Dynamics of capital controls: panel evidence from Asia

PurposeThis study empirically examines the effect of capital controls on the volume and composition of capital flows at aggregated as well as at disaggregated level by different asset classes such as debt, FDI, equity, and derivatives.Design/methodology/approachSeveral dynamic panel SYS-GMM models are employed on two sets of unique data on cross-border capital flows and capital control index along with control variables at aggregated and disaggregated level by different asset classes during 1995–2015 for a sample of 31 Asian economies.FindingsEconometric findings suggest that higher capital controls effectively reduce gross capital flows. The reduction in gross capital flows is largely found to be on account of effectiveness of controls on equity flows. However, the impact of controls on overall debt and derivative flows is found to be insignificant. Further, it was found that an increase in direct capital controls disaggregated by inflow and outflow categories significantly reduced the inflow of debt and equity + FDI flows and outflow of equity + FDI and derivative flows. Finally, the study did not find any substitution effect (due to indirect controls) and net effect on capital flows.Practical implicationsResults of such empirical examination may enable governments in respective countries to pursue prudent and rational capital controls as a shield against capital flight and shock transmission.Social implicationsPreventing capital flight through effective controls has macroeconomic benefits such as maintaining stability in income, growth, interest rate, exchange rate, and employment levels for the society.Originality/valueThe primary contribution of the study is the analysis of effectiveness of capital controls disaggregated by different asset categories such as debt, equity, FDI, and derivatives using two unique recent data sets for a large sample of Asian economies.

External Imbalances, Gross Capital Flows, and Sovereign Debt Crises

The experience of the European monetary union has been characterized by current account imbalances, widening gross external positions, and a severe sovereign debt crisis. I argue that institutional features of the European Economic and Monetary Union have contributed to all three. I show in a model that subsidies on holdings of assets issued within the union contribute to current account imbalances, to gross capital flows, and to the severity of the crisis. In a quantitative model with heterogeneous countries, I show that the subsidies account for a substantial fraction of the widening of gross external positions in the euro area by inducing countries with high income and external assets to engage in intermediation of gross capital flows.

ESTIMATING CAPITAL FLOWS TO EMERGING MARKET ECONOMIES WITH HETEROGENEOUS PANELS

Current data provide macroeconomic information for a large number of countries and for long periods of time (macropanels). In such panels, slope heterogeneity and cross-section dependence (CSD) are the rule rather than the exception, leading the fixed effects slope estimators to be biased and inconsistent. This paper analyzes gross capital flows to emerging economies employing the Augmented Mean Group (AMG) model to account for slope heterogeneity and CSD. The results suggest that the AMG performs better than the fixed effects model and that not only country heterogeneity is important to analyze capital inflows to emerging economies, but also are the differences among the types of capital inflows.