Search results

The purpose of this paper is to examine the monetary policy transmission mechanism for the Fiji Islands using a structural vector autoregressive (SVAR) model for the period 1975 to 2005.

The SVAR model investigates how a monetary policy shock – defined as a temporary and exogenous rise in the short‐term interest rate – affects real and nominal macro variables; namely real output, prices, exchange rates, and money supply.

The results suggest that a monetary policy shock statistically significantly reduces output initially, but then output is able to recover to its pre‐shock level. A monetary policy shock generates inflationary pressure, leads to an appreciation of the Fijian currency and reduces the demand for money. The paper also analysed the impact of a nominal effective exchange rate (NEER) shock (an appreciation) on real output and found that it leads to a statistically significant negative effect on real output.

The findings of this study should be of direct relevance to the research and policy work undertaken at the Reserve Bank of Fiji.

For a small economy, such as Fiji, where monetary policy is key to sustainable macroeconomic management, this is the first paper that undertakes a dynamic analysis of monetary policy transmission. The paper uses time series data over three decades and builds a structural VAR model, rooted in theory. This paper will be of direct relevance to the Reserve Bank of Fiji. The approach and model proposed will also be useful for applied monetary policy researchers in other developing countries where inflation rate targeting is a key element of the monetary policy setting.

This study aims to examine the relationship between exchange rate risk and export at commodity level for the Indian case.

The monthly panel data used for analysis are at a disaggregated level, which cover around 100 products, encompassing all merchandize sectors for the period spanning from 2012:12 to 2017:11. To measure the exchange rate volatility, the authors use real as well as nominal exchange rate concepts and predict the volatility of exchange rate using the autoregressive conditional heteroscedastic-based model. They use pooled mean group, mean group and common correlated effects mean group estimator that is suitable for the objectives and data frequency.

The empirical analysis indicates both short- and long-term negative effects of exchange rate variations on exporting. Specifically, in the long run, real exchange rate as well as nominal exchange rate volatility has significant effects on export performance, yet, the effects of uncertainty of nominal exchange rate is much severe and intense. In the short run, it is the nominal exchange rate uncertainty that hurts exports from India. Nevertheless, the short-run effect is much lesser than the long-run, supporting the argument that the short-term exchange rate risk can be hedged, at least partially, through financial instruments; however, uncertainty of the long-term horizon cannot be hedged easily and cost-effectively.

Reducing uncertainty and attaining stability in exchange rate and price level should be an important policy objective in developing countries such as India to achieve higher export growth, both in the short and long run.

Unlike previous studies, this paper tests the relationship using micro-level data and uses advanced econometric techniques that are likely to provide more precise information regarding the association between exchange rate volatility and trade flows.

The purpose of this paper is to reexamine the speed and magnitude of exchange rate pass-through (ERPT) to consumer prices in Ghana.

The Johansen Maximum Likelihood approach is employed in the estimation of different models of symmetric and asymmetric ERPT. Specifically asymmetric ERPT models with respect to the direction and size of exchange rate changes are estimated.

Results reveal that even though a depreciation in the nominal effective exchange rate will lead to an increase of consumer prices in the long-run, it is not statistically significant. Evidence also suggests a significant asymmetry with respect to direction and size of exchange rate changes. This indicates that the right ERPT model is an asymmetric model. Specifically ERPT is found to be incomplete but relatively higher in periods of depreciation than in periods of appreciation; that is 53 percent against 3 percent. ERPT is also higher during episodes of large changes (about 51 percent).

It would have been interesting to analyze the impact on consumer prices through changes in import prices. That approach was not adopted due to lack of consistent data on import prices in Ghana.

It is imperative that the monetary authorities critically monitor exchange rate movements in order to be able to take swift policy action so as to counteract any inflationary pressures from the external sector. In particular, much attention should be paid to events and arrangements that could result in large depreciation of the exchange rate.

While previous studies have assumed a symmetric ERPT model for Ghana, this paper is unique in that it investigates the most appropriate model for examining ERPT in Ghana whether symmetric or an asymmetric.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the degree of the exchange rate pass-through (ERPT) to the consumer price index (CPI) at both aggregated and disaggregated levels in Vietnam. Updated data of the nominal effective exchange rate (NEER) and bilateral exchange rate (BiER) have been utilized in this study for the comparison purposes.

Advanced time-series approaches such as a structural vector autoregressive framework, structural impulse response functions (SIRFs), and structural forecast-error variance decomposition (SFEVD) are utilized in this paper.

Empirical findings from this paper present an incomplete degree of the ERPT to the aggregated CPI. The ERPT based on the BiER is observed to have substantially larger magnitude than the NEER-based pass-through. For the disaggregated level, the degree of the ERPT varies considerably across sub-components of the CPI, with a higher magnitude of the ERPT elasticity being found from the BiER estimations. The index of housing and construction materials has the largest ERPT based on the BiER, followed by the food and foodstuffs (1.00 and 0.56, respectively). The macroeconomic and financial environments as well as an economic integration into the global market may be the main causes of a higher ERPT in Vietnam in comparison with other ASEAN countries.

The significant and incomplete pass-through of the exchange rate in Vietnam can affect firms’ and households’ budget planning, savings and profits. This finding generally implies that the cost of devaluation of the domestic currency affects the society as the whole in terms of welfare. The State Bank of Vietnam should carefully consider the overall effect of welfares when formulating and implementing strategies of currency devaluation. In addition, the Vietnamese economy becomes more sensitive to external vulnerabilities via changes of the exchange rate during an increasingly economic integration into the global market. In order to maintain inflation stability, it is vitally important to reduce the impact of exchange rate movements on the domestic prices, both aggregated and disaggregated levels, by pursuing either monetary policy credibility or inflation targeting.

Previous studies on the ERPT literature in the Asia region or for emerging countries focus mainly on the aggregated data of the CPI. Previous studies were conducted before the global financial crisis in 2008/2009. The current paper is the first of its kind to examine the pass-through from exchange rates to consumer prices in Vietnam using both aggregated and disaggregated data.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the firm-specific and macroeconomic determinants of profitability of Indian manufacturing firms. It assesses the main determinants of firm’s profitability in the pre-crisis and post-crisis period from 2000 to 2015.

This methodology splits the factors that influence firm profitability in two groups: firm-specific (internal) factors and macroeconomic indicators. It further aims to look at the consistency of the factors in the pre-crisis and post-crisis period. The return on assets and the net profit margin are considered as proxy for corporate profits. The panel generalized least square and panel vector auto-regression model have been employed, and it is observed that the exchange rate seems to have played a major role in the crisis period by explaining the earning quotient for Indian firms.

This paper concludes that the firm-specific variables and exchange rate channels are quite relevant in explaining the profitability of Indian manufacturing firms. It accepts the hypotheses that size and liquidity enhances whereas leverage discourages the profitability. Few exceptions have been observed during the crisis period. The study also concludes that in the short run, the changes in exchange rate are not increasing profitability, but in the long run, it increases profitability as the volatility of nominal exchange rate is positively impacting profitability. Moreover, the study finds that the nominal exchange rate index is more informative and explains that profitability is better than real exchange rate index in the case of Indian manufacturing firms over the study period.

The managers and the policy makers should give utmost importance to the firm-specific determinants, especially after the crisis period, and consider the appropriate exchange rate to evaluate firm performance for making any change in the policy to make any business profitable.

This study has been conducted over a longer time by using advanced panel data analysis techniques on the recent data. The study period properly captures the crisis time and the research includes different selection of profitability that highlights corporate earnings pattern. Moreover, validation of the exchange rate sensitivity of profitability over nominal and real exchange rate increases the robustness of the study. Moreover, on Indian manufacturing firms, the study is very significant and unique.

The purpose of this paper is to examine and analyze the exchange rate pass-through into inflation (ERPT) in Vietnam.

The paper examines and analyzes the ERPT in Vietnam by applying vector autoregression model over the period 2008‒2018.

The key finding of the research is that from the impulse response results, the transmission of exchange rate shocks to inflation is significant in Vietnam, and this is incomplete exchange rate pass-through. Moreover, the evidence from variance decompositions argues that exchange rate is an important factor to explain the fluctuation of inflation.

In overall, the depreciation or appreciation of exchange rate in Vietnam will considerably impact inflation.

The theoretical and empirical literature stipulated that exchange rate shocks do influence the domestic price of imports. Hence, this paper aims to investigate the underlying relationship between the exchange rate and prices known as the exchange rate pass-through.

The paper uses a structural vector auto-regression (SVAR) model, drawing on Bernanke (1986) and Sims (1986), to empirically examine and analyze the pass-through of exchange rate fluctuations to domestic prices in Egypt.

The empirical results of the monthly data between 2003 and 2015 revealed that the exchange rate pass-through in Egypt is fairly substantial but incomplete and slow in the three price indices [IMP, producer price index and consumer price index (CPI)]. However, the impact is more prominent for consumer prices than for any other price index. This finding could be attributed to the fact that the CPI in Egypt is composed of a relatively large number of subsidized commodities and goods with administered prices as well as the authorities’ behavior in manipulating prices (i.e. export ban). This is expected to weaken the transmission of exchange rate shocks.

The result has interesting implications for Egypt’s ability to attain an effective inflation targeting regime.

The study contributes to the literature by assessing the effect of changes in the exchange rate (the Egyptian £ vis-à-vis the US$) on prices using an updated time series from 2003 to 2015. It addresses the limitations of the study of Nafie et al. (2004), which found no strong relationship between the exchange rate and inflation rate in the Egyptian context. One of these limitations was using the CPI, as the only price index.

Since the last review article by McKenzie, the literature has experienced a surge in the number of empirical articles. These new contributions, coupled with those that were overlooked by McKenzie, set the stage for this review. Many of the recent studies have been empirical in nature and these deserve specific attention. Thus, this paper aims to survey and review all of the studies by paying attention to the attributes outlined in the text.

This paper examines the vast empirical literature, up to 2005, to assess the main trends in modeling and estimating these trade flows at the aggregate, bilateral, and sectoral levels.

The increase in exchange‐rate volatility since 1973 has had indeterminate effects on international export and import flows. Although it can be assumed that an increase in risk may lead to a reduction in economic activity, the theoretical literature provides justifications for positive or insignificant effects as well. Similar results have been found in empirical tests. While modeling techniques have evolved over time to incorporate new developments in econometric analysis, no single measure of exchange‐rate volatility has dominated the literature.

An argument put forward by the opponents of the floating exchange rates is that such rates introduce uncertainty into the foreign exchange market, which could deter trade flows. However, a theoretical argument is put forward by some to show that uncertainty could also boost trade flows if traders increase their trade volume to offset any decrease in future revenue due to exchange rate volatility. The empirical literature reviewed in this paper supports both views.

This study aims to analyze exchange rate risks and the choice of exchange rate policies in a small open economy indebted in foreign currency, incorporating the financial accelerator mechanism.

To examine discussions on the fear of floating, this study develops a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model in which a small open economy model has an open economy financial accelerator mechanism as the external borrowing restriction. The author then compares and analyzes the macroeconomic dynamics in response to an exchange rate shock under different exchange rate systems.

The most interesting finding is that the currency peg for a foreign currency used in borrowing is more efficient than the trade-weighted currency basket policy, regardless of trade openness or trade share.

The result implies that in discussions on the fear of floating, more attention needs to be paid to exchange rate risks in finance. It also suggests that exchange rate policy used to mitigate exchange rate risks in finance stabilizes macroeconomic volatility more efficiently.

The paper provides an answer to the question: which is the more serious problem in the fear of floating and to what would the regime be anchored.

The purpose of this research is to examine the foreign exchange exposure of listed companies on the Ghana Stock Exchange over the period January 1999 to December 2004. The research uses different exchange rate measures namely; the cedi to US dollar, the cedi to UK pound sterling, the cedi to the euro and a trade‐weighted exchange rate index to determine the degree of exposure.

The Jorion (1990) two‐factor model which regresses the return on a firm against changes in the exchange rate and return on the market is used to estimate the exchange rate exposure for the sample of twenty firms used in this study.

About 55 per cent of firms in the sample have a statistically significant exposure to the US dollar whilst 35 per cent are statistically exposed to the UK pound sterling. Sector specific exposure results show that the manufacturing and retail sectors are significantly exposed to the US dollar exchange rate risk. The financial sector did not show any risk exposure to any of the international currencies. The most dominant source of exchange rate risk exposure is the US dollar. Most firms are also negatively exposed to the cedi to US dollar exchange rate changes, implying that the cedi depreciation vis‐à‐vis the US dollar adversely affects firm returns.

The study reveals the extent of foreign exchange exposure of firms in Ghana and also adds to the limited body of empirical literature on exchange rate exposure of firms in Africa. Results of this study serve as a useful guide to corporate managers and investors on the degree of foreign exchange exposure and the need to effectively manage firm exposure.