Menzie David Chinn

A New Measure of Financial Openness

Abstract We create a new index that measures the extent of openness in capital account transactions. Despite the abundance of literature and policy analyses regarding the effect of financial liberalization, the debate is far from settled. One of the reasons for that outcome is the lack of proper ways of measuring the extent of the openness in cross-border financial transactions. We seek to remedy this deficiency by creating an index aimed at measuring the extensity of capital controls based on the information from the IMFs Annual Report on Exchange Arrangements and Exchange Restrictions (AREAER). This paper details how we construct the data and where our index stands in relation to the extant literature. Given the intricacy of capital controls policies and regulations, the exercise of quantifying the extent of financial openness remains a challenging task. Nonetheless, our index makes a substantial contribution in terms of its coverage of countries and time period; the data are available for 181 countries for the 1970–2005 period.

Currency traders and exchange rate dynamics: A survey of the US market

We report findings from a survey of United States foreign exchange traders. Our results indicate that: (i) in recent years electronically-brokered transactions have risen substantially, mostly at the expense of traditional brokers; (ii) the market norm is an important det e rminant of interbank bid-ask spread and the most widely-cited reason for deviating from the conventional bid-ask spread is a thin/hectic market; (iii) half or more of market respondents believe that large players dominate in the dollar-pound and dollar-Swiss franc markets; (iv) technical trading best characterizes about 30% of traders, with this proportion rising from five years ago; (v) news about macroeconomic variables is rapidly incorporated into exchange rates; (vi) the importance of individual macroe c onomic variables shifts over time, although interest rates always appear to be important; (vii) economic fundamentals are perceived to be more important at longer horizons, while short-run deviations from the fundamentals are attributed to excess speculation and institutional customer/hedge fund manipulation; (viii) speculation is generally viewed positively, as enhancing market efficiency and liquidity, even though it exacerbates volatility; (ix) central bank intervention does not appear to have substantial effect, although there is general agreement that it increases volatility, and finally; (x) traders do not view purchasing power parity as a useful concept, even though a significant proportion (40%) believe that it affects exchange rates at horizons of over six months.

Banking on currency forecasts: How predictable is change in money?

Abstract The paper examines the predictive performance of four structural exchange rate models using both parametric and nonparametric techniques. Error correction versions of the models are fit so that plausible long-run elasticities can be imposed on the fundamental variables of each model. A variety of model evaluation statistics are reported. Our findings confirm that fundamental exchange rate models forecast no better than a random walk model for short-term prediction horizons. For longer horizons, error correction terms can explain exchange rate movements significantly better than a no change forecast for a subset of the models and currencies we consider.

A Decomposition of Global Linkages in Financial Markets Over Time

This paper tests if real and financial linkages between countries can explain why movements in the worlds largest markets often have such large effects on other financial markets, and how these cross-market linkages have changed over time. It estimates a factor model in which a countrys market returns are determined by: global, sectoral, and cross-country factors (returns in large financial markets), and country-specific effects. Then it uses a new data set on bilateral linkages between the worlds 5 largest economies and about 40 other markets to decompose the cross-country factor loadings into: direct trade flows, competition in third markets, bank lending, and foreign direct investment. Estimates suggest that both cross-country and sectoral factors are important determinants of stock and bond returns, and that the U.S. factor has recently gained importance, while the Japanese and U.K. factors have lost importance. From 1996-2000, real and financial linkages became more important determinants of how shocks are transmitted from large economies to other markets. In particular, bilateral trade flows are large and significant determinants of cross-country linkages in both stock and bond markets. Bilateral foreign investment is usually insignificant. Therefore, despite the recent growth in global financial flows, direct trade still appears to be the most important determinant of how movements in the worlds largest markets affect financial markets around the globe.

Monetary Policy and Long-Horizon Uncovered Interest Parity *

Uncovered interest parity (UIP) has been almost universally rejected in studies of exchange rate movements. In contrast to previous studies, which have used short-horizon data, we test UIP using interest rates on longer-maturity bonds for the Group of Seven countries. These long-horizon regressions yield much more support for UIP-all of the coefficients on interest differentials are of the correct sign, and almost all are closer to the UIP value of unity than to zero. We then use a macroeconomic model to explain the differences between the short- and long-horizon results. Regressions run on model-generated data replicate the important regularities in the actual data, including the sharp differences between short- and long-horizon parameters. In the short run, the failure of UIP results from the interaction of stochastic exchange market shocks with endogenous monetary policy reactions. In the long run, in contrast, exchange rate movements are driven by the “fundamental,” leading to a relationship between interest rates and exchange rates that is more consistent with UIP.

China's Current Account and Exchange Rate

We examine whether the Chinese exchange rate is misaligned and how Chinese trade flows respond to the exchange rate and to economic activity. We find, first, that the Chinese currency, the renminbi (RMB), is substantially below the value predicted by estimates based upon a cross-country sample, when using the 2006 vintage of the World Development Indicators. The economic magnitude of the mis-alignment is substantial -- on the order of 50 percent in log terms. However, the misalignment is typically not statistically significant, in the sense of being more than two standard errors away from the conditional mean. However, this finding disappears completely when using the most recent 2008 vintage of data; then the estimated undervaluation is on the order of 10 percent. Second, we find that Chinese multilateral trade flows respond to relative prices -- as represented by a trade weighted exchange rate -- but the relationship is not always precisely estimated. In addition, the direction of the effects is sometimes different from what is expected a priori. For instance, Chinese ordinary imports actually rise in response to a RMB depreciation; however, Chinese exports appear to respond to RMB depreciation in the expected manner, as long as a supply variable is included. In that sense, Chinese trade is not exceptional. Furthermore, Chinese trade with the United States appears to behave in a standard manner -- especially after the expansion in the Chinese manufacturing capital stock is accounted for. Thus, the China-US trade balance should respond to real exchange rate and relative income movements in the anticipated manner. However, in neither the case of multilateral nor bilateral trade flows should one expect quantitatively large effects arising from exchange rate changes. And, of course, these results are not informative with regard to the question of how a change in the RMB/USD exchange rate would affect the overall US trade deficit. Finally, we stress the fact that considerable uncertainty surrounds both our estimates of RMB misalignment and the responsiveness of trade flows to movements in exchange rates and output levels. In particular, the results for trade elasticities are sensitive to econometric specification, accounting for supply effects, and for the inclusion of time trends.

Before the Fall: Were East Asian Currencies Overvalued?

I implement two major approaches to identifying the equilibrium exchange rate. First, the concept of purchasing power parity is tested and used to define the equilibrium real exchange rate for the Indonesian rupiah, Korean won, Malaysian ringgit, Philippine peso, Singapore dollar, Taiwanese dollar and the Thai baht. The calculated PPP rates are then used to evaluate whether these seven East Asian currencies were overvalued. The purchasing power parity calculations are performed on broad price indices, price indices of tradable goods, and price indices of export goods using the Johansen and Horvath-Watson cointegration test procedures. As of May 1997, the baht, ringgit and peso were overvalued according to this criterion. While the overvaluations are not large, they do appear to be persistent. Robustness checks for sensitivity to deflator, sample period, and numeraire currency are undertaken. Second, I calculate the implied equilibrium rates from a monetary model augmented by a proxy variable for productivity trends. The monetary models imply less substantial deviations from equilibrium. Furthermore, the results do not closely correspond to those obtained from the PPP calculations. Interestingly, both methods indicate that the Korean won was undervalued even before its recent discrete drop in value.

The Usual Suspects? Productivity and Demand Shocks and Asia-Pacific Real Exchange Rates

The evidence for a productivity-based explanation for real exchange rate behavior of East Asian currencies is examined. Using sectoral output and employment data, relative prices and relative productivities are calculated for China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand. Time series regressions of the real exchange rate on relative prices indicate a role for relative prices for Indonesia, Japan and Korea. When examining real exchange rates and relative productivity ratios, one finds a relationship for Japan, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Only when augmenting the regressions with real oil prices are significant relationships obtained for Indonesia and Korea. Panel regression results are slightly more supportive of a relative price view of real exchange rates. However, the panel regressions incorporating productivity variables, as well as other demand side factors, are less encouraging, except for a small subset of countries (Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines). Surprisingly, government spending does not appear to be a determinant of real exchange rates in the region.

Real Exchange Rate Levels, Productivity and Demand Shocks: Evidence from a Panel of 14 Countries

We investigate the long-run relationship between the real exchange rate, traded and nontraded productivity levels, and government spending for 14 OECD countries, using recently developed panel cointegration tests. The results indicate that under certain assumptions it is easier to detect cointegration in panel data than in the available time series; moreover, the rate of reversion to long-run equilibrium is estimated with greater precision. Using the model augmented by oil prices, we find that in 1991 (the last year productivity data are available) there is less overvaluation of the U.S. dollar than that implied by a naive version of purchasing power parity.

Who drives real interest rates around the Pacific Rim: the USA or Japan?

This paper investigates the relative influence of US and Japanese real interest rates in the determination of local Pacific Rim rates, where influence is defined by the presence of common stochastic trends. Furthermore, the degree to which long run real interest parity holds is examined. The cointegration testing methodology of Johansen (1988) is adopted for this analysis, which allows for multiple cointegrating vectors. The results indicate that Hong Kong, Malaysia and Taiwan are linked with both the US and Japan (in terms of cointegration and positive covariation), while only Singapore is solely linked with the US. On the other hand Korea, and perhaps Indonesia and Thailand appear to be more closely linked with Japan. Real interest parity holds for only the following interest rate pairs: US-Singapore, US-Taiwan and Japan-Taiwan.