Mark De Broeck

Interpreting Real Exchange Rate Movements in Transition Countries

В течение последнего десятилетия в некоторых странах с переходной экономикой наблюдалось значительное укрепление реального курса национальной валюты. В данной статье проверяется следующая гипотеза - укрепление курса является следствием роста производительности в секторе торгуемых благ. Используя панельные данные за период 1993-1998 гг., авторы показали, что в странах Центральной и Восточной Европы, а также странах Балтии укрепление действительно можно объяснить ростом производительности. Авторы полагают, что по мере развития переходные экономики будут испытают еще большее укрепление курса. Однако это укрепление не должно негативно отражаться на международной конкурентоспособности, поскольку является всего лишь сдвигом равновесия в результате роста производительности.

Sovereign Debt Composition in Advanced Economies; A Historical Perspective

We examine how the composition of public debt, broken down by currency, maturity, holder profile and marketability, has responded to major debt accumulation and consolidation episodes during 1900-2011. Covering thirteen advanced economies, we focus on debt structure shifts that occurred around the two World Wars and global economic downturns, and the subsequent debt consolidations. Notwithstanding data gaps, we are able to recover some broad common patterns. Episodes of large debt accumulation - essentially, large increases in debt supply - were typically absorbed by increases in short-term, foreign currency-denominated, and banking-system-held debt. However, this pattern did not hold during the debt build-ups starting in the 1980s and 1990s, which were compositionally skewed toward long-term local-currency debt. We attribute this change to higher structural demand for sovereign paper, linked to capital account liberalization in advanced economies, the emergence of a large contractual saving sector, and innovative sovereign debt products. With regard to debt consolidations, we find support for the financial repression-cum-inflation channel for post World War II debt reductions. However, the scope for a repeat of this strategy appears limited unless financial liberalization and globalization were materially rolled back or the current globally agreed monetary policy regime built around price stability abandoned. Neither are significant favorable structural demand shifts, as witnessed in the 1980s and 1990s, likely.

The financial structure of government debt in OECD countries: An examination of the time-consistency issue

Abstract This paper analyzes the financial structure of government debt in the OECD countries from the perspective of time-consistency problems with a focus on debt held by financial institutions. Testable implications from a theoretical time-consistency model are derived and incorporated into the framework of a cost-minimizing model for public debt service. The approach is tested for a sample of 15 OECD countries over the period 1974–1989. The theoretical analysis and the empirical results show how, in addition to maturity, ownership of government debt in those OECD countries with debt accumulation problems can be related to time-consistency considerations.