Mean reversion of inflation rates in 19 OECD countries: Evidence from panel Lm unit root tests with structural breaks

The paper applies the recently developed panel LM unit root tests with heterogeneous structural breaks by Im et al., [The Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 2005] in order to re-examine the validity of mean reversion in the inflation rates of 19 OECD countries for the time period 1960-2004. Our empirical findings are favorable to the stationarity of the inflation ratesand therefore point to the absence of hyperinflation in the majority of the countries. The results indicate that most shocks to inflation rates are temporary and soon converge when we control for breaks, with the inflation rates showing mean reversion. Overall, some policy implications are obtained in this paper.Inflation

INFLATIONARY THRESHOLD EFFECTS IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FINANCIAL DEVELOPMENT AND ECONOMIC GROWTH: EVIDENCE FROM TAIWAN AND JAPAN

This paper employs a threshold regression model to investigate the existence of inflation threshold effects in the relationship between financial development and economic growth. A specific question that is addressed in this paper is what the threshold inflation rates are for Taiwan and Japan. Results indicate that there is one inflation threshold value in Taiwan, whereas there are two in Japan. Earlier studies support the view that financial development may promote economic growth. However, the conclusion drawn from the empirical findings suggests that it can only be achieved under low and moderate inflation. In addition, the threshold level of inflation below which financial development significantly promotes growth is estimated at 7.25% for Taiwan and 9.66% for Japan. The empirical findings from the threshold regression model indicate that inflationary threshold for both countries occurred in the high inflation period of the world energy crises in the 70s.Threshold Regression Model, Inflation, Financial Development, Economic Growth

Are Fruit and Vegetable Prices Non-linear Stationary? Evidence from Smooth Transition Autoregressive Models

Over the last decade, there has been a growing interest in investigating agricultural commodity prices. We apply two more powerful smooth transition autoregressive models of the non-linear unit-root test - namely, the ESTAR model of Kapetanios et al. [Journal of Econometrics (2003)] and the LSTAR model of Leybourne, et a . [Journal of Time Series Analysis (1998)] - with a view to investigating non-linear stationarity for the retail prices of 8 major kinds of fruit and 18 major kinds of vegetable in Taiwan. The empirical evidence clearly finds that the Kapetanios et al. model provides solid, substantive evidence in favor of a non-linear mean-reverting adjustment for the individual price of 4 kinds of fruit and 5 kinds of vegetable. However, when we employ the Leybourne et al. model, we find that any such similar evidence of non-linear stationarity is considerably weaker. Finally, compared with the traditional linear unit root tests, it is important to note here that, all in all, the non-linear unit root tests do indeed provide much more evidence of the stationarity, albeit to varying degrees. This paper offers some policy implications.Smooth transition autoregressive model; Non-linear stationary; Fruit price; Vegetable price; Taiwan

Septic Shock after Conservative Management for Placenta Accreta

SummaryObjectiveThe rate of placenta accreta has risen in the last three decades due to the increasing rate of cesarean section. Placenta accreta usually results in severe postpartum hemorrhage requiring massive blood transfusion and postpartum hysterectomy. Conservative treatment is an alternative in selected patients to preserve fertility and decrease postpartum hemorrhage, but the risks of conservative treatment have seldom been described.Case ReportA 39-year-old woman with placenta accreta diagnosed during cesarean section was treated conservatively. Persistent puerperal fever with leukocytosis developed during the postpartum period in spite of long-term antibiotic treatment. Evacuation of the retained placenta resulted in septic shock, which occurred immediately after dilatation and curettage. An uneventful recovery was achieved after use of strong antibiotics and fluid challenge.ConclusionAt present, there is no consensus about the optimal treatment for placenta accreta. Conservative treatment appears to be an alternative in selected patients, but the complications such as sepsis should be carefully identified and appropriately managed

Why did some firms perform better in the global financial crisis?

We explore what firm and macroeconomic factors assisted Chinese firms to resist the global financial crisis. We find that firms with higher top ten shareholder ratios or firms that are older exhibited saliently higher performance during the crisis, but performed poorly during the non-crisis period. Firm size has a notably negative impact on firm performance. Firms audited by the Big Four accounting firms have a significantly negative correlation with performance. During the crisis, stock markets became less efficient in incorporating firm-specific information into stock prices, signifying that the determinants of firm performance vary across non-crisis and crisis periods

Ripple effect and regional house prices dynamics in China

This paper examines the stationarity properties, the long-run equilibrium and the leadlag relationship among the regional house prices in China from December 2000 to July 2013. Unlike traditional unit-root tests, the panel seemingly unrelated regressions augmented Dickey-Fuller (SURADF) unit-root test reveals that the regional house prices in China are a mixture of I(0) and I(1) processes. There is concrete evidence in favor of the hypothesis of a long-run equilibrium relationship among all regions, except for Shanghai region, and supporting the price diffusion or ripple effect among these Chinese cities. Finally, we determine that these regional house prices exhibit uni-directional causalities running from Beijing, Chongqing, and Shenzhen to Guangzhou and Tianjin, respectively

FINANCIALIZATION AND STAGNANT CAPITAL ACCUMULATION IN CHINA

Using the semi-annual data of listed nonfinancial corporations from 2007 to 2015, this paper investigates the effect of financialization on capital accumulation in China. The results show that increased financial profit crowds out real investment, especially for small and private firms. Furthermore, the effect of financialization reverts to be positive in the long run, and its cumulative effect manifests a “U-type” pattern

Income inequality, globalization, and country risk: a cross-country analysis

Guided by the assessments of globalization in its broader sense, this paper explores the impact of globalization in terms of a salient aspect of economic, social and political on income inequality for a more comprehensive dataset of 121 countries from 1984 to 2014. We also investigate whether the correlations between globalization and inequality vary with economic, financial, and political country risk indicators. Our empirical results reveal that globalization deteriorates income distribution, but economic and financial stability can mitigate the adverse effect. In addition, lowerincome or non-OECD countries generally have higher inequality caused by globalization. Knowledge of these relationships can help the government to formulate more specific policies aiming at improving the income distribution. First published online 13 December 201

Did the S.A.R.S. epidemic weaken the integration of Asian stock markets? Evidence from smooth time-varying cointegration analysis

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (S.A.R.S.) epidemic on the long-run relationship between China and four Asian stock markets. To this end, we first employ the advanced smooth time-varying cointegration model to investigate the existence of a time-varying cointegration relation among these markets and then employ the difference-indifferences approach to analyse whether or not the S.A.R.S. epidemic impacted the long-run relation between China and these four markets during the period 1998–2008, covering 5 years before and after the S.A.R.S. outbreak. Our results support the existence of a time-varying cointegration relation in the aggregate stock price indices, and that the S.A.R.S. epidemic did weaken the long-run relationship between China and the four markets. Therefore, stockholders and policy makers should be concerned about the influence of catastrophic epidemic diseases on the financial integration of stock market in Asia