Working Papers
January 1, 0001
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2003
December 1, 2003
Characterizing Global Investors' Risk Appetite for Emerging Market Debt During Financial Crises
Description: The effects of unanticipated movements in global risk on nine emerging bond markets are investigated. The components of global risk are volatility, credit, and liquidity risks. Country and contagion risks are also studied individually. A historical decomposition of bond spreads is used to identify the relative contributions of risk during 1998-99. The empirical results show that the Russian/LTCM crises were characterized by increases in global credit risk, while the relative size of global risk factors was mixed for the Brazilian crisis, with no component dominating. Country risk is found to be important for all countries, while there is little evidence of contagion risk.
December 1, 2003
Determinants of Deflation in Hong Kong SAR
Description: This paper presents a comprehensive econometric analysis of the determinants of deflation in Hong Kong SAR. The analysis helps to determine the relative contributions of factors such as increased productivity, scarce money supply, and excess capacity in determining deflation. The main conclusion is that the effects of permanent shocks, such as productivity shocks and shocks related to changes in the money supply and price convergence with trading partners, have become more important in explaining deflation. In addition, the effects of temporary shifts in aggregate demand have been perpetuated by negative wealth and balance-sheet effects in the corporate and household sectors arising from asset-price declines over the past five years.
December 1, 2003
Cross-Border Listings, Capital Controls, and U.S. Equity Flows to Emerging Markets
Description: We analyze capital flows to emerging markets in a framework that incorporates two quantitative measures of financial integration, the intensity of capital controls and the extent of cross border listings, while controlling for traditional global (push) and country specific (pull) factors. Two important results emerge. First, the cross listing of an emerging market firm on a U.S. exchange is an important but short lived capital flows event, suggesting that the cross listed stock is in effect a new security that U.S. investors quickly bring into their portfolios. Second, the effect of financial liberalization on capital flows is more nuanced than is suggested by event studies: A reduction in capital controls results in increased inflows only when the controls are binding. Among the standard push and pull factors, global factors are important-slack U.S. economic activity is associated with increased flows to emerging markets-and U.S. investors appear to chase expected, but not past, returns.
December 1, 2003
Do Active Labor Market Policies Increase Employment?
Description: Using panel data for 15 industrial countries, active labor market policies (ALMPs) are shown to have raised employment rates in the business sector in the 1990s, after controlling for many institutions, country-specific effects, and economic variables. Among such policies, direct subsidies to job creation were the most effective. ALMPs also affected employment rates by reducing real wages below levels allowed by technological growth, changes in the unemployment rate, and institutional and other economic factors. However, part of this wage moderation may be linked to a composition effect because policies were targeted to low-paid individuals. Whether ALMPs are cost-effective from a budgetary perspective remains to be determined, but they are certainly not substitutes for comprehensive institutional reforms.