scholarly journals The Effects of Exchange Rate Volatility, Reserve Volatility and Real Interest Rates on Trade: Applications on Transition Economies

Author(s):  
Cevat Gerni ◽  
Selahattin Sarı ◽  
Dilek Özdemir ◽  
Ömer Selçuk Emsen

On the basis of volatility or sharp fluctuations in macroeconomic variables, especially in the 1970s, it can be said to play a role in deepening the financial capital deepening. Deepening on volatility forms the basis of not only domestic and but also international economic deviations. With the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, a lot of countries have attempted to liberalize. This situation has caused volatility on mainly rate of exchange then many macroeconomics variables. In this aspect, the multi-relationship between volatility in foreign trade balance and the real interest rate, exchange rate and reserves’ volatility are investigated empirically with the appropriate set of data on 11 transition economies for the period 1996-2011. In this study, the effects of the volatility of foreign trade (netxvol) on the exchange rate volatility (kurvol), reserve volatility (rezvol), and real interest rates subjected with using panel data analysis. Moreover to regression analysis, centred on Granger Causality Test the volatility of the foreign trade balance, import and export volatility, exchange rate volatility, volatility of reserves and try to determine the causal relationship between the real interest rate. The findings have light on that the volatility of trade balance was mostly affected to the volatility of the reserve. It may well be said that the volatility of the interest rate and the exchange rate at the independence of the trade predispose to speculative movements.

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (8) ◽  
pp. 2060-2103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nao Sudo ◽  
Yasutaka Takizuka

Population aging, along with a secular decline in real interest rates, is an empirical regularity observed in developed countries over the last few decades. Under the premise that population aging will deepen in coming years, some studies predict that real interest rates will continue to be depressed further to a level below zero. In this paper, we address this issue and explore how changes in demographic structures have affected and will affect real interest rates, using an overlapping generations model calibrated to Japan’s economy. We find that the demographic changes over the last 50 years reduced the real interest rate. About 270 out of the 640 basis points decline in real interest rates during this period was due to declining labor inputs and higher saving, which themselves stemmed from the lower fertility rate and increased life expectancy. As for the next 50 years, we find that demographic changes alone will not substantially increase or decrease the real interest rate from the current level. These changes reflect the fact that the size of demographic changes in years ahead will be minimal, but that downward pressure arising from the past demographic changes will continue to bite. As Japan is not unique in terms of this broad picture of changes in demographic landscapes in the last and next 50 years, our results suggest that, sooner or later, a demography-induced decline in real interest rates may be contained in other developed countries as well.


2011 ◽  
Vol 101 (6) ◽  
pp. 2530-2561 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesús Fernández-Villaverde ◽  
Pablo Guerrón-Quintana ◽  
Juan F Rubio-Ramírez ◽  
Martin Uribe

We show how changes in the volatility of the real interest rate at which small open emerging economies borrow have an important effect on variables like output, consumption, investment, and hours. We start by documenting the strong evidence of time-varying volatility in the real interest rates faced by four emerging economies: Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, and Venezuela. We estimate a stochastic volatility process for real interest rates. Then, we feed this process in a standard small open economy business cycle model. We find that an increase in real interest rate volatility triggers a fall in output, consumption, investment, hours, and debt. (JEL E13, E20, E32, E43, F32, F43, 011)


2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Ndanu Musyoka ◽  
Dr. Kennedy N. Ocharo

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to establish the effect of real interest rates, exchange rate, inflation and competitiveness on FDI in Kenya.  Methodology: The study used annual time series data for the period 1970-2016. The sources of data included World Bank Indicators and Kenya National Bureau of Statistics annual reports. Data was collected for the variables real interest rates, exchange rates, inflation rate, competitiveness/ease of doing business and FDI. The data for all the variables was in percentage. The study employed ordinary least square regression technique to determine the effect of real interest rate, exchange rate, inflation and competitiveness on FDI in Kenya. Results: From the findings, the study concluded that real interest rates and exchange rates have negative and significant influence on FDI inflows into Kenya. Further, the study concluded that competitiveness has a positive and significant influence on foreign direct investment inflows into Kenya. However, inflation was found to have insignificant influence on FDI.Unique Contribution to Policy: There is need for favourable interest rates, desirable exchange rates and liberalization of the economy by undertaking comprehensive programmes to trade reforms, designed to open the economy and increase its competiveness. The Kenyan government should also encourage freedom of capital transactions with foreigners and competition in domestic market.


Equilibrium ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 677-693 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jakub Janus

Research background: The question of changes in real interest rates differentials between the Euro Area and the CEE countries in the last years is raised because of two main reasons. The first rationale is related to the growing importance of external financial factors for the CEE economies and their monetary autonomy. The second reason is associated with the unprecedented shift in monetary conditions in the EMU, brought about by negative interest rates policy and unconventional policies, and the way it impacts the real rates in the CEE economies. Purpose of the article: This paper aims at exploring the relationship between real interest rates in the Euro Area and ten countries: Albania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, North Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Turkey, and Ukraine. The analysis covers the years of 1999-2018, including periods before and after the financial and economic crisis. Methods: We employ Markov-switching regression to construct the ex-ante real interest rates series in each country, using monthly data on short-term interest rates and CPI inflation rates. A battery of unit root and stationarity test, both standard and panel ones, is applied to examine the real interest rate parity, also allowing for a structural break in the rate differentials. Findings & Value added: We provide detailed evidence on the real interest rates differentials for all of the CEE countries vis-à-vis the Euro Area. We find that, while panel stationarity tests point to the stability of real rate differentials, there are significant dissimilarities across the countries, and the results of the univariate tests are often mixed. At least half of the economies, however, reveal similar patterns of stationarity in real rates relationships. At the same time, we find differentials for the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland, countries highly integrated into the EMU economy, to be unstable over time.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Bellocchi ◽  
Edgar Sanchez Carrera ◽  
Giuseppe Travaglini

PurposeIn this paper, the authors study the long-run determinants of total factor productivity (TFP) in three major European economies over the period 1983–2017, namely Germany, France and Italy.Design/methodology/approachThe authors focus on the capital misallocation effects, scale effects and labor misallocation effects. To this end, the authors study how real interest rate shocks, real exchange rate shocks, real wage shocks and changes in labor regulation affected TFP in major European countries over the last decades. The authors employ a theoretical and an empirical model to investigate the issue. The empirical results are obtained using a VAR model for estimation.FindingsA stripped-down model of labor market in open economy with technology progress allows to identify the relevant variables affecting TFP. On the empirical ground, the authors find a positive relationship between TFP and real interest rate in the long run. Importantly, the authors detect a positive relationship between TFP and real exchange rate. Further, the authors show that the TFP can respond positively to a stricter labor market regulation and to a higher real compensation per employee. The results provide support to the idea that TFP has a positive relation with prices in the long run, while it may be biased along the cycle because of price rigidity.Research limitations/implicationsThe present model is stylized and may not capture all of the details of reality. The analysis should be extended to a larger number of countries. Technology progress could be proxied using different variables, as the R&D expenditure or the number of patents. Micro data, for specific sectors and industries, can improve the quality of the empirical investigation.Practical implicationsMainly the authors find that TFP has a positive relationship with price changes in the long run, while it may be biased along the cycle because of price stickiness. Capital misallocation and labor misallocation can negatively affect TFP. Thus, the observed divergences in European TFP can be traced back to the misallocation effects attributable to the decrease of real interest rate and real wages, together with the raising labor flexibility. Mainly, the authors detect a positive long-run relationship between TFP and real exchange rate. This outcome strengthens the supply-side view of the relationship between productivity and real exchange rate.Social implicationsThe authors believe that the present setup can be helpful to reflect critically on the nodes at the core of the productivity slowdown and asymmetries in the eurozone. The aim is to implement renewed policies in order to favor economic growth, convergence and stability in the euro area.Originality/valueThis research addresses the issue of asymmetries among European economies by focusing on the role played by real prices in the long run. Traditionally, the dynamics of TFP have been attributed only to technological components, human capital and knowledge. This work shows that the dynamics of prices such as the real interest rate, the real exchange rate and the real wage can also influence the technological process by pushing the production system toward choices that are not always optimal for economic growth. An interesting result of this research concerns the positive relationship between real exchange rates and TFP in the long term, evidence of an important supply-side effect on the technological process.


Author(s):  
Bing Xu ◽  
◽  
Qiuqin He ◽  
Xiaowen Hu ◽  

We propose a unique time-varying identification approach to the market interest rate based on Taylor Rule for coordinating the monetary and exchange rate policies. The significant differences exist between real and market interest rates — 2001 and 2009 are high real interest rates, and 2004-2005 and 2010-2012 low real interest rates — that identify monetary and exchange rate policy conflicts in China. These conflicts derive from the indirect effect of monetary factor through interest rate inertia and expected output gap in 2001; the indirect effect of exchange rate factor through interest rates and inflation inertia in 2004-2005; the direct effects of monetary and the exchange rate factors and the indirect effects through interest rate and inflation inertia, and the expected inflation and output gap since 2009. Our empirical results provide decision support for the monetary and exchange rate policy for reforming Chinese market interest rates.


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