Mahir Binici

The Transmission of Federal Reserve Tapering News to Emerging Financial Markets

This paper evaluates the impact of tapering “news” announcements by Federal Reserve senior policymakers on financial markets in emerging economies. We apply a panel framework using daily data, and find that emerging-market asset prices respond most to statements by Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke, and much less to other Federal Reserve officials. We group emerging markets into those with “robust” fundamentals (current account surpluses, high international reserves, and low external debt) and those with “fragile” fundamentals and, intriguingly, find that the exchange rates of the robust group (and, to a lesser extent, equity prices and CDS spreads) were more adversely affected by tapering news than the fragile group. The cumulative effects of tapering announcements after a month, however, appear to be quite similar for both robust and fragile emerging markets. We also show that more financially developed economies are more affected by tapering news, and a plausible interpretation is that more financially developed economies are more exposed, at least in the short term, to external news announcements.

Determinants of Credit Booms in Turkey

Using different credit measures, this study identifies the credit booms in Turkey that have occurred after December 2002, and examines their determinants. We find that the primary factors that have a strong correlation with the probability of a credit boom are the changes in the slope of the yield curve, reel exchange rate, US interest rate and net capital inflows. The results imply that these factors should be considered as important elements in forecasting such events that could threaten financial stability.

Controlling Capital? Legal Restrictions and the Asset Composition of International Financial Flows

Legal restrictions on international capital movements are imposed in many countries in an attempt to (partially) insulate their economies from abroad and pursue some degree of domestic policy independence. But is the imposition of capital controls effective in achieving these goals? We investigate this issue from a new angle by linking de jure restrictions on three specific asset categories of outflows and inflows with the corresponding component of capital flows. The analysis is based on a novel panel data set of capital controls data, disaggregated by asset class and by inflows/outflows, and covering 74 countries during 19952005. Using panel LSDV regressions, and including a host of well-known determinants of capital flows, we estimate a model of capital flows with four categories: equity-like flows (including FDI) and debt for both capital inflows and capital outflows. The estimated effects of capital controls vary markedly with the type of controls imposed: they are binding on capital outflows (debt, equity and FDI); have no apparent effect on capital inflows of various types; and are less effective in low and middle-income countries. Moreover, there are no apparent substitution effects so that controls on debt and equity outflows change the volume and composition of capital flows as well as the net flow of capital in each asset class. The large differences across asset categories in the effects of capital controls suggest that the common use of aggregate capital control indicators can be misleading. JEL Classification: F21; F32; F36