Search results

The development of China's foreign exchange market and the reform of Chinese yuan (hereinafter “CNY”) exchange rate are closely linked with each other. Their respective journey through the past 70 years can both be divided into three historical periods; as follows: China's foreign exchange market underwent a difficult exploration period, a formation and development period and an innovative development period; in the meanwhile, the formation mechanism of CNY exchange rate also witnessed three periods marked successively by a single exchange rate system with administrative pricing, an explorative formation mechanism of CNY exchange rate and a reformed, marketized CNY exchange rate mechanism.

In the present world, the development of almost every country is closely linked to the international community, which is the result of the heterogeneity in system, market, humanity and history, in addition to the differences in natural resource endowments and the diversity in technology, administration, information, experience and diplomacy. International economic exchanges require foreign exchange, which gives rise to the existence and development of the foreign exchange market.

The 70-year history of China's foreign exchange market has proven the need to continue safeguarding national sovereignty and interests of the people, stick to the general direction of serving economic development, adhere to the strategy of steadily and orderly promoting the construction of the foreign exchange market, keep on making innovation in monetary policy operation and unbendingly stay away from any systemic financial risks.

During the 70-year history of the new China, as an indispensable economic resource in China's economic development, the foreign exchange mechanism bolstered each stage of economic development and was always an important manifestation of China's economic sovereignty. It is argued that during the 30-year planned economy that preceded reform and opening-up, China pursued a closed-door policy with few international economic exchanges. The subtext of such argument is that China did not have (or hardly had much of) a foreign exchange mechanism during this period, which is clearly in conflict with historical evidence. In fact, although China did not have an open foreign exchange market before the reform and opening-up, it had a clear foreign exchange management system and exchange rate system.

This paper examines the effectiveness of the three macro-prudential measures introduced by the Korean government in 2010 and 2011: (i) introduction of limit for FX forward positions of domestic banks and foreign bank branches, (ii) reintroduction of tax on foreign investors' earnings from Korean government bonds, and (iii) imposition of macro-prudential stability levy on non-deposit foreign currency liabilities appeared in bank balance sheets. The results show that the three measures were not successful: The limits of FX forward position did not lead to the decrease in foreign borrowings. The reintroduction of the tax did not reduce foreign investments in Korean government bonds. Lastly, the levy on non-deposit foreign currency liabilities did not lower the foreign borrowings from the banks and did not result in more financing through deposits for banks. The ineffectiveness of the capital flow management system in controling the amount of foreign capital flows implies that the system might not be effective in mitigating the pressure on exchange rate caused by excessive volatility of foreign capital flows.

The economic development of Bangladesh is heavily reliant on the banking industry, yet it faces numerous hurdles, including liquidity issues, capital shortages, non-performing loans, inefficiencies and so on. Therefore, this study investigated the performance and efficiency of scheduled banks (state-owned, private commercial, foreign commercial and specialized banks) operating in Bangladesh.

The research was conducted using secondary data from annual reports of banks. The CAMELS rating system and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) methods were employed to measure the performance and efficiency of banks, respectively.

In the overall bank rankings, results revealed that foreign commercial Standard Chartered Bank and state-owned Sonali Bank Limited came in first and last position, respectively. Among the four categories of banks, foreign commercial banks were the best performer, while state-owned banks were the worst. Only two banks, i.e. Citibank NA and HSBC Bank, were scale efficient while the remaining banks were inefficient. In terms of performance and efficiency, state-owned and specialized banks were deemed wanting.

This study proposes recommendations to the policymakers that could lead to more effective tactics for improving the banking industry's performance and efficiency.

As far as the authors are concerned, this study presents empirical evidence on the performance and efficiency of different types of banks and explores comparisons among them, which has never been done to this extent in the country before.

This paper aims to scrutinize and analyze the continuity and change in US foreign policy toward the Gulf region, with a comparison between the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations. Also, it explores the nature of the changes in US foreign policy toward the Gulf region to explain the factors that lead to change and when this change occurs. Policymakers were one of the most important factors that led to the occurrence of change in US policy. Therefore, the study also focuses on decision-makers as an engine of change in foreign policy. In this vein, the study seeks to answer the following question: what is the extent of continuity and change in US foreign policy toward the Gulf region under both Bush and Obama administrations?

The study seeks to answer its research question by using the rational choice approach. This approach explains that foreign policy does not change because of change of leadership. Therefore, this approach is suitable to study the research question.

The study reached several points of results, the most important of which are as follows: there is continuity within US foreign policy toward the Gulf countries under the two Bush and Obama administrations. Despite the difference of mechanisms of implementing this foreign policy under both administrations, the objectives of the US foreign policy are still constant and continuous. For example, although the events of September led to the occurrence of tensions between the USA and the Gulf region, the repercussions of the events of September were ostensible where the effects were confined to a change in tactical objectives. Also, successive American administrations have recognized the USA’s enduring and salient interests in the Gulf region.

The region is important as a source of US energy supplies as a strategic military base of operations and also as a site of US foreign policy influence through relationship with individual nations such as Saudi Arabia and the smaller states of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

This paper adds to the existing literature which charts the effects of US foreign policy on the Gulf region.

This study examines Covid-19-related policies as a showcase for priorities in migration governance, the role of the state and employers’ associations, as well as gaps in social security and social protection.

This paper looks at how immigration interacts with the labour market in the Czech Republic through the prism of the varieties of capitalism framework and its relation to the concepts of labour market segmentation and flexibility.

The findings show that pandemic-related measures focused on continuously adjusting a legislative framework granting access to third-country workers. However, protective measures that would guarantee migrant workers and their families access to social rights, such as healthcare, were lacking. In this context, several lines of segmentation are observed: between migrant workers in standard employment and those in non-standard employment, when looking at their access to healthcare; between migrants hired directly by employers and those working through temporary agencies in terms of their wages, stability and protection; and, at a sectoral level, between the skilled workforce and migrants that are pushed to low-qualified poorly paid, and routinised jobs.

This paper expands the existing literature on the preferences and influence of governments, employers and trade unions regarding the demand for foreign labour in varieties of capitalism by adding the perspective of a Central European economic model. At the same time, its findings contribute to the understanding that labour market inequalities are not fostered on the supply side of migrant labour, through exogenous societal or cultural characteristics specific to countries of origin, but rather through institutionalised measures, practices and policies in countries of destination.

This research investigates the top five pharmaceutical companies in India to determine whether their financial structures are sound and if they face the risk of bankruptcy, highlighting the potential contribution of intellectual capital (IC) to financial stability.

The analysis outlines operating ratios, profitability ratios, possibility of bankruptcy (through Z-scores) and attractiveness of the financial structure (through the F-score), with consequent focus on (IC).

The financial structure of the selected companies seems stable. Changes in the Indian pharmaceutical scenario, above all, regarding the patent system, will force the companies to consider the impact of IC carefully.

Indian pharmaceutical companies need sustainability and development, with increasing focus on patent issues. To enhance innovation capabilities and overcome international competition, they should redesign their business orientation towards IC, mainly when impacting patents.

Using established approaches for predicting potential bankruptcy, this study focuses on the financial performance of top Indian pharmaceutical companies. IC can support financial stability, and this study provides further perspectives for managing their financial structure, both statically and dynamically.

The study aims to analyze and compare the influence of country-specific fundamentals and global conditions on sovereign risk of Sri Lanka within the sample period of 2006–2019 while employing Treasury bond rates as proxy for sovereign risk.

The determinant powers of the variables are assessed using the auto regressive distributed lag (ARDL) model to verify both short- and long-run effects on sovereign spreads.

The study finds that Sri Lanka's sovereign spreads are shaped by both country fundamentals and global factors, though local determinants tend to have greater influence when the directions of coefficients are ignored. While the impact of most variables was in line with the researchers' expectations, fiscal deficit was found to have an unconventional negative coefficient which may be explained by investors' optimistic take on Government's involvement in post-war economic development drive during the sample period, enabling Sri Lanka to attract low-cost funding.

The study excludes of impact of the ongoing coronavirus disease-2019 ( COVID-19) health crisis which may unduly distort the data. Further, the research does not capture the impact of change in sentiment owing to market information, debt dynamics and policy changes in Sri Lanka.

The study reveals that a sound monetary policy directed at preserving both the internal and external value of currency as well as a disciplined fiscal policy are imperative to manage Sri Lanka's sovereign risk, particularly in the face of global uncertainties.

The study adds to the literature by investigating the timely importance of a country's internal fundamentals against the global events. Furthermore, the research would complement the scarcity of research regarding that subject focused on the Sri Lankan economy, capturing the rapid variations in the fundamentals that the country has undergone since the end of the civil war while recognizing the growing influence of globalization over the recent years.

The socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics reflects the characteristics of ushering into a new era, and the research object thereof shifts to productive forces. Emancipating and developing productive forces and achieving common prosperity become the main theme. Wealth supersedes value as the fundamental category of economic analysis.

The theoretical system of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics cannot proceed from transcendental theories but is problem-oriented. Leading problems involve development stages and research-level problems.

The economic operation analysis is subject to the goal of optimal allocation of resources with micro-level analysis focused on efficiency and macro-level analysis focused on economic growth and macroeconomic stability also known as economic security. The economic development analysis explores the laws of development and related development concepts in compliance with laws of productive forces. The new development concepts i.e. the innovative coordinated green open and shared development drive the innovation of development theory in political economy.

Accordingly, the political economy cannot study the system only, but also needs to study the problems of economic operation and economic development. Therefore, the theoretical system of the political economy tends to encompass three major parts, namely economic system, economic operation and economic development (including foreign economy). The basic economic system analysis needs to understand the relationship between public ownership and non-public ownership, between distribution according to work and factor payments, and between socialism and market economy from the perspective of coexistence theory, thus transforming institutional advantage into governance advantage.

It is known that the National Pension Service (NPS) of Korea contributes to the market stability because it tends to pursue the negative feedback trading strategy in the Korean stock market. While many studies deal with institutional investors’ trading in the financial derivatives market, the NPS’s trading in the derivatives market is rarely studied. Using the NPS’s trading data for the period from January 2010 to March, 2020, the authors examine the transactions of the NPS in the KOSPI200 futures market. We find that the NPS’s net investment flow (NIF) in KOSPI200 futures is negatively associated with the past returns of KOSPI200 futures and the KOPI200 index. However, we also find that the NPS’s NIF of KOSPI200 futures is positively associated with its NIF in KOSPI200 stocks. Along with the legal restriction on the NPS’s trading in the derivatives market, the result suggests that the NPS uses KOSPI200 futures to deviate the problems related to non-synchronous trading in the spot market. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first study of the NPS’s transactions of KOSPI200 futures. The paper suggests that the NPS does not trade KOSPI200 futures for hedging or arbitrage profit but for complementing its transactions in the spot market of KOSPI200 stocks.

This study aims to analyze the imbalances in the public finance structure of Pakistan’s economy and highlight the need for comprehensive reforms. Specifically, it aims to contribute to the empirical literature by analyzing the relationship between fiscal vulnerability, financial stress and macroeconomic policies in Pakistan’s economy between 1971 and 2020.

The study develops an index of fiscal vulnerability, an index of financial stress and an index of macroeconomic policies. The fiscal vulnerability index is based on the patterns of fiscal indicators resulting from past trends of the selected variables in Pakistan’s economy. The financial stress in Pakistan is caused from the financial disorders that are acknowledged in the composite index, which is based on variables with the potential to indicate periods of stress stemming from the foreign exchange market, the securities market and the monetary policy components. The macroeconomic policies index is developed to analyze the mechanism through which fiscal vulnerability and financial stress have influenced macroeconomic policies in Pakistan. The causal association between fiscal vulnerability, financial stress and macroeconomic policies is analyzed using the auto-regressive distributive lags approach.

There exists a long-run relationship between the three indices, and a bi-directional causality between fiscal vulnerability and macroeconomic policies.

This study contributes to the development of a fiscal monitoring mechanism, which has the basic purpose of analyzing the refinancing risk of public liabilities. Moreover, it focuses on fiscal vulnerability from a macroeconomic perspective. The study tries to develop a framework to assess fiscal vulnerability in light of “The Risk Octagon” theory, which focuses on three risk components: fiscal variables, macroeconomic-disruption-associated shocks and non-fiscal country-specific variables. The initial contribution of this work to the literature is to develop a framework (a fiscal vulnerability index, financial stress index and macroeconomic policies index) for effective and result-oriented macro-fiscal surveillance. Moreover, empirical literature emphasized and advised developing countries to develop their own capacity mechanisms to assess their fiscal vulnerability in light of the IMF guidelines regarding vulnerability assessments. This study thus attempts to fulfill the said gap identified in literature.