities needs caution.
February 1, 2004
Inflation Targeting and Exchange Rate Rules in an Open Economy
Description: This paper provides a simple dynamic neo-Keynesian model that can be used to analyze the impact of monetary policy that considers inflation targeting in a small open economy. This economy is characterized by imperfect competition and short-run price rigidity. The main findings of the paper are that, depending on what shocks affect the economy, the effects of inflation targeting on output and inflation volatility depend crucially on the exchange rate regime and the inflation index being targeted. First, in the presence of real shocks, flexible exchange rates dominate managed exchange rates, while for nominal shocks the reverse is true. Second, domestically generated inflation targeting is preferable to CPI inflation targeting, because the former is more stabilizing not only in relation to both measures of inflation, but also to the output gap and the real exchange rate. Finally, flexible inflation targeting outperforms strict inflation targeting in terms of welfare.