8.1.LearningOutcomes
This unit aims to help you develop an understanding of:
8.2.Overview
In the previous unit, we described the conditions of increasing financial
integration in the world economy within a historical context. We argued that the
process of financial globalisation has been facilitated by ICT and the
deregulation of financial markets since the 1970s. As a result, the degree of
integration has been much deeper and wider since the 1990s in comparison to
any other phase in the history.
On the other hand, the frequency of financial crises was lower before
financial globalization. Since the 1980s, the number of financial disturbances
increased significantly. Unlike the crisis prior to the 1980s, those in the last
several decades had pronounced contagion effects which led to the spread of
instability from the country of origin to other countries. Stiglitz (1999), for
example, indicates that around 80-100 countries had a financial crisis since the
mid-1970s. Aggregate figures often cloak some interesting details. The findings
of Bordo et al. (2001) suggest that the overall financial instability has been more
recurrent from the 1970s onward in comparison to any other period in the
history. But this overall picture heavily reflects the circumstances in the
developing countries. If we focus on the financial markets in the developed
countries alone, the frequency of crisis has actually declined significantly since
the 1970s.
These trends raise important questions. Why has the recurrence of crisis
been higher since the 1970s? Has increased integration and capital mobility had
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8.3.Thetypesoffinancialcrises
In general, there are three main ways in which financial crises manifest
themselves. These are banking crisis, currency crisis and balance of payments
crisis. More often they are inter-linked, one leading to another form of crisis. A
crisis may start as a banking crisis and turn into a balance of payments crisis
later. Or it may start as a currency crisis and turn into a banking crisis.
Banking crisis often result in an increase in non-performing loans, liquidity
shortages and weakens the capital base of banks. The causes of banking crisis
are various. But most important is the role of the cyclical economic conditions. In
a booming economy, investors are usually optimistic and the lending capacity of
banks is greater. In good times, some banks relax their lending rules to take
advantage of improved business opportunities. Others may follow the suit to
retain their market share. Excessive risk taking by banks and borrowers will
create a lending spree and a bubble in financial markets which cannot be
maintained forever. Eventually, the interest rates will have to rise. If an economic
slump sets in with increasing unemployment, reduced profits and household
incomes, those with excess borrowing will find it difficult to meet their
obligations. Some firms will start to borrow short term in order to finance their
long term debt. This type of maturity mismatch in the management of debt and
its financing is called ponzi financing and it is one of the clear signs of turmoil in
the financial markets. Defaults on borrowing will start to rise with banks
accumulating an increasing proportion of their assets in the form of nonperforming loans. Ability of banks to extend lending will be reduced and a credit
crunch will hit the economy.
For banks to maintain their role as financial intermediaries without major
disruptions, prudent risk management practices are necessary. This often has
two dimensions. The first is the supervision of banks by an independent financial
regulator that can maintain an oversight on the sector as a whole. Financial
regulators may impose restrictions on banks lending by imposing reserve,
liquidity and capital adequacy requirements. They also oblige banks to publish
their accounts (e.g. balance sheets, annual reports of activities) periodically and
make these available to the general public. This aims to improve the
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rating by international credit rating agencies may trigger a capital flight and limit
countrys access to international financial markets. Therefore, it is essential for
countries that are prone to currency crisis to keep an eye on three ratios:
i) The ratio of foreign currency reserves to external debt, especially short
term debt
ii) The ratio of foreign currency reserves to current account deficits
iii) The ratio of the interest rate on external debt to the rate of return on
domestic investment
8.5.Majorcrisissince1980s
Latin American Crises in the 1980s was caused by increasing external
indebtedness accompanied by financial deregulation. It started with Mexican
moratorium (announcement to discontinue debt payments) in 1982. By 1983
another 15 countries in Latin America and 11 elsewhere declared their inability
to meet their obligations.
Mexico encountered another major crisis in 1994 when capital inflows
stopped after some political turmoil. The government tried to finance its current
account deficits by issuing bonds called tesobonos which were payable in pesos
indexed to US$. Despite this, reserves were still low and capital inflows were
limited. Hence, government could not defend the exchange rate by allowing
minor depreciation. Eventually it let the exchange rate to float and suffer a
substantial depreciation in the value of domestic currency. This inflated the
redemption value of the tesobonos as they were linked to the US$and hence the
external indebtedness. The fears about a possible moratorium twelve years after
the first one in 1982 led the US Treasury and the IMF to design a US$50 billion
bailout package for the redemption of tesobonos.
The 1997 Asian Crisis started with a run on Thai Baht and large capital
outflows followed by a sizable devaluation in July 2007. Soon the currency crisis
spread into Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan and eventually South
Korea. This is often explained as the contagion effects of the initial trigger
caused by the crisis in Thailand. Most of these economies saw their asset and
property prices tumbling down during the crisis and found themselves unable to
finance their increasing external debt.
The 1998 Russian Crisis was fuelled by a growing budget deficit which was
being financed by external borrowing. This strategy worked for a while with
restrictions which sterilised the country against sudden capital outflows. In
1997, public sector borrowing requirement increased further as a result of a
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billion approved loan to Argentina on the grounds that the government was not
following the agreed economic policies. Eventually, it became clear that the
Argentine debt was unsustainable. Foreign loans dried. The government
undertook emergency measures and restricted withdrawals from bank accounts.
No policy measure could save the country and eventually government was
forced to float the peso and allow a large devaluation which worsened the debt
crisis and prolonged the recession for a long time.
8.4.Whyhavecrisesbeenmorefrequentsince1980
The financial crises over the last two decades occurred under different
circumstances and manifested themselves in different ways. Nevertheless, there
were some common elements shared by many countries in crisis.
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currency. This is likely if there is a speculator attack, i.e. when speculators start
to buy foreign exchange in massive amounts, expecting that the government will
have to abandon the peg and allow the domestic currency to depreciate. The
result would be a surge in external debt stock as borrowers have to give up
more local currency to repay their debt in foreign currencies. Speculators will
gain as a result of foreign exchange appreciation.
Figure 8.1. The Trilemma: An example
Monetary Policy with
Open Capital Account
FX fixed
CB defends
FX Rate.
Sells FX.
Reserves
run down.
Unsustainable.
Speculative
attacks
FX floating
Capital
Outflow but
stronger X with
Depreciation,
Capital
Inflow but
low X with
Appreciation
FX fixed
CB defends
FX Rate
Buys FX.
Builds up
Reserves.
Costly
Speculative
Attacks
FX floating
Initially, high
Capital Inflow &
Low X with
Appreciation,
This tendency is
reversed later
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In fact, the Asian crisis gave signs that perhaps governments can have
control neither over monetary nor exchange rate policy under an open capital
account regime that intensifies the links of the individual economies with the rest
of the world. Many Asian economies deregulated their capital accounts in the
1990s and lifted controls on domestic interest rates. Competition in the financial
sector to attract savings raised the domestic interest rates. On the other hand,
interest rates were rather low in the US, Europe and Japan during the 1990s.
Asian financial institutions exploited the
opportunity offered by the interest rate
Note that short term flows (e.g.
foreign debt) is more volatile. Equity
differentials and borrowed from lower rates
investment is useful for raising
abroad and lent from higher rates in the
capital at lower cost but in times of
domestic economy. Because exchange
financial turmoil the mass sale of
rates were pegged they faced little
such assets can dramatically lower
exchange rate risk. This encouraged
share prices, and hence the net
worth of companies. FDI, on the
capital inflows mostly in the form of
other hand, is less volatile.
portfolio investment (i.e. equity investment
or short term debt). Over-investment
inflated the asset prices. Bankruptcy of few
heavily indebted players in the market (a bank or a real estate trader) created a
panic in financial markets and reversed the flow of capital. Herd behavior of
investors intensified capital outflows. The central banks could not defend the
pegged the exchange rates and eventually left their currencies to float with
substantial devaluation. Malaysia was the only country which was able to
contain the damage by imposing restrictions on capital outflows.
Herd behaviour is usually defined as investors mimicking each others actions, sometimes
ignoring socially valuable information. Rationalisations of herding include learning from
others and incentive structures for fund managers. Herding due to learning from others
can occur when actions are observable but information is partly private. In such situations
it may be optimal to rely exclusively on others actions. If the abilities of fund managers are
known to investors, investors may choose to compensate managers based on relative
performance. This, in turn, provides an incentive for managers to mimic the actions of their
peers: fund managers do not tend to deviate too strongly from benchmark indices. A
related behaviour of investors is given by momentum trading strategies prescribing
buying assets whose prices have been rising selling those whose prices have been falling.
Such behaviour can also be destabilising. (Extract from Prasad et al. 2003, p. 27)
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8.6.TheConsequencesofFinancialCrisis
Major financial crises do not only affect financial markets. Every single
macroeconomic indicator is likely to be upset by a major financial upheaval,
including growth, unemployment, price levels, and governments finances. The
World Bank, for example, estimated the cost of crisis in terms of economic
contraction (negative growth) and unemployment in some countries. In all cases,
except for Dominican Republic, drop in growth rates have been sizeable,
especially so in Argentina, Uruguay, Indonesia and Thailand. Unemployment
effects were also significant.
Source: World Bank, cited in Leijonhufvud (2007, p. 1822)
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Read the news extract below and identify the measures and the cost of
measures that Indonesian government used during 1997-98 to manage the
negative impacts of the financial crisis.
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RECAP
R
1. Therre has be
een increa
ased finan
ncial instab
bility since
e 1980
espe
ecially in the
e developin
ng world
2. Bank
king, Balan
nce of Paym
ments and Currency
C
c
crises
are th
he main
ways
s in which financial
f
crises manife
est themselvves
3. Befo
ore financia
al globalisa
ation funda
amentals (d
debt and deficits)
expla
ained mostt crises reassonably we
ell.
4. Afte
er financial globalisatio
on debt an
nd deficits are still important.
How
wever a nu
umber of other
o
facto
ors are em
merging as crucial
reas
sons for financial crisiis, including, institutio
onal problems, the
trilem
mma, hot capital
c
flow
ws, herd be
ehaviour, speculative
s
attacks
and contagion.
5. Fina
ancial insta
ability can have serio
ous negativve macroecconomic
impa
acts such as
a higher un
nemployme
ent, econom
mic contracttion and
fisca
al cost.
KeyW
Wordsand
dConceptts
Balance
e of paymentts crises
Contagion effects..................
Currenccy crisis ....................
Fundam
mentalist persspectives
Inconsisstent trinity ...............
Moral ha
azard .......................
Ponzi fin
nancing......................
speculator attack .................
The trile
emma
Bankin
ng crisis
Credit crunch
c
Foreign currency reserves
r
Herd behavior
b
Maturitty mismatch
h
Morato
orium
Speculative attackss
Sub-prrime marketss
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StudyQuestionsforUnit8
1. In economic theory major financial crisis with some impact on the whole
economy are classified according their causes and explained on the basis of
economic models. The literature in this area identifies three different crisis
models: First, second and third generation models. Find out more about
these models by carrying out a search on these in GOOGLE.
2. Identify the shortcomings
Leijonhufvud (2007).
of
various
risk
measures
discussed
by
3. Search for news, for example in Financial Times, on the housing crisis of
2007 in the US. What factors are highlighted as the causes of this crisis?
4. What are the factors that may cause unsustainable government deficits?
5. What are the factors that may cause unsustainable deficits in the current or
capital accounts of the balance of payments?
CourseworkforUnit8
Presentation Task: Study the financial crisis of 1994 in Mexico. Describe how
the crisis manifested itself and discuss its causes.
Short Essay Topic: Analyse the ways in which globalization has contributed to
increased financial instability.
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ReferencesandReadingList
Bordo, M et al (2001). Financial Crises: Lessons
from the Last 120 Years. Economic Policy, 35,
pp. 53-75
Grabel, I (2003) Averting crisis? Assessing
measures to manage financial integration in
emerging economies Cambridge Journal of
Economics, 27, pp. 317-336
Leijonhufvud, C. (2007) Financial Globalisation and Emerging Markets
Volatility, The World Economy, doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9701.2007.01077.x
Mishkin, F S (2007) Is Financial Globalisation Beneficial? Journal of Money,
Credit and Banking, Vol. 39, No. 2-3, pp. 259-294
Prasad et al. (2003) Effects of Financial Globalization on Developing Countries:
Some Empirical Evidence, IMF Occasional Paper, No 220
Stiglitz J (1999) Reforming the global economic architecture: lessons from
recent crises The Journal of Finance, vol. 54, no. 4, pp. 1508-1522
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