Archive | March, 2017
Economics, Finance sector development, Governance and public sector management
Economics, Education, Governance and public sector management, Poverty
Economics, Finance sector development, Governance and public sector management
Economics, Finance sector development, Governance and public sector management
Finance sector development
Assessing the BOJ’s yield curve control policy
The Bank of Japan (BOJ) announced in September last year that it would be switching the focus of its quantitative easing program from monetary base targeting to controlling the shape of the yield curve (Bank of Japan, 2016). A brief comparison of the two frameworks is as follows. The previous monetary easing framework, Quantitative and Qualitative Monetary Easing (QQE) with a Negative Interest Rate, set out three policy dimensions: quantity, quality, and interest rates.
Why is Income Distributed Unequally? A Comparison of Japan and the United States
Japan and the United States (US) are at similar levels of economic development, yet their income distributions are considerably different. Whereas Japan has a relatively equal income distribution, the US is marked by a high level of income inequality. What are the sources of income inequality in both countries? Our latest research aims to uncover the sources on income inequality in both countries by exploiting detailed household panel survey.
Ultra-low interest rates and wandering overinvestment cycles in East Asia
In the 1960s, Kaname Akamatsu (1961) described the gradual relocation of industries from the advanced industrialized countries in East Asia to the less advanced countries during the latter’s economic catch-up process as the “flying geese” pattern. For instance, the textile industry was clustered in Japan in the 1950s but then successively relocated to the newly industrialized economies (Hong Kong, China; Taipei,China; Singapore; and the Republic of Korea), the new generation of tiger countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand), the People’s Republic of China (PRC), and now increasingly to Viet Nam.
The brief for cash
Cash is an extremely useful social contrivance. Two possible drawbacks of high-denomination cash have recently been discussed by Kenneth Rogoff (2016) in his book, The Curse of Cash, and echoed by other economists. They are the extensive use of high-denomination cash by criminals and others engaged in illicit and corrupt activities, and the role that cash plays in avoiding deeply negative nominal interest rates imposed on bank accounts. Rogoff and others call for a phasing-out of high denomination cash over a long period.
One year after the Fed liftoff: Consequences for emerging markets
The Federal Open Market Committee, the official policy making body of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Fed), announced the long-awaited increase, or liftoff, in the federal funds rate of 0.25% just over a year ago in December 2015. This action represented the beginning of a “return to normalcy” from the period since 2008 when the Federal Reserve had been operating at the zero lower bound. With the liftoff already 1 year behind us, market watchers widely expect continued, even abrupt, increases in United States (US) interest rates in the coming year.
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