Published papers

This study is the first attempt to investigate the patterns of imports and exports between the Russian Federation and East/Southeast Asian economies, namely, the People's Republic of China; Hong Kong, China; Macau, China; Japan; the Republic of Korea; Mongolia; Cambodia; Lao People's Democratic Republic; Brunei; Indonesia; Malaysia; Myanmar; the Philippines; Singapore; Thailand; and Vietnam. To this end, a panel gravity trade model with series from 2001 to 2017 is provided to estimate the gravity variables in our models. The results reveal that GDP and income are more important in the export pattern from the Russian Federation to the East Asian region, meaning that the economic size and the income of the population in East Asian economies are more important in this pattern than other variables. Moreover, Russia's export pattern with the East Asian region follows the Heckscher-Ohlin hypothesis, while Russia's import pattern with this region is in line with the Linder hypothesis.

Environmental, Society, and Governance (ESG) investments have become increasingly popular in recent years, and, at the same time, many rating agencies provide ESG scores for each company. This means that the ESG investment model may have moved from the traditional two-factor model of risk-return to a three-factor model adding an ESG component to it. This paper highlights the potential for distor tion of asset allocation through the shift from traditional risk-return considerations to ESG score considerations. This is equally true for green bonds, resulting in the potential for asset allocation to be distor ted by green bond criteria. Fur thermore, we show that imposing a net carbon tax on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is a measure to correct this distor tion in asset allocation and make asset allocation more risk-return based, in addressing global environmental issues.

This study examines the impact of aging on the effectiveness of various fiscal expenditures, including government consumption, one-time government transfers to households, public investment and R&D spending, using a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model. Our findings reveal that (1) Aging enhances the effects of the transfer on augmenting GDP. (2) Regardless of aging, R&D expenditure consistently stands out over all time spans, with younger society benefiting more. (3) Public investment ranks second among for different fiscal policies in the long run, while shows bigger impact in younger society. (4) One-time transfer has only a temporary effect and is the least effective in boosting GDP in both young and old societies. (5) Multipliers for public investment and R&D expenditure increase with the accumulation of public capital and TFP. Their multiplier of young society is larger than old society because impact on consumption is much more effective.

© 2020 Elsevier B.V. A credit guarantee scheme is a method for promoting lending to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by formal financial institutions. It reduces information asymmetry and SMEs’ collateral burden, but at a cost of a credit guarantee fee. The paper provides a theoretical model for calculating the optimal credit guarantee fee. In the empirical part, this study examines whether selected macroeconomic variables and financial health of SMEs have a statistically significant impact on default risk ratio of loans to SMEs – the main determinant of the fee. Principle component analysis (PCA) and two vector error correction model (VECM) models are applied on a sample of 1363 SMEs. Empirical results support our hypothesis that the credit guarantee fee should be different for sound and risky SMEs in order to avoid moral hazard, but also according to the macroeconomic state.

This paper examines how population aging affects the output effect of a government spending shock by using a panel data of OECD countries. The government spending shock is identified as a forecast error of government spending, and its output effect is estimated by using the local projection method. We find that population aging affects the output effect of the government spending shock. While in non-aging economies, government spending shock increases output significantly in both short- and medium-terms, in aging economies, output responses are not statistically significant.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the global recessions have reduced the investments in green projects globally that would endanger the achievement of the climate-related goals. Therefore, the post-COVID-19 world needs to adopt the green financial system by introducing new financial instruments. In this regard, green bonds—a type of debt instrument aiming to finance sustainable infrastructure projects—are growing in popularity. While the literature does not contest their effectiveness in fighting climate change, research highlights the high level of risks and low returns associated with this instrument. This study analyzes the green bond markets in different regions with a focus on Asia and the Pacific. It aims to fill the gap in the literature by conducting a comparative study of the characteristics, risks, and returns of green bonds based on the region. The study is based on theoretical background and empirical analysis using the data retrieved from Bloomberg New Energy Finance and the Climate Bonds Initiative. The empirical results are based on several econometrics tests using panel data analysis estimation methods, namely pooled ordinary least squares and generalized least squares random effects estimator. Our findings prove that green bonds in Asia tend to show higher returns but higher risks and higher heterogeneity. Generally, the Asian green bonds market is dominated by the banking sector, representing 60% of all issuance. Given that bonds issued by this sector tend to show lower returns than average, we recommend policies that could increase the rate of return of bonds issued by the banking sector through the use of tax spillover. In the era of post-COVID-19, diversification of issuers, with higher participation from the public sector and de-risking policies, could also be considered.

This paper discusses adjustments of capital account restrictions and exchange rate regimes in East Asia. Monetary authorities have two options for these adjustments: Gradual adjustments and rapid adjustments. We analyze the costs and benefits for both adjustment options in each area, i.e., capital account restrictions and exchange rate regimes. The paper provides prominent country cases for each adjustment option to emphasize the benefits for policymakers. We then propose four transition policy options for East Asian countries aiming to relax capital account restrictions and increase flexibility in exchange rates from fixed regimes with capital account controls.

Abstract: “Abenomics” refers to the economic policies advocated by Shinzo Abe, who became prime minister of Japan for a second time when his Liberal Democratic Party won an overwhelming majority in the general election in December 2012. Abenomics is distinguished by a set of policies comprising “three arrows”: (1) aggressive monetary policy, (2) fiscal consolidation, and (3) a growth strategy. The Japanese economy faces an aging population and increasing social welfare expenses. No other country has experienced such rapid growth of the number of retired people. In this article we will explain all three aspects of Abenomics, examine the current state of the Japanese economy, and explore what further remedies may be required if Japan is to recover from its long-term deflation. We will look at such proposals as hometown investment trust funds, postponement of the retirement age by introducing a flexible wage rate system, and changing the pension system to 401(k) style instruments.

The Tashguzar–Baysun–Kumkurgan (TBK) railway connection, completed in 2007 in southern Uzbekistan, provided a domestic through line to link rail stretches formerly connected only via neighboring Turkmenistan. We hypothesize that a better integrated domestic rail system would yield economic spillovers beyond the regions actually traversed by the new connector to generate higher growth for neighboring regions and even for the far terminal reaches of the system. We test for this using a difference in difference approach that assesses the impact of the rail connector on economic performance for each of three regional groupings relative to a control group of unaffected regions. We further distinguish effects for the short term (2008), medium term (2009–10), and long term (2011–12). We find statistically significant increases in GDP growth for all three regional groupings at medium or long term horizons with magnitudes of increase up to 2.6 percentage points per year.

This study examines the aftermarket performance of high-green and low-green IPO and how green IPOs can optimize portfolio allocation. We assume the higher level of greenness increases investors’ participation in IPOs. To this end, we develop the utility function and determine that investors prefer to participate in new issues when firms account for greenness measures. This study proposes the global aspects of green measure: the desired level of greenness a firm maintains. We find that IPOs in our sample are far below the global standards of greenness. This evidence suggests they must adopt the necessary actions to make the environment green. Another significant contribution of this study is to measure the performance of high and low-green IPOs in short-and long-run horizons. This study reveals that high-green IPOs are less underpriced. This study estimates the effect of greenness on initial returns and finds an inverse relationship suggesting that high-green IPOs are less underpriced due to lower risk associated with new issues. In terms of measuring longer-term performance, this study determines that high-green IPOs underperform less than low-green IPOs.

This paper assesses the effects of the most recent monetary policy behaviour of the Bank of Japan (in particular, zero interest rate policy and negative interest rate policy) and Japanese tax policy on income inequality in this country during the period of 2002Q1 to 2017Q3. The vector error correction model (VECM) that develops in this research shows that increase in money stock (m1) through Quantitative Easing (QE) and Quantitative and Qualitative Easing (QQE) policies of the BOJ significantly increases the income inequality. On the contrary, Japanese tax policy was effective in reducing the income inequality. Variance decomposition results show that increasing of income inequality by monetary policy is larger when comparing to decreasing effects of tax policy on income inequality. Cointegration and VECM results show that monetary policy has both short-run and long-run impacts but for tax policy paper could not find any significant short-run impact on income inequality. In addition, paper found that technological progress only in long-run can reduce the income inequality by increasing the marginal productivity of labour with positive impacts on employment and wages.

開放された小国にとってどのような通貨体制が望ましいか、という観点から変動相場制・固定相場制とバスケット通貨に対する固定相場制を理論的・実証的に比較する。