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Exchange Rates, Price Levels, and Inflation Targeting: Evidence from Asian Countries
Get PDFThis study examines how the adoption of inflation-targeting influenced exchange rate pass-through and volatility in four Asian countries (Indonesia, Korea, the Philippines, and Thailand) over the sample period of January 1990 to June 2007. We find that reforming policy by adopting inflation targeting generally helped reduce pass-through in Korea and Thailand, while the results are less clear in Indonesia and the Philippines. Still, the findings indicate that inflation targeting has caused a decline in exchange rate volatility in all four countries. The important lesson from the experiences of these Asian countries is that the adoption of inflation targeting contributes to achieving the ultimate goal of inflation stability through reducing exchange rate pass-through or variability.departmental bulletin pape
Using a Competency Approach to Understand HCN Managers in Asia: A Study of Japanese, Chinese, Malaysian, Thai, and Hong Kong Managers in Japanese MNEs
Get PDFThis study examined host country nationals (HCNs) in multinational enterprises (MNEs) through the lens of a competency approach. Participants consisted of 500 managers working for a leading Japanese retail MNE, with 100 each from Japan, China, Malaysia, Thailand, and Hong Kong. The study highlighted three competency variables of those managers for 12 skills: the level of competency demands; that of competencies; and that of adaptation as assessed by the fit between the levels of competencies and the levels of corresponding competency demands. Several similarities and differences in the competency variables of the HCN managers emerged. For example, relationship skills were the most demanded competency for all HCN managers as well as the most developed competency for all manager groups except the Thai. Further, goal-setting skills, while highly demanded, showed low adaptation levels for all groups. The strength of the levels of the three competency variables, however, differed significantly among groups. Based on the empirical evidence obtained from this study, practical implications for HR professionals were discussed.departmental bulletin pape
R&D, Unemployment, and Labor Market Policies
Get PDFThis paper studies the effects of labor market policies on R&D activities and unemployment. I develop a search and matching model in which firms' R&D decisions are endogenously determined. The model demonstrates that more intensive labor market policies that protect workers reduce the levels of R&D activities. This study offers a theoretical framework to understand the relationship between R&D activities, labor market policies, and unemployment which is discussed in empirical studies.departmental bulletin pape
Monetary Policy and Yield Curve Dynamics in an Emerging Market: Sri Lankan Perspectives
Get PDFThe monetary policy targets the very short end of the yield curve although real economic activity is largely dependent upon the medium to long- term market interest rates. Conventional wisdom is that decrease in the monetary policy target rate leads to an immediate decrease in market interest rates, and an increase in bond prices; yet evidence for this view is elusive. Therefore, the question of how do the monetary policy actions translate across the yield curve remain at the forefront of many recent policy debates. Bringing the foundations of Expectation Hypothesis (EH) and empirical analysis of Sri Lanka money market and government bond daily yield rates for the period 2000 to 2009 through the application of Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and Vector Error Correction Model (VECM), explains that monetary policy impact monotonically decreases over the yield curve at the short-end and become segmented toward medium to long-term of the yield curve. The impact appears to be waning at a faster pace at times of financial and economic uncertainties compared against stable economic period. This invites policy attention on the part of monetary policy effectiveness, structural impediments and market confidence in Sri Lanka.departmental bulletin pape
Perspective for the Vietnamese Economy in the Context of Asia and the Pacific: An econometric analysis with a global macro econometric model
Get PDFWithin the transition period to a market oriented economy, Vietnam attracts foreign capitals to strengthen the supply-side economy. Especially, FDI plays a very important role to be achieving an export-led growth and contributes to the steady economic growth at 6-8% per annum. According to the scenario forecasts by means of the global model system, it is expected that the Vietnamese economy is likely to experience a high growth achieving a take-off stage with an export-led growth in the strong economic growth in Asia. It is noteworthy that the Vietnamese macro imbalances including I-S and trade imbalance, and so on, are also expected to be improved if FDI will be increasing.departmental bulletin pape
Cyclical behavior of a matching model with capital investment
Get PDFThis paper studies the role of capital investment in a search and matching model. I develop an endogenous job separation matching model in which a firm's irreversible capital investment is endogenously determined. The incorporation of capital investment provides an additional channel for firms to respond to productivity shocks, significantly magnifying labor market fluctuations. The numerical results demonstrate that the incorporation of irreversible capital investment improves the ability of the standard search and matching model to generate cyclical fluctuations of unemployment and vacancies in response to productivity shocks. Moreover, my model can generate the pro-cyclicality of vacancies, which the standard endogenous separation models often fail to generate.departmental bulletin pape
Exchange Rate Movements in a Dollarized Economy: The Case of Cambodia
Get PDFThere has been an on-going debate on whether dollarization helps stabilize exchange rates for emerging economies. This paper discusses this issue in a highly dollarized country, Cambodia, by empirically examining the relationship between dollarization and exchange rate movements. The GARCH analysis suggests that dollarization induces the depreciation of the Cambodian riel as well as intensifies exchange rate variability. The result is consistent with the argument that dollarization is one of the crucial causes of exchange rate instability. Dollarization in Cambodia could be a constraint on poverty reduction since it tends to affect the living standard of the poor who earn the income in the riel through the depreciation of the currency and intensified volatility of exchange rates.departmental bulletin pape
Gross Worker Flows and Unemployment Dynamics in Japan
Get PDFThis paper studies worker flows dynamics in Japan for the period between 1980 and 2009. We construct gross worker flows data from the monthly Labour Force Survey. Our data enables us to examine the size and cyclical patterns of the flows and transition rates between the states of employment, unemployment, and not-in-the labor force. We find that the cyclical pattern of worker flows is similar to that found in other countries, while worker flows in Japan are generally smaller than those in the U.S. and European countries. We also decompose changes in unemployment into contributions due to changes in unemployment inflow and outflow rates. We find that both inflow and outflow rate play an important role to account for variation in the unemployment rate in Japan.departmental bulletin pape
The Impact of the Global Economic Crisis on Cambodia
Get PDFWe numerically examine the impact of the global economic crisis on the Cambodian garment exports as well as its economy by using the conventional CGE model. A seminal aspect of the paper is that we have successfully estimated the curvature of the CET and CES production functions for the Cambodian economy, by using the time series regression method. One of our most striking results indicates that the welfare cost of the impact of the crisis at least reaches 281 million US dollars, thus resulting in a 0.3 percent decrease in GDP with 20.8 thousand direct job losses in the garment industry. Our simulation results also show that the currently ongoing policy in Cambodia only reduces the negative impact of the crisis by 32 million US dollars, and we propose an expansion of the government budget of 304 million US dollars, in order to neutralize the negative impact of the global economic crisis on the Cambodian economy.departmental bulletin pape
The determinants of household energy demand in rural Beijing: Can the environmental-friendly technologies be effective?
Get PDFWith rapid economic growth, total energy demand in rural China has increased dramatically and its structure is in the transition from non-commercial to commercial energy. At the same time, it is also expected that households in rural areas will face energy shortage and causes more environmental problems without having more access to renewable energy technologies. However, little is still known about (i) the transition of the energy use and (ii) whether the technologies introduced have been effective or not. To analyze these issues, we have estimated energy demands of rural households by utilizing a survey data taken from Beijing's ten suburban districts. The data contains the information of both non-commercial and commercial energy use, key characteristics of the households and several renewable energy technologies. Our empirical analysis reveals three main results. First, the per capita income is a key factor to per capita energy consumption. More speci cally, a rise in per capita coal consumption strongly diminishes as per capita income increases. Second, coal and LPG prices do not exhibit any substitution effect, but an increase in these prices has strong negative effects on their own energy use. Third, the renewable energy technologies are identi ed to reduce the coal consumption and induce more energy efficiency. Overall, these ndings suggest a positive perspective: if the Chinese government could appropriately design policies associated with renewable energy technologies and with the related energy price controls, then coal consumption will be induced to decline in the near future and the substitution effects to cleaner energy use will speed up. This implies that the smooth energy transition in rural China can be made in more environmentally sustainable manners.departmental bulletin pape