Search results for " interest rate"
showing 10 items of 56 documents
Another "French paradox": explaining why interest rates to microenterprises dit not increase with the change in French usury legislation
2015
Conventional wisdom indicates that the growth of credit may not materialize if credit rates remain capped by usury laws, as had long been the case in France. France therefore abolished usury ceilings on loans to microenterprise in an effort to increase financing for microentrepreneurs. This should have led to an increase in interest rates and increase in microcredit. However, we do not find any increase in interest rates and this is therefore a paradox. The paper provides a brief literature review and the salient features of the legislative changes in France. It follows this up with a presentation of interest rate movements. The discussion of possible explanations of the paradox includes cl…
New Evidence of the Real Interest Rate Parity for OECD Countries Using Panel Unit Root Tests with Breaks
2006
This paper tests for real interest parity (RIRP) among the nineteen major OECD countries over the period 1978:Q2-1998:Q4. The econometric methods applied consist of combining the use of several unit root or stationarity tests designed for panels valid under cross-section dependence and presence of multiple structural breaks. Our results strongly support the fulfillment of the weak version of the RIRP for the studied period once dependence and structural breaks are accounted for.
- EL EFECTO FISHER Y LA PARIDAD DE INTERÉS REAL. EVIDENCIA PARA LA ECONOMÍA ESPAÑOLA
1999
This paper provides an empirical test of the Fisher effect and of the real interest parity. The objetive is to determinate the behavior of the ex-ante real interest that condicionate the intertemporal savings and investment decisions. The method used is the time series properties of the data, which allows to separate estimation of the long-run equilibrium relationship from the nuisance parameters that characterize the short-run dynamics. The results find support inthe long run for a tax-adjusted Fisher hypothesis but not for the real interest parity. En este trabajo se contrasta empíricamente el cumplimiento de la hipótesis de Fisher y de la paridad de interés real para el caso español. El …
World Interest Rates and Inequality: Insight from the Galor - Zeira Model
2018
In this paper, we study the relationship between changes in the world interest rate and within-country inequality during the 1985–2005 period in which the world interest rate sharply declined. In line with the predictions of the seminal model of Galor and Zeira [Income distribution and macroeconomics. Review of Economic Studies 60, 35–52], the analysis suggests that the decrease in the world interest rate is associated with a decrease in inequality in poor countries and an increase in inequality in rich ones.
A Note on the Stability of Lognormal Interest Rate Models and the Pricing of Eurodollar Futures
1997
The lognormal distribution assumption for the term structure of interest is the most natural way to exclude negative spot and forward rates. However, imposing this assumption on the continuously compounded interest rate has a serious drawback: rates explode and expected rollover returns are infinite even if the rollover period is arbitrarily short. As a consequence, such models cannot price one of the most widely used hedging instruments on the Euromoney market, namely the Eurodollar futures contract. The purpose of this note is to show that the problems with lognormal models result from modeling the wrong rate, namely the continuously compounded rate. If instead one models the effective an…
DOES REAL INTEREST RATE PARITY HOLD FOR OECD COUNTRIES? NEW EVIDENCE USING PANEL STATIONARITY TESTS WITH CROSS-SECTION DEPENDENCE AND STRUCTURAL BREA…
2010
This paper tests for real interest rate parity (RIRP) among the 17 major Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries over the period 1978:Q1–2006:Q1. The econometric methods applied consist of combining the use of panel data tests that are valid under cross-section dependence and the presence of multiple structural breaks. This feature is important because the misspecification errors due to not accounting for structural breaks and/or cross-section dependence can lead to misleading conclusions. Our results support the fulfilment of the weak version of the RIRP for short-term interest rate differentials once dependence and structural breaks are considered.
Primary commodity prices: co-movements, common factors and fundamentals
2011
The behavior of commodities is critical for developing and developed countries alike. This paper contributes to the empirical evidence on the co-movement and determinants of commodity prices. Using nonstationary panel methods, the authors document a statistically significant degree of co-movement due to a common factor. Within a Factor Augmented VAR approach, real interest rate and uncertainty, as postulated by a simple asset pricing model, are both found to be negatively related to this common factor. This evidence is robust to the inclusion of demand and supply shocks, which both positively impact on co-movement of commodity prices.
On the international co-movement of natural interest rates
2022
Using quarterly data for 10 OECD countries and the Euro area and a Kalman filtering technique, we investigate the international co-movement among natural interest rates. We show that the US is the main source of global spillovers and global/common factors appear to be key drivers of such co-movement. Indeed, global liquidity is a net transmitter of shocks, while quantitative easing (QE) and the US Dollar are net recipients of shocks. We also find that total spillovers among natural interest rates have been rising since the late nineties, spiking at around economic re-cessions, periods of US monetary policy tightening, the global financial crisis and the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis. From …
Oil prices and Spanish competitiveness
2002
Abstract This paper tries to find, using panel cointegration techniques, the factors explaining the real exchange rate of the Spanish peseta following the monetary approach to exchange rate determination developed in Meese and Rogoff (1988). In addition to the real interest rate differential, the real oil price (adjusted accounting for the relative oil dependence of the countries considered) is included as one of the main long-run determinants. The results are favorable to this simple model, stressing the role played by both, demand and supply factors, to explain the behavior of the peseta real exchange rate. However, the results are not homogeneous in the case of the real oil prices: this …
Impacts of sovereign risk premium on bank profitability: Evidence from euro area
2021
We analyse the effects of low and negative interest rates and sovereign risk premium on bank profitability among 154 Eurozone banks during the period 2005–2019. In contrast to some of the results in the previous literature, we find that the euro area banks have not suffered too much from the extremely low and negative interest rate era regarding their net interest margins. However, the overall profitability has lowered clearly during the sample period, and the sovereign risk premium has a robust negative effect on all the overall profitability measures, both with risk-adjustment and without it, but it seems to have an increasing effect on the degree of wholesale funding and loan loss provis…