Nusrate Aziz

Does A Real Devaluation Improve The Balance Of Trade?: Empirics From Bangladesh Economy

Similar to many other developing countries Bangladesh, which is the country of my concern, has been pursuing an active exchange rate policy basically to maintain a viable external account position, and competitiveness of its products in world market. The purpose of the study is, therefore, to estimate the impact of real devaluation on countrys trade balance. The study constructs nominal and real effective exchange rates which are not readily available for the country. Using multivariate cointegration tests for non-stationary data, the error correction model, and impulse response functions the paper examines the impact of exchange rate policy in both short-and long-run. The estimated results demonstrate that real exchange rate has a significant positive impact on trade balance in the long-run. Thus, currency devaluation has been a significant stimulus for countrys exports growth and improvement in current account position. However, the J-curve hypothesis can be explained as the appropriate phenomenon to improve its trade balance in response to exchange rate devaluation.

Armed Conflict, Military Expenses and FDI Inflow to Developing Countries

Abstract This paper investigates the relationship between military expenditure and FDI inflow conditioning on the exposure of a country to armed conflict in the long run. We apply the band spectrum regression estimator, and the maximal overlap discrete wavelet transform, to a panel of 60 developing countries, for the years 1990 to 2013. The estimated results indicate that military expenditure, in the absence of armed conflict, reduces FDI inflow. However, the negative effect is mitigated by increased military expenditure, in the presence of armed conflict. We also show that the effect of military expenditure on FDI is time sensitive, in that it takes time for military expenditure to affect FDI inflow. FDI inflow in response to higher military expenditure is higher for the country that faces higher armed conflict than the country that faces lower armed conflict. The findings are robust in the case of overall as well as internal conflict. These results are also robust to the alternative specification, subsample analysis with different armed conflict thresholds, and the estimation using the time variant long-run models.

Role of income in intergenerational co‐residence: Evidence from selected African and Asian countries

The study investigates the macroeconomic determinants of co‐residing arrangement between generations in selected developing countries with a focus on examining the effect of changing income level of the working generation.

Does the Quality of Political Institutions Affect Intra-industry Trade within Trade Blocs? The ASEAN Perspective

ABSTRACT There has been a renewed resolve for deeper integration and cooperation within ASEAN. Intra-industry trade (IIT) is often viewed as a way of achieving economic as well as political integration. This article tests for the effect that political regime and governance may have on the intensity of IIT. We particularly examine if quality of political institutions which includes corruption and democracy indices as well as economic factors comprising corporate tax rate, regional FDI flow, flexibility of exchange rate regime, size of the market, economic distance affect the intensity of horizontal and vertical IIT. The study finds that control of corruption and good governance both increase the vertical IIT but not the horizontal IIT. The study further finds that intra-economy FDI flow, stable exchange rate regime, market size and proximity positively affect IIT within the trade bloc. However the negative effect of corporate tax rate suggests that if countries were to coordinate their tax policies, they could avoid harmful tax competition and promote IIT across their borders. The findings regarding the effect those economic and political factors have on the intensity of IIT certainly warrants the attention of policy makers and researchers alike.