Money, real output, and deficit effects of coffee booms in Colombia

This paper develops a Vector Error Correction (VEC) model and uses the recently developed technique of ‘generalized’ impulse response analysis to test the empirical relationships in the Colombian economy between coffee revenues and a set of macro variables. We find that coffee price (revenue) shocks have exerted an important influence on money growth, inflation, and real exchange rates, and the direction of these effects are in line with some of the predictions of traditional Dutch Disease type models. The major difference between our results and the results of Dutch Disease type models arise in the effects of coffee booms on real output. We find that in the time horizon of 5 years after the boom, real output has increased in response to the effects of the coffee boom. The finding that coffee booms can result in positive long-run output effects is an important finding since it contradicts the traditional conclusion of Dutch Disease type models which envision an adverse long-run effect on output. We also find that the long-run effect of coffee booms is to reduce both current account and government deficits. These results illustrate strikingly that the term “Dutch Disease” is an unfortunately pejorative term that obscures the fact that coffee booms need not be viewed as a “disease” but as an extraordinary opportunity to strengthen internal and external balances.     

美国逼迫人民币升值的深层原因探讨——政治经济学视角

中国入世以来,中关双边贸易不平衡的问题逐渐突显出来,美国各界将贸易不平衡问题归咎于人民币汇率制度,认为中国政府操纵了人民币汇率,并纷纷要求政府敦促中国采取行动,调整人民币汇率制度,使人民币迅速大幅升值。从政治经济学视角剖析,美国各界有关人民币汇率问题和中美贸易不平衡问题的种种论断是荒谬的,国会议员不断逼迫人民币升值是出于维护美国在世界经济中权威地位的政治考虑。     

美国贸易赤字的成因分析--兼论美元贬值的成效

从汇率、国内吸收以及直接投资与贸易的关系三个角度,利用美国1980-2004年的年度数据,通过简单OLS方法得出美国的进出口方程,可以揭示影响美国贸易逆差的主要原因,以及美元贬值对贸易逆差的影响,结果表明:(1)美元贬值主要通过影响出口而非进口改善贸易收支,但存在2年左右的滞后期,因此美元截至目前的贬值并没有明显改善贸易逆差;(2)从收入影响看,由于H-M收入非对称效应的存在,要减少贸易逆差需要美国相对国外更大幅度的紧缩;(3)从直接投资与贸易的关系看,美国对外直接投资转移了本国的供给,增大了美国进口。大规模减少美国贸易逆差不可能仅仅依靠美元汇率贬值,而是需要中长期的结构性调整,2006年美国贸易逆差将进一步扩大。