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Financial Liberalization (financial + liberalization)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting	76%
Humanities and Social Sciences	23%

Selected Abstracts

Financial Liberalization And The Sensitivity Of House Prices To Monetary Policy: Theory And Evidence

THE MANCHESTER SCHOOL, Issue 1 2003
Matteo Iacoviello
We analyse the impact of financial liberalization on the link between monetary policy and house prices. We present a simple model of a small open economy subjectto credit constraints. The model shows that the higher the degree of financial liberalizationis, the stronger is the impact of interest rate shocks on house prices. We then usevector autoregressions to study the role of monetary policy shocks in house price fluctuations in Finland, Sweden and the UK, characterized by financial liberalizationepisodes over the last 20 years. We find that the response of house prices to interestrate surprises is bigger and more persistent in periods characterized by more liberalized financial markets. [source]

Financial Liberalization and Corporate Investments: Evidence from Korean Firm Data,

ASIAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL, Issue 3 2004
Jaewoon Koo
This paper examines whether financial liberalization procedures introduced in Korea in the early 1990s succeeded in relaxing financing constraints on firms. Because external funds are more costly than internal funds in an imperfect capital market, corporate investments depend on the availability of internal funds. As financial liberalization mitigates constraints on firms, the sensitivity of investments to cash flow can be reduced. Using panel data on Korean firms, we found that cash-flow effects on investment spending decreased drastically during the liberalization period. In particular, small, non-chaebol and established firms that were severely constrained gained most from liberalization. Chaebol firms appeared to lose preferential access to credit after liberalization. [source]

The revived Bretton Woods system

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FINANCE & ECONOMICS, Issue 4 2004
Michael P. Dooley
Abstract The economic emergence of a fixed exchange rate periphery in Asia has re-established the United States as the centre country in the Bretton Woods international monetary system. We argue that the normal evolution of the international monetary system involves the emergence of a periphery for which the development strategy is export-led growth supported by undervalued exchange rates, capital controls and official capital outflows in the form of accumulation of reserve asset claims on the centre country. The success of this strategy in fostering economic growth allows the periphery to graduate to the centre. Financial liberalization, in turn, requires floating exchange rates among the centre countries. But there is a line of countries waiting to follow the Europe of the 1950s/60s and Asia today, sufficient to keep the system intact for the foreseeable future. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Rural Banking and Landless Labour Households: Institutional Reform and Rural Credit Markets in India

JOURNAL OF AGRARIAN CHANGE, Issue 4 2002
V.K. Ramachandran
Financial liberalization is a key component of programmes of orthodox structural adjustment. Financial reforms include, among other things, the removal of controls on interest rates and the abolition of programmes of directed credit. Here the effect of financial sector reform on rural banking and rural credit transactions in India is examined, with particular reference to landless labour households. First, the trends in selected indicators of rural banking at the national level over the last 30 years are reviewed. Secondly, longitudinal data for a village in Tamil Nadu are used to examine changes in patterns of indebtedness and credit transactions among landless labour households. It is argued that the exploitation of landless labour households in the credit market has intensified with the introduction of financial reforms. Lastly, the policy envisaged as an alternative to the formal credit sector in the countryside , the establishment of micro,credit projects , is examined critically. [source]

Does Financial Liberalization Lower Problem Loans in Banks?

ECONOMIC NOTES, Issue 2 2007
Saibal Ghosh
The paper explores whether financial liberalization promotes improved credit risk management in Indian banking in the form of fewer problem loans. Using annual data on state-owned banks for the period 1996,2005, the paper finds that, after controlling for a myriad of factors, financial liberalization is influential in lowering banks' problem loans. Robustness tests reinforce these findings. [source]

Competition Among Banks, Capital Requirements and International Spillovers

ECONOMIC NOTES, Issue 3 2001
Viral V. Acharya
The design of prudential bank capital requirements interacts with the industrial organization of the banking sector, in particular, with the level of competition among banks. Increased competition leads to excessive risk-taking by banks which may have to be counteracted by tighter capital requirements. When capital requirements are internationally uniform but the levels of competition among banks in different countries are not, international spillovers arise on financial integration of these countries. This result begs a more careful analysis of the effect of financial liberalization on the stability of banking sectors in emerging countries. It also calls into question the merits of employing uniform capital requirements across countries that diverge in the industrial organization of their banking sectors. (J.E.L.: G21, G28, G38, F36, E58, D62) [source]

Optimal Policy for Financial Market Liberalizations: Decentralization and Capital Flow Reversals

GERMAN ECONOMIC REVIEW, Issue 1 2000
Theo S. Eicher
Financial market liberalizations are an integral part of economic development. While initial booms in investment and output are commonly seen as signs of successful deregulation, they often reverse at a later stage as international capital flows turn negative and economic growth slows markedly. Such reversals of fortunes have commonly been attributed to incorrect policies that supposedly followed the initial, appropriate measures. It is unclear, however, if capital flow reversals are actually the result of policy reversals, or if they occur as part of the normal transition when financial liberalization is accompanied by a single suboptimal policy. The later hypothesis has not been explored in the theoretical literature We construct a general equilibrium growth model of a small open economy, in which capital flow reversals are the result of a single, suboptimal policy imposed at the beginning of the financial liberalization. We show how improper taxation of foreign borrowing initially leads to strong growth fuelled by an investment boom and foreign borrowing. Still along the transition, however, the model predicts that capital flows must reverse endogenously at a later stage, as the debt burden rises and the country-specific risk premium increases. Our data on the Latin American and East Asian countries provide strong support for our hypothesis. [source]

Household Debt and Income Inequality, 1963,2003

JOURNAL OF MONEY, CREDIT AND BANKING, Issue 5 2008
MATTEO IACOVIELLO
income inequality; household debt; credit constraints; incomplete markets I construct an economy with heterogeneous agents that mimics the time-series behavior of the earnings distribution in the United States from 1963 to 2003. Agents face aggregate and idiosyncratic shocks and accumulate real and financial assets. I estimate the shocks that drive the model using data on income inequality, aggregate income, and measures of financial liberalization. I show how the model economy can replicate two empirical facts: the trend and cyclical behavior of household debt and the diverging patterns in consumption and wealth inequality over time. While business cycle fluctuations can account for the short-run changes in household debt, its prolonged rise of the 1980s and the 1990s can be quantitatively explained only by the concurrent increase in income inequality. [source]

Financial factors and company investment decisions in transitional China

MANAGERIAL AND DECISION ECONOMICS, Issue 2 2009
Jia Liu
We investigate the propensity of Chinese publicly listed firms to invest in response to financial factors, according to the a priori degree of a firm's information problems: industry sector, ownership structure and firm size. The firms in primary and tertiary industries are found to be liquidity-constrained in their investment decisions. The investment-cash flow sensitivity of the firms in secondary industry indicates that they lost privileged access to credit in the course of China's market transition. However, we find no evidence that financial liberalization resulted in an easing of financing constraints for small- and medium-sized firms. Our result indicates that agency problems, stemming from a state-controlling pyramidal ownership structure, are responsible for the misallocation of internal funds. The importance of bankruptcy and agency costs in relation to debt finance for certain types of borrowers reflects the transitional nature of the financial environment facing Chinese firms. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

International Institutions and Domestic Compensation: The IMF and the Politics of Capital Account Liberalization

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, Issue 1 2010
Bumba Mukherjee
Certain governments have been faster than others in relaxing their restrictions on the cross-border movement of capital. How can we explain the timing and extent of financial liberalization across countries since the 1970s? We argue that IMF stabilization programs provide a window of opportunity for governments to initiate financial reforms, but that policy makers are more likely to seize this opportunity when welfare expenditures are high. Large loans from the IMF shield policy makers from the costs of financial reform, while welfare expenditures provide credibility to the government's,ex ante,promises of compensation to individuals who are harmed by the reforms. We test this hypothesis on data for 87 countries from 1975 to 2002. We employ a spatial autoregressive error sample selection model which accounts for the nonrandom participation of countries in IMF programs as well as the processes of international policy diffusion. The results provide strong support for the interactive effect of IMF programs and domestic welfare expenditures on financial liberalization. [source]

Globalization and the Strengthening of Democracy in the Developing World

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, Issue 4 2005
Nita Rudra
Scholars and policy makers have long assumed that trade and financial liberalization encourages developing countries to become more democratic; yet no one has developed formal hypotheses about the causal relationship between globalization and democracy. This article shows that these two trends are indeed related, but not necessarily in the direct manner that has commonly been postulated. Combining theories of embedded liberalism and conflict-based theories of democracy, the model presented here depicts the process that affects decisions to strengthen democracy as trade and capital flows increase. I argue that increasing exposure to international export and financial markets leads to improvements in democracy if safety nets are used simultaneously as a strategy for providing stability and building political support. Empirical evidence is provided by econometric analysis covering 59 developing countries for the time period 1972,97. [source]