Welfare Implications of Capital Account Liberalization PDF Download

Author: Ester Faia
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
In recent decades, capital account liberalization in emerging economies has often been followed by a surge in capital inflows, despite the presence of severe informational asymmetries for foreign lenders. Empirical studies have shown that in emerging economies financial liberalization has led to an increase in consumption volatility (also relative to output). I use a small open economy model where foreign lending to households is constrained by an endogenous borrowing limit. Borrowing is secured by collateral in the form of durable investment whose accumulation is subject to adjustment costs. This economy is able to replicate the aforementioned stylized fact in response to various shocks (productivity, foreign demand and government expenditure). I find that financial liberalization reduces welfare since it increases the volatility of consumption and employment.

Author: Christoph Yew
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3640653564
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 93

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Book Description
Diploma Thesis from the year 2008 in the subject Business economics - Economic Policy, grade: 2.0, University of Osnabrück (Fachbereich Außenwirtschaft), language: English, abstract: During the recent decades, many countries decided to get access to international financial markets by liberalizing their capital accounts. As we will see in this paper, the issues of liberalization are very complex. Many different areas like, for example, growth, inflation or the labor market are affected by it. For some areas, empirical research supports theory and delivers sustainable and significant results. For others, theory is inconsistent or not supported by evidence from the real world. Some special ones, like for instance welfare or productivity, even show that it is important to split up the results to see whose welfare is increased or which's branch productivity is affected. Another interesting point is the connection between crises and capital account liberalization. Due to the financial crises that occurred in the aftermath of liberalization the concept has been controversially debated by academics for a long time. The real connection between these two issues is not yet clear. The structure of this paper is as follows. Section 2 will give short case studies of countries that liberalized their capital account. Section 3 is meant to endow the reader with some basic tools that will be important for the understanding of the concepts that will be presented later on in this paper. This includes definitions and conceptual ideas about measuring capital account liberalization. Section 4 focuses on the theory and empirical findings. In that section, the effects of liberalization on various macroeconomic variables will be presented. Section 5 follows the thoughts of the prior one by having a look at the implications that can be concluded from the theoretical and empirical findings that have been presented in the prior chapter. Section 6 discusses capital account liberalization with r

Author: Peter Blair Henry
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780979037634
Category : Capital
Languages : en
Pages : 82

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"Writings on the macroeconomic impact of capital account liberalization find few, if any, robust effects of liberalization on real variables. In contrast to the prevailing wisdom, I argue that the textbook theory of liberalization holds up quite well to a critical reading of this literature. The lion's share of papers that find no effect of liberalization on real variables tell us nothing about the empirical validity of the theory, because they do not really test it. This paper explains why it is that most studies do not really address the theory they set out to test. It also discusses what is necessary to test the theory and examines papers that have done so. Studies that actually test the theory show that liberalization has significant effects on the cost of capital, investment, and economic growth"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.

Author: Jürgen von Hagen
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
We develop a model of a small open economy with credit market frictions to analyze the consequences of capital account liberalization. We show that financial opening facilitates the inflows of cheap foreign funds and improves production efficiency. However, capital account liberalization has important distributional consequences. Specifically, it may be impossible to use public transfers to fully compensate the loss of those who are negatively affected by capital account liberalization. This explains why financial opening often meets fierce opposition even though it leads to efficiency gains for the economy as a whole. From a practical perspective, capital controls should be lifted gradually for a smooth transition.

Author: Sebastian Edwards
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Capital
Languages : en
Pages : 46

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Book Description
This paper deals with the dynamics of trade and capital account liberalization in a developing country. The welfare consequences of trade and capital account liberalization under alternative sequencing scenarios are investigated. We draw on standard trade theory results to show that the opening of the capital account in the presence of trade distortions may be welfare reducing if foreign borrowing is used to increase investment. However we demonstrate that this welfare reducing effect of opening the capital account will not occur if shadow prices are used to guide investment decisions. It is then shown that if capital market restrictions fall disproportionally on investment (as opposed to consumption) a gradual reduction of import tariffs is superior to an abrupt trade liberalization.

Author: Davide Furceri
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1513531409
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 26

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Book Description
This paper examines the distributional impact of capital account liberalization. Using panel data for 149 countries from 1970 to 2010, we find that, on average, capital account liberalization reforms increase inequality and reduce the labor share of income in the short and medium term. We also find that the level of financial development and the occurrence of crises play a key role in shaping the response of inequality to capital account liberalization reforms.

Author: Mr.Giovanni Dell'Ariccia
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 9781557757777
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 74

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Book Description
Capital account liberalization - orderly, properly sequence, and befitting the individual circumstances of countries- is an inevitable step for all countries wishing to realize the benefits of the globalized economy. This paper reviews the theories behind capital account liberalization and examines the dangers associated with free capital flows. The authors conclude that the dangers can be limited through a combination of sound macroeconomic and prudential policies.

Author: Mr.Nizar Jouini
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1484367731
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 43

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Book Description
We propose an integrated method based on a two-sector small open economy dynamic and stochastic general equilibrium model to estimate non-tariff barriers and quantify the impact of services liberalization. The major component of trade barriers is explicitly modeled through the introduction of entry-sunk costs. Hence, liberalization is treated assuming a government's policy decision aimed at reducing those costs. Then, we estimate the model using Bayesian techniques for Tunisia and the Euro Area. The paper presents a precise quantitative evaluation of services trade barriers as the difference between entry-sunk costs in Tunisia versus the Euro Area. We find significant welfare benefits in addition to aggregate and sectoral growth gains the Tunisian economy could attain following services liberalization. Surprisingly, the goods sector is the one that benefits the most from services liberalization in the short- and long-term horizons.

Author: Rimjhim Singh
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The case for capital account liberalization has been the centre of outgoing debate. This paper discusses both the short term and longer term flows (FDI). This paper is divided into 5 sections. Section 1 presents the claims of neoclassical economists who believe that the case for free trade is the same as the case for capital account liberalization. They further point out that such liberalization increases social welfare and promotes efficiency. Section 2 provides the critique of the classical view as several assumptions made in traditional theory may not hold in real life. Section 3 provides the empirical evidence to claim that free capital flows lead to instability and culminate into a crisis. Section 4 explores the effects of FDI on countries and concludes that unrestricted flows may not always benefit nations. Section 5 analyses empirically the effect of FDI on inequality, long term and short term economic growth.

Author: Sebastian Edwards
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Balance of payments
Languages : en
Pages : 108

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Book Description
The opening up of an economy to the rest of the world has generally been considered an integral part of economic reform aimed at increasing the role of markets. Until recently, however, very little discussion was devoted to the order in which the capital and current account should be liberalized indeveloping countries. This paper deals with several aspects of the order of liberalization. The different arguments usually given to advocate a particular ordering are critically reviewed. Then a three-good two-factor model is used to analyze the effects of alternative ordering on production and income distribution. A two-period model of a small economy is also used to investigate the welfare effects of opening the capital account in the presence of distortions. While the discussion does not yield a theorem regarding the appropriate order of liberalization, there are strong presumptions that it is more prudent to liberalize the current account first.