nep-ifn New Economics Papers
on International Finance
Issue of 2017‒10‒01
four papers chosen by
Vimal Balasubramaniam
University of Oxford

  1. International Credit Supply Shocks By Ambrogio Cesa-Bianchi; Andrea Ferrero; Alessandro Rebucci
  2. International Spillovers of (Un)Conventional Monetary Policy: The Effect of the ECB and US Fed on Non-Euro EU Countries By Jan Hajek; Roman Horvath
  3. Anomalies Abroad: Beyond Data Mining By Xiaomeng Lu; Robert F. Stambaugh; Yu Yuan
  4. How Credit Cycles across a Financial Crisis By Arvind Krishnamurthy; Tyler Muir

  1. By: Ambrogio Cesa-Bianchi; Andrea Ferrero; Alessandro Rebucci
    Abstract: House prices and exchange rates can potentially amplify the expansionary effect of capital inflows by inflating the value of collateral. We first set up a model of collateralized borrowing in domestic and foreign currency with international financial intermediation in which a change in leverage of global intermediaries leads to an international credit supply increase. In this environment, we illustrate how house price increases and exchange rates appreciations contribute to fueling the boom by inflating the value of collateral. We then document empirically, in a Panel VAR model for 50 advanced and emerging countries estimated with quarterly data from 1985 to 2012, that an increase in the leverage of US Broker-Dealers also leads to an increase in cross-border credit flows, a house price and consumption boom, a real exchange rate appreciation and a current account deterioration consistent with the transmission in the model. Finally, we study the sensitivity of the consumption and asset price response to such a shock and show that country differences are associated with the level of the maximum loan-to-value ratio and the share of foreign currency denominated credit.
    JEL: C33 E44 F3 F44 R0
    Date: 2017–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23841&r=ifn
  2. By: Jan Hajek; Roman Horvath
    Abstract: We estimate a global vector autoregression model to examine the effects of euro area and US monetary policy stances, together with the effect of euro area consumer prices, on economic activity and prices in non-euro EU countries using monthly data from 2001-2016. Along with some standard macroeconomic variables, our model contains measures of the shadow monetary policy rate to address the zero lower bound and the implementation of unconventional monetary policy by the European Central Bank and US Federal Reserve. We find that these monetary shocks have the expected qualitative effects but their magnitude differs across countries, with Southeastern EU economies being less affected than their peers in Central Europe. Euro area monetary shocks have greater effects than those that emanate from the US. We also find certain evidence that the effects of unconventional monetary policy measures are weaker than those of conventional measures. The spillovers of euro area price shocks to non-euro EU countries are limited, suggesting that the law of one price materializes slowly.
    Keywords: Global VAR, international spillovers, monetary policy, shadow rate
    JEL: E52 E58
    Date: 2017–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cnb:wpaper:2017/05&r=ifn
  3. By: Xiaomeng Lu; Robert F. Stambaugh; Yu Yuan
    Abstract: A pre-specified set of nine prominent U.S. equity return anomalies produce significant alphas in Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and the U.K. All of the anomalies are consistently significant across these five countries, whose developed stock markets afford the most extensive data. The anomalies remain significant even in a test that assumes their true alphas equal zero in the U.S. Consistent with the view that anomalies reflect mispricing, idiosyncratic volatility exhibits a strong negative relation to return among stocks that the anomalies collectively identify as overpriced, similar to results in the U.S.
    JEL: G11 G12 G14 G15
    Date: 2017–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23809&r=ifn
  4. By: Arvind Krishnamurthy; Tyler Muir
    Abstract: We study the behavior of credit and output across a financial crisis cycle using information from credit spreads. We show the transition into a crisis occurs with a large increase in credit spreads, indicating that crises involve a dramatic shift in expectations and are a surprise. The severity of the subsequent crisis can be forecast by the size of credit losses (change in spreads) coupled with the fragility of the financial sector (as measured by pre-crisis credit growth), and we document that this interaction is an important feature of crises. We also find that recessions in the aftermath of financial crises are severe and protracted. Finally, we find that spreads fall pre-crisis and appear too low, even as credit grows ahead of a crisis. This behavior of both prices and quantities suggests that credit supply expansions are a precursor to crises. The 2008 financial crisis cycle is in keeping with these historical patterns surrounding financial crises.
    JEL: E0 G01
    Date: 2017–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23850&r=ifn

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