WHAT ARE SPILLOVER TRANSMISSION CHANNELS FROM CHINA’S MONETARY POLICY TO ASIA: BAYESIAN VECTOR AUTOREGRESSIVE APPROACH

This study employs Bayesian vector autoregressive method to investigate spillover effects from China’s monetary policy to Asian economies through the exchange rate, domestic demand, and financial channels. The domestic demand channel plays dominant role to the transmission of China’s monetary spillover. While the weak impact of the exchange rate channel could be explained by the positive correlated response of Asian currencies to renminbi shock, the limited influence of the financial channel is due to low financial development and high restrictions on capital flows of China. We suggest Asian authorities should reduce the export reliance on China and prepare macro-prudential instruments to minimize their economies’ vulnerability to foreign shocks.

International Yield Spillovers

This paper investigates spillovers from foreign economies to the U.S. through changes in longterm Treasury yields. We document a decline in the contribution of U.S. domestic news to the variance of long-term Treasury yields and an increased importance of overnight yield changes—a rough proxy for the contribution of foreign shocks to U.S. yields—over the past decades. Using a model that identifies U.S., Euro area, and U.K. shocks that move global yields, we estimate that foreign (non-U.S.) shocks account for at least 20 percent of the daily variation in long-term U.S. yields in recent years. We argue that spillovers occur in large part through bond term premia by showing that a low level of foreign yields relative to U.S. yields predicts a decline in distant forward U.S. yields and higher returns on a strategy that is long on a long-term Treasury security and short on a long-term foreign bond.

Decomposing the Effect of Domestic and Foreign Economic Policy Uncertainty Shocks on Real and Financial Sectors: Evidence from BRIC Countries

This study examines the impact of domestic and foreign shocks on the real and financial sector of BRIC countries. For this purpose, we use a structural vector autoregressive (SVAR) model over the extended period of 1997 to 2016. We conclude that domestic policy shocks have a more substantial impact on Brazilian, Indian, and Russian economy than foreign shocks, while foreign shocks have more contribution in the case of China. Interestingly, results show the negative impact of policy shocks on bank credit provided, implying its role in multiplying the impact of shocks on real variables. Surprisingly EPU of USA has a positive impact on stock markets of India and China, implying capital flight phenomenon, where investor transfer investment from risky to safer places.

ASIAN CURRENT ACCOUNT BALANCES AND SPILLOVERS FROM A FOREIGN COUNTRY, A REGION AND THE UNITED STATES

This paper provides an overall picture on the influence of domestic and foreign shockson the current account of selected Asian countries over the period 1978 to 2012. Thepresent value model of the current account theory states that forward looking andconsumption smoothing behaviour of economic agents can promote sustainablecurrent account balances, as long as these are maintained by transitory unanticipatedshocks to the current account. The unexpected transitory domestic and foreign shocksare sourced, respectively, from the domestic and foreign current account. Foreignshocks are developed from an Asian country, a region, and the US. Our empiricalanalysis of the impact of foreign and domestic current account shocks shows thatunexpected domestic shocks, rather than unexpected foreign shocks, matter for thecurrent accounts of Asian countries.

The Influence of Domestic and Foreign Shocks on Portfolio Diversification Gains and the Associated Risks

This paper evaluates the influence of foreign or domestic stock market return and return of volatility shocks on dynamic conditional correlations (DCCs) between international stock markets and correlation volatility, respectively. The correlations between markets have implications for the gains from portfolio diversification, while correlation volatilities can be seen as risks to portfolio diversification. Meanwhile, domestic shocks are sourced from the return and return volatility from 24 developed, emerging, and frontier stock markets. The US stock market is the source of foreign shocks. The domestic and foreign shocks are derived using market-based returns and under bearish market conditions. We estimate multivariate exponential generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (E-GARCH) models using daily and monthly MSCI based stock price data of selected developed, emerging, and frontier markets over 1993:1–2014:1. Our key results are as follows. Domestic market shocks were significant drivers of gains from portfolio diversification most of the time, although the US market effects were relatively stronger. On the other hand, the US, in terms of the number of significant cases as well as the size effects of shocks, dominated as a determinant of correlation volatility (or risks to portfolio diversification). Further, under bear market conditions, adjustments in correlations and correlation volatilities are found to be mostly US-induced. Bearish shocks, rather than market return based shocks, show strong evidence of the leverage effect. Signs of persistence of shocks are mainly noticed under bearish conditions.