Does Fiscal Policy Affect Interest Rates? Evidence from a Factor-Augmented Panel

Does Fiscal Policy Affect Interest Rates? Evidence from a Factor-Augmented Panel

Author: Mr.Salvatore Dell'Erba

Publisher: International Monetary Fund

Published: 2013-07-03

Total Pages: 44

ISBN-13: 1616355700

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This paper reconsiders the effects of fiscal policy on long-term interest rates employing a Factor Augmented Panel (FAP) to control for the presence of common unobservable factors. We construct a real-time dataset of macroeconomic and fiscal variables for a panel of OECD countries for the period 1989-2012. We find that two global factors—the global monetary and fiscal policy stances—explain more than 60 percent of the variance in the long-term interest rates. Compared to the estimates from models which do not account for global factors, we find that the importance of domestic variables in explaining long-term interest rates is weakened. Moreover, the propagation of global fiscal shocks is larger in economies characterized by macroeconomic and institutional weaknesses.


Option Pricing Models and Volatility Using Excel-VBA

Option Pricing Models and Volatility Using Excel-VBA

Author: Fabrice D. Rouah

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2012-06-15

Total Pages: 456

ISBN-13: 1118429206

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This comprehensive guide offers traders, quants, and students the tools and techniques for using advanced models for pricing options. The accompanying website includes data files, such as options prices, stock prices, or index prices, as well as all of the codes needed to use the option and volatility models described in the book. Praise for Option Pricing Models & Volatility Using Excel-VBA "Excel is already a great pedagogical tool for teaching option valuation and risk management. But the VBA routines in this book elevate Excel to an industrial-strength financial engineering toolbox. I have no doubt that it will become hugely successful as a reference for option traders and risk managers." —Peter Christoffersen, Associate Professor of Finance, Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University "This book is filled with methodology and techniques on how to implement option pricing and volatility models in VBA. The book takes an in-depth look into how to implement the Heston and Heston and Nandi models and includes an entire chapter on parameter estimation, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. Everyone interested in derivatives should have this book in their personal library." —Espen Gaarder Haug, option trader, philosopher, and author of Derivatives Models on Models "I am impressed. This is an important book because it is the first book to cover the modern generation of option models, including stochastic volatility and GARCH." —Steven L. Heston, Assistant Professor of Finance, R.H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland


Growth Slowdowns and the Middle-Income Trap

Growth Slowdowns and the Middle-Income Trap

Author: Mr.Shekhar Aiyar

Publisher: International Monetary Fund

Published: 2013-03-20

Total Pages: 64

ISBN-13: 1484315804

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The “middle-income trap” is the phenomenon of hitherto rapidly growing economies stagnating at middle-income levels and failing to graduate into the ranks of high-income countries. In this study we examine the middle-income trap as a special case of growth slowdowns, which are identified as large sudden and sustained deviations from the growth path predicted by a basic conditional convergence framework. We then examine their determinants by means of probit regressions, looking into the role of institutions, demography, infrastructure, the macroeconomic environment, output structure and trade structure. Two variants of Bayesian Model Averaging are used as robustness checks. The results—including some that indeed speak to the special status of middle-income countries—are then used to derive policy implications, with a particular focus on Asian economies.


Liberalizing Capital Flows and Managing Outflows - Background Paper

Liberalizing Capital Flows and Managing Outflows - Background Paper

Author: International Monetary Fund. Monetary and Capital Markets Department

Publisher: International Monetary Fund

Published: 2012-03-14

Total Pages: 60

ISBN-13: 1498340849

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Liberalization of capital flows can benefit both source and recipient countries by improving resource allocation, reducing financing costs, increasing competition and accelerating the development of domestic financial systems. The empirical evidence, however, is mixed on the benefits, and it suggests that countries benefit most when they meet certain thresholds related to institutional and financial development. The principal cost of capital flow liberalization stems from the economic instability brought on by volatile capital flows. In extreme cases, sudden stops or reversals in capital inflows can trigger financial crises followed by prolonged periods of weak growth.


The evolution of regional labor market disparities

The evolution of regional labor market disparities

Author: Daniel Werner

Publisher: wbv Media GmbH & Company KG

Published: 2013-08-15

Total Pages: 279

ISBN-13: 3763940766

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Zahlreiche Länder, so auch Deutschland, zeichnen sich durch ausgeprägte regionale Disparitäten auf dem Arbeitsmarkt aus. Regionalökonomische Studien liefern unterschiedlichste Ansätze, um die Existenz solcher Unterschiede zu erklären. Aber nur wenige Arbeiten geben Aufschluss über die Dynamik regionaler Arbeitsmarktdisparitäten: Nehmen diese im Zeitablauf zu, verringern sie sich oder bleiben sie stabil? Auch blenden die bisherigen Studien aus, welche Rolle Beschäftigtengruppen mit unterschiedlichem Qualifikationsniveau in diesem Prozess spielen. Die Arbeit von Daniel Werner schließt diese Lücken. Detailliert untersucht Werner zudem die Anpassungsprozesse nach regionalen Arbeitsmarktschocks. Sein Fazit: Die Mobilität der Arbeitskräfte - und hier insbesondere das Pendeln - ist der wichtigste Ausgleichsmechanismus.


Current Issues in Health Economics

Current Issues in Health Economics

Author: Daniel Slottje

Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing

Published: 2010-12-15

Total Pages: 281

ISBN-13: 0857241567

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Presents research on some of these key issues such as the impact of obesity on health, children's' healthcare policies, education and health; and many more.


Panel Data Econometrics

Panel Data Econometrics

Author: Badi H. Baltagi

Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing

Published: 2006-04-01

Total Pages: 399

ISBN-13: 0444521720

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This volume includes some of the papers presented at the 11th International Conference on Panel Data, Texas, June 2004, and other solicited papers that passed the refereeing process and includes such topics as dynamic panel data estimation, non-linear panel data methods and the phenomenal growth in non-stationary panel data econometrics.


Inclusive Growth in Australia

Inclusive Growth in Australia

Author: John Buchanan

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-07-16

Total Pages: 317

ISBN-13: 100024993X

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Inclusive Growth in Australia overturns two decades of assumptions that social policy is wasteful and a source of dependency. It reflects a global resurgence of the understanding that an active and effective social policy regime is vital not only for a flourishing society, but also for a strong economy. It explains this new paradigm of inclusive growth and shows how it can be implemented in Australia. Inclusive growth dismantles the idea that social development will automatically trickle down from untrammelled market based growth. Rather, growth must be managed so that it is employment centred, broad based across sectors and with a social security system promoting sustainability and equality of opportunity. The editors argue that productivity is 'nearly everything' when it comes to raising living standards. So while social policies will be about goals other than the economy, they must demonstrate their compatibility with an economic growth strategy. With contributions from leading national and international experts in the field including Marian Baird, Grant Belchamber, Gerald Burke, Saul Eslake, Roy Green and Peter Whiteford, Inclusive Growth in Australia shows that 'welfare state' spending is as much an economic investment as a measure of social protection. Written for policy makers, industry and NGOs as well as students, Inclusive Growth in Australia locates Australian economic and social policy within the most important emergent themes shaping international debate.


Public Sector Economics and the Need for Reforms

Public Sector Economics and the Need for Reforms

Author: Apostolis Philippopoulos

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2016-05-20

Total Pages: 389

ISBN-13: 0262034441

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Theoretically and empirically informed studies on the role and efficiency of the public sector, public wage and employment policy, privatization, tax policy, and fiscal sustainability. The public sector has grown substantially in the last fifty years. In the euro area, for example, total government expenditures have been around fifty percent of GDP since the early 2000s, resulting in a growing tax burden or high public debt or both. At the same time, government had intervened in all aspects of economic life, from the provision of public goods and services to product and labor market regulation. Research shows that the effect of government size on economic performance is positive in countries where the public sector is efficient but negative in countries where it is inefficient. In this book, experts from academe and central banking discuss reforms that would make the public sector more efficient and/or more equitable. After a rich review of the public sector reform policy agenda, with particular attention to the role of the public sector and how to improve the provision of public goods and services, the contributors offer theoretically and empirically informed perspectives on some specific policy topics. These include public wage and employment policy, the role of international institutions such as the World Bank in promoting public sector reforms, the optimal mix of tax policy, the measurement of public sector efficiency, and the study of fiscal sustainability. The contributors relate these topics to such deeper issues as individual incentives as well as to policy debates over privatization, and austerity. Contributors Konstantinos Angelopoulos, Stylianos Asimakopoulos, Danilo Ballanti, Roberto A. De Santis, Roberto Dispotico, George Economides, Pedro Gomes, Gabriella Legrenzi, James Malley, Costas Milas, Ilaria Petrarca, Apostolis Philippopoulos, Francesco Porcelli, Roberto Ricciuti, Lodewijk Smets, Peter Birch Sørensen, Petros Varthalitis, Francesco Vidoli