The long run influence of pension systems on the current account

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-101
Author(s):  
Thomas Davoine

AbstractExplaining cross-country differences in current accounts is difficult. While pay-as-you-go pensions reduce the need to save for retirement, contributions to capital-funded pensions are saved for future consumption. An overlapping-generations analysis shows that capital-funded pensions increase net foreign assets holdings. With a multi-pillar system whose capital-funded part accounts for 18% of pensions, the Austrian current account balance would be 1 percentage point of gross domestic product (GDP) higher than with pure pay-as-you-go pensions in 20 years. By comparison, the Austrian current account surplus averages 1.8% of GDP. Empirically, I find that the current account of high-income countries increases with the coverage and replacement rates of capital-funded pensions.

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 70-93
Author(s):  
Chirok Han ◽  
Kwanho Shin

Since the currency crisis in 1998, Korea has experienced continuous current account surpluses. Recently, the current account surplus increased more rapidly—amounting to 7.7 percent of GDP in 2015. In this paper, we investigate the underlying reasons for the widening of Korea's current account surpluses. We find that the upward trend in Korea's current account surpluses is largely explained by its demographical changes. Other economic variables are only helpful when explaining short run fluctuations in current account balances. Moreover, we show that Korea's current account surplus is expected to disappear by 2042 as it becomes one of the most aged economies in the world. Demographic changes are so powerful that they explain, quite successfully, the current account balance trends of other economies with highly aged populations such as Japan, Germany, Italy, Finland, and Greece. When we add the real exchange rate as an additional explanatory variable, it is statistically significant with the right sign, but the magnitude explained by it is quite limited. For example, to reduce the current account surplus by 1 percentage point, a 12 percent depreciation is needed. If Korea's current exchange rate is undervalued 4 to 12 percent less than the level consistent with fundamentals, it is impossible to reduce Korea's current account surplus to a reasonable level by adjusting the exchange rate alone. Another way to reduce current account surplus is to expand fiscal policies. We find, however, that the impact of fiscal adjustments in reducing current account surplus is even more limited. According to our estimates, reducing the current account surplus by 1 percentage point requires an increase in budget deficits (as a ratio to GDP) of 5 to 6 percentage points. If we allow endogenous movements of exchange rate and fiscal policy, the impact of exchange rate adjustment increases by 1.6 times but that of fiscal policy decreases that it is no longer statistically significant.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Winta Ratna Sari

This study was to analyze the contribution rate (the rupiah against the U.S. dollar), Libor Interest Rate, Inflation and Output Growth (GDP) of the current account balance in Indonesia. The data used in this study secondary data is sourced from Indonesia Financial Statistics. The data used is the data quarterly from the first quarter of 2000 up to 2010 fourth quarter. The results of the estimated Vector Autoregression (VAR) indicates that there is a relationship between the Current Account, Exchange Rate, Libor Interest Rate, Inflation and GDP at lag t-1. Impulse response function of the stability of the first note that all variables are in the long run that is over 5 years and tend to be stable. This means that in the short term variables that are used do not provide a meaningful contribution in the long term but will mutually contribute to each other. Variance Decomposition Based on these results, it is known that all variables contributed to the Current Account, but his greatest contribution is of the variable itself, this means that the current account tends to a variable receiving contributions rather than giving contributions


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-25
Author(s):  
Kivanç Halil Ariç ◽  
Siok Kun Sek ◽  
Miguel Rocha de Sousa

Abstract The current account balance is an important indicator which reveals information on a country’s economic situation such as investments, capital flows, and indebtedness. The main purpose of this study is to examine the current account balance conditions in emerging Asian countries. In this respect, the long-run and causality relationship between current account balance, economic growth, government expenditure, real interest rates, and foreign direct investment was examined. The panel data analysis was applied using the data dated 1986 to 2015. Our results revealed a causal effect from economic growth and government expenditure to current account balance mainly dependent on saving tendency.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 212-225
Author(s):  
Getaneh Mihret Ayele

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine whether real exchange rate devaluation improves the current account balance of four highly indebted low-income countries of East Africa. Design/methodology/approach The pooled mean group (PMG) approach is used for panel data from four countries over the period 1970–2016. The paper also applied bound testing and ARDL model for time-series data from individual sample countries. Findings The panel PMG/ARDL estimation result reveals that real exchange rate devaluation has no significant impact on the current account balance, both in the short and long run. However, the time-series analysis using the bound testing and restricted ARDL estimation suggests that real exchange rate devaluation improves the current account balance in the long run for only Ethiopia. The overall empirical results reveal that the current account balance would improve with the rising domestic income while it deteriorates with increasing foreign income and external indebtedness in the long run. Originality/value The paper is original.


Author(s):  
Sabri Azgün

Economies should pay attention to the deficits of the balance of payments in order to achieve a sustainable economic growth and development within the process of globalisation. A country having risks in terms of current account deficits can be evaluated as the current economic policy is having problems at present and will have in days to come in the point of sustainability. The sustainability of the current account deficits are defined by the intertemporal budget constraint. According to the budget constraints, the path of outlays to the external world with revenues obtained from abroad determines intertemporal solvency contidion. If there is no long-run equilibrium relationship between these two variables, intertemporal budget constaint will not be provided. The aim of this study is to determine whether it satisfies the intertemporal solvency condition of Euorasian economies for the period 2005Q1-2014Q4. In this study, by analyzing intertemporal externel budget consratint by unit root and cointegration methods, it is examined that carries potantieal risk in terms of the current account balance of Euroasian economies.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 16
Author(s):  
Tri Winarno

Identifying the sources of current account balance fluctuations is critical to formulating Indonesia’s macroeconomic policies which maintain both internal and external balance to guarantee sustainable economic development as mandated by The Central Bank of Indonesia Act. This study is an attempt to investigate the long-run relationship between the current account balance (including total trade balance and non-oil and gas trade balance), world exports, domestic income (a proxy by industrial production index), and real effective exchange rate in the case of Indonesia’s economy. Based on the traditional approach of elasticity (Marshall Lerner condition) and by applying the VECM method to monthly data for the period January of 2008 up to December 2012, the investigation to examine the existence of a long-run equilibrium relationship between the current account balance and its sources is conducted. Additionally, variance decompositions (VDCs) and impulse response functions (IRFs) are used to draw further inferences. The result of the VECM method indicates that there is a stable long-run relationship between the current account balance and real effective exchange rate, domestic income and world exports variables. The estimated results show that real effective exchange rate depreciation is positively related to the current account balance in the long run, consistent with the Marshall Lerner condition. This study also finds evidence of the J-curve on Indonesia's current account balance. This suggests that following a real effective exchange rate depreciation, the Indonesia current account balance will initially deteriorate but improve in the long-run. Thus the exchange rate policy can help improve the current account balance. Furthermore, the results provide strong evidence that world exports and domestic income play a strong role in determining the behavior of the current account balance. 


2012 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tayyaba Idrees ◽  
Saira Tufail

According to the Harberger-Laursen-Metzler (HLM) effect, an exogenous temporary increase in the terms of trade leads to an improvement in the current account balance. This paper uses a recursive vector autoregression to investigate empirically the existence of the HLM effect in Pakistan, using a time series dataset for the period 1980–2009. Two important results emerge. First, real income deteriorates with an improvement in the terms of trade. Second, the current account balance also responds negatively to innovations in the terms of trade, which implies that the HLM effect does not exist in Pakistan.


Author(s):  
Volodymyr Tyshchenko ◽  
Olena Tyshchenko

The article highlights the features of the formation and assessment of the balance of payments in Ukraine. The balance of payments of Ukraine is a functional macroeconomic model that reflects all transactions that are carried out between the subjects of the national economy and the subjects of the economies of other countries of the world. This model allows you to develop and implement a sound foreign economic policy of Ukraine, analyze the state of commodity and financial markets, conduct scientific research of economic processes in the state, etc. Ukraine is actively implementing the methodology of balance of payments formation according to the recommendations of the International Monetary Fund. Ukraine's balance of payments by main components is grouped into two accounts: "capital and financial transactions" and "current transactions": capital transactions cover all transactions related to the receipt or payment of capital transfers and the acquisition or sale of property rights and non-financial assets; current transactions include all transactions between residents and non-residents on real values, as well as transactions on the free provision or receipt of valuables for current use. Like any other "balance of payments" consists of receipts and payments. It is active (surplus) when revenues are greater than payments and passive (deficit) when payments are greater than revenues. Based on the assessment of the balance of payments of Ukraine for 2020, certain conclusions can be drawn: stable external demand for food softened the drop in exports of goods from Ukraine during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the increase in prices contributed to its growth at the end of 2020; despite a slight recovery in domestic demand in the IV quarters of 2020, imports of goods to Ukraine by the results of 2020 decreased significantly; the current account surplus in Ukraine in 2020 was provided by a significant positive balance of trade in services and a record surplus of the primary income account; capital outflow from Ukraine on the financial account stopped at the end of 2020 due to the optimism of investors; despite the crisis and significant payments on external debt, Ukraine's gross reserves increased in 2020, and the financial crisis once again confirmed the importance of both international support and a balanced macroeconomic policy. The current account surplus in Ukraine in 2020 reached one of the largest levels in the history of Ukraine, it was formed due to a significant decrease in imports of goods and services, a reduction in payments on primary income and the relative stability of exports of goods and remittances. The article proposes recommendations for improving approaches to the formation of the balance of payments in Ukraine using certain methods when regulating the balance of payments of the state.


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