Hanafiah Harvey

How sensitive are Malaysia's bilateral trade flows to depreciation?

In an attempt to assess the impact of currency depreciation on the trade balance, recent studies are employing disaggregated trade data to avoid aggregation bias. However, since import and export prices are not available at disaggregated level, recent studies are using export and import values rather than their volumes so that they can establish direct relation between inpayments and the exchange rate as well as between outpayments and the exchange rate. This study explores the experience of Malaysia. Bilateral inpayments and outpayments models are estimated between Malaysia and her 14 trading partners using quarterly data and bound testing approach to cointegration. The results show that while real depreciation of the ringgit has short-run effects, in the long-run it increases Malaysias inpayments from only five trading partners.

The J-curve: Malaysia versus her major trading partners

Currency depreciation is said to worsen the trade balance before improving it, hence the J-curve phenomenon. Since introduction of cointegration and error-correction modelling, researchers have tried to distinguish the short-run effects of currency depreciation from its long-run effects. A few studies that have investigated the experience of Malaysia, have relied upon aggregate trade data and have found no strong support for a significant relation between the real value of the ringgit and the Malaysian trade balance. In this article, we disaggregate the data by country and consider Malaysias bilateral trade balance with her 14 largest trading partners. Using bound testing approach to cointegration and error-correction modelling, we provide some support for the J-curve hypothesis.

Brazil–US commodity trade and the J-Curve

Currency devaluation or depreciation is said to temporarily worsen a country’s trade balance and improve it later, an effect that is called the J-Curve. Previous research that tested the J-Curve for Brazil used the country’s aggregate trade flows with the rest of the world and did not find support for the phenomenon. In this article, we consider the trade flows between Brazil and a major trading partner, the United States, disaggregating their trade flows by commodity. We then test the empirical validity of the J-Curve for each of the 92 industries that trade between the two countries. We find support for the phenomenon in 31 industries. Therefore, disaggregation by industry seems to yield some support for the phenomenon.

J-Curve: Singapore versus her Major Trading Partners†

There are limited number of studies which have tried to test the J-Curve phenomenon for Singapore either using aggregate trade data between Singapore and rest of the world or bilateral trade data between Singapore and one or two of her trading partners. These studies have provided mixed results. In this article, we revisit the issue and consider the short-run and long-run effects of real exchange rate depreciation of Singapore dollar on her trade balance with each of her 13 main trading partners. Using quarterly data over the period 1973I–2009IV and bounds testing method to cointegration and error-correction modelling we find support for the J-Curve in four of 13 cases.

US–Indonesia trade at commodity level and the role of the exchange rate

Previous studies that assessed the impact of currency depreciation on inpayments and outpayments of Indonesia with her major trading partners did not find much significant results, especially in the trade with the United States. We wonder whether insignificant link between the real rupiah-dollar rate and Indonesia’s inpayments and outpayments with the United States is due to aggregation bias. To answer this question, we disaggregate the trade flows between the two countries by commodity and consider the sensitivity of inpayments of 108 US exporting industries and outpayments of 32 US importing industries from Indonesia. We find that most industries respond to exchange rate changes in the short run. In the long run, however, 32 inpayments schedule and 17 outpayments schedule are significantly affected. A 1% real depreciation of the dollar was found to improve US trade balance by 1.8%.

The J-Curve: Evidence from Industry-Level Data Between the U.S. and Indonesia

Empirical studies on the impact of currency devaluation or depreciation on the trade balance still continue to occupy the literature. These studies have evolved from using aggregate to disaggregated data. The findings, however, have been mixed. Previous research using aggregate trade flows of Indonesia with the rest of the world or bilateral data between Indonesia and the U.S. as one of its major trading partners found no significant relation between rupiah-dollar rate and Indonesia’s bilateral trade balances. In this article, we disaggregate the trade flows between Indonesia and the U.S. by commodity and show that the trade balances of at least nine out of 23 industries react to exchange rate changes favorably in the long run.

Exchange rate sensitivity of Singapore’s inpayments and outpayments at bilateral level

Early studies on the impact of currency devaluation or depreciation on the trade balance focused on using aggregate trade data between one country and rest of the world and estimated the well-known Marshall-Lerner (ML) condition. Due to aggregation bias, a second set of studies have relied upon disaggregated trade data at bilateral level. However, due to lack of import and export price levels at bilateral level, these studies have directly linked nominal exports and imports to the exchange rate. In this paper, we expand the literature of the second group by examining the sensitivity of inpayments and outpayments of Singapore with each of her 13 largest trading partners. Evidence shows that real depreciation or devaluation of Singapore dollar has significant effect on her inpayments and outpayments in the short run. In the long run it increases Singapores export earnings from three of its partners and reduces her outpayments to only two countries.

Do Inpayments and Outpayments Respond to Exchange Rate Changes Asymmetrically? Evidence from Malaysia

ABSTRACT Since the pass-through of exchange rate changes on import and export prices are asymmetric, we expect a country’s inpayments (export earnings) and outpayments (cost of imports) to also react to exchange rate changes asymmetrically. We demonstrate this hypothesis by considering trade between Malaysia and each of her 11 largest trading partners. We find that while the short-run effects of exchange rate changes on Malaysia’s inpayments and outpayments are asymmetric with all partners, the long-run asymmetric effects are present in less than half of the partners. The results are partner specific.

The J-curve and bilateral trade balances of Indonesia with its major partners: are there asymmetric effects?

ABSTRACT With advances in econometric methodologies, old concepts are now receiving a renewed attention and the J-curve is no exception. Previous research that tested the phenomenon assumed that the effects of exchange rate changes on the trade balance are symmetric. Asymmetry analysis and asymmetry cointegration is the new direction that is currently being considered. We add to this later literature by considering the asymmetric effects of exchange rate changes on the bilateral trade balances of Indonesia with each of her major trading partners after accounting for Asian Financial Crisis of 1997 and Global Financial Crisis of 2008. We find support for short-run asymmetric effects in almost all the cases, short-run cumulative or impact asymmetric effects in the trade with five partners and long-run significant asymmetric effects in five bilateral models.

Exchange rate sensitivity of commodity flows between the Philippines and the US

Previous studies that tried to assess the impact of exchange rate changes on the inpayments and outpayments of a country used aggregate trade flows between two countries. They are said to suffer from aggregation bias, and disaggregation by industry is recommended. In this paper, we consider response to exchange rate changes of export earnings (inpayments) of 133 industries that export from the US to the Philippines (Philippines’ importing industries) and outpayments of 65 US industries (Philippines exporting industries) that import from the Philippines using annual data over the period 1973–2012. While in most industries exchange rate changes had significant effects in the short run, the short-run effects did not last into the long run in most industries. Economic activity played more role in the long run than the exchange rate.