Working Papers
1995
October 1, 1995
Discretionary Trading and Asset Price Volatility
Description: The IMF Working Papers series is designed to make IMF staff research available to a wide audience. Almost 300 Working Papers are released each year, covering a wide range of theoretical and analytical topics, including balance of payments, monetary and fiscal issues, global liquidity, and national and international economic developments.
October 1, 1995
Linkages Between Financial Variables, Financial Sector Reform and Economic Growth and Efficiency
Description: This paper analyzes the different channels through which financial variables and financial sector reform can affect economic growth and efficiency, using panel data for 40 countries which reformed their financial systems. Financial sector reform is hypothesized to affect economic growth and efficiency through three main channels: the real interest rate representing the interest cost of capital, the volume of intermediation, and financial sector efficiency. The results indicate that financial reforms have structural effects; that financial variables and reforms are important determinants of economic performance; that the impact depends on whether countries did or did not face a financial crisis; and that the “quality” of financial sector reform matters.
Notes: Uses panel data from 40 countries which have reformed their financial efficiency.
October 1, 1995
Stock Market Volatility and Corporate Investment
Description: Despite concerns are often voiced on the so called “excess volatility” of the stock market, little is known about the implications of market volatility for the real economy. This paper examines whether the stock market volatility affects real fixed investment. The empirical evidence obtained from the US data shows that market volatility has independent effects on investment over and above that of stock returns. Volatility and its changes are negatively related to investment growth. To the extent volatility depresses fixed capital formation and hence future income growth, the results suggest the desirability of reducing stock market volatility.
October 1, 1995
The Underground Economy: Estimation, and Economic and Policy Implications: The Case of Pakistan
Description: This paper estimates the size of the underground economy in Pakistan and analyzes its impact on Government fiscal position and the allocation of economic resources in the national economy. The results suggest that there is a mutual dependency between the size of the underground economy and fiscal deficits, and show a leakage from the national income-expenditure cycle in the formal economy to the underground economy via private investments. Finally, the paper proposes long- and short-run policies to reduce the size of the underground economy.
October 1, 1995
Government Role and the Efficiency of Policy Instruments
Description: Comparisons about the role of the government in an economy are usually made by reference to the share of tax revenue or of public expenditure in gross domestic product. However, governments often use other tools for pursuing their objectives. The paper discusses these other tools, shows the extent to which they can replace the traditional fiscal instruments, and assesses their quantitative importance. Various highly speculative hypotheses are advanced about the role of these other tools in countries at different levels of development.
October 1, 1995
Disinflation and the Recession-Now-Versus-Recession-Later Hypothesis: Evidence From Uruguay
Description: Both analytical models and casual empiricism suggest that the timing of the recessionary costs associated with inflation stabilization in chronic inflation countries may depend on the nominal anchor which is used. Under money-based stabilization, the recession occurs at the beginning of the program, while under exchange rate-based stabilization the recession occurs later in the program. This paper provides a first attempt to formally test this hypothesis using a vector-autoregression model for Uruguay. The impulse response of output to different stabilization policies is broadly consistent with the “recession-now-versus-recession-later” hypothesis. The evidence also suggests, however, that the effectiveness of a monetary anchor in reducing inflation is hindered by the high degree of dollarization of the Uruguayan economy.
Notes: Also published in Staff Papers, Vol. 43, No. 2, June 1996.
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1995
September 1, 1995
The Stability of the Gold Standard and the Evolution of the International Monetary System
Description: This paper examines some popular explanations for the smooth operation of the pre-1914 gold standard. We find that the rapid adjustment of economies to underlying disturbances played an important role in stabilizing output and employment under the gold standard system, but no evidence that this success also reflected relatively small underlying disturbances. Finally, the paper also suggests an explanation for the evolution of the international monetary system based on growing nominal inertia over time.