Macroeconomic uncertainty and private investment in developing countries - an empirical investigation

The impact of uncertainty on investment has attracted considerable attention in the analytical and empirical macroeconomic literature. In theory, however, uncertainty can affect investment through different channels, some of which operate in mutually opposing direction. So, the sigh of its overall effect is ambiguous and can be assessed only empirically. To thoroughly assess the impact of macroeconomic uncertainty on private investment, the author uses a large panel data set on developing countries. He draws a distinction between sample variability and uncertainty, constructs alternative measure of the volatility of innovations to five key macroeconomic variables (inflation, growth, the terms of trade, the real exchange rate, and the price of capital goods), and examines their association with aggregate private investment. He then adds these constructed measures to an empirical investment equation that is estimated using alternative panel data econometric methods, allowing for simultaneity, country-specific effects, and parameter heterogeneity across countries. The results underscore the robustness of the link between investment and uncertainty. Virtually all of the volatility measures in the paper show a strong negative association with investment ratios. In addition, the regression estimates indicate that uncertainty has an adverse direct impact on investment, over and above any indirect effect that might also be at work. This finding is particularly robust in the case of real exchange rate volatility, which invariably has a robust negative effect on investment, regardless of econometric specification.International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Fiscal&Monetary Policy,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,ICT Policy and Strategies,International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,Macroeconomic Management,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies

Anticipated real exchange-rate changes and the dynamics of investment

The impact of permanent real depreciation on a country's capital stock is uncertain. Whether total capital stock rises or falls depends on how depreciation affects aggregate demand, the real interest rate, and especially the import content of capital goods. In the long run, the capital stock can be expected to rise in traded goods and fall in nontraded goods. Despite this long-run ambiguity, anticipated changes in real exchange rate have a predictable effect on the dynamics of capital accumulation. They provide an incentive for speculative rellocation of investment over time, so they can greatly distort the timing of investments. In the framework of this paper, the time profile of investment is related to how financially open an economy is and to the import content of capital goods. When a real depreciation is expected, an investment boom is likely to develop if the import content of capital goods is high relative to the degree of capital mobility: the anticipated depreciation promotes flight into foreign goods. Conversely, with high capital mobility, the opposite investment pattern is likely to emerge, as the anticipated depreciation promotes flight into foreign assets.Economic Theory&Research,International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,Environmental Economics&Policies,Macroeconomic Management,Banks&Banking Reform

Does public capital crowd out private capital? : evidence from India

A recent but rapidly growing empirical literature focuses on the relationship between public and private capital. But for the most part, it ignores the heterogeneity of public investment. In many countries, especially in the developing world, public investment includes not only basic infrastructure projects, but also commercial and industrial projects similar to those undertaken by the private sector. And those two types of public investment are likely to have quite different effects on the accumulation of private capital. Using data from India, the author examines this issue empirically by implementing a simple analytical model encompassing two types of public capital. The empirical results show that in the long run capital for public infrastructure projects crowds in private capital - other types of public capital have the opposite effect. But in the short run, both kinds of public investment may crowd out private investment.Decentralization,Economic Theory&Research,International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,Banks&Banking Reform,Capital Markets and Capital Flows,Inequality,Economic Stabilization,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Banks&Banking Reform

Capital goods imports, the real exchange rate, and the current account

Conventional aggregate models of open economies typically rule out trade in capital goods. But capital goods account for a major share of the world trade. In 1990, they represented more than 40 percent of U.S. merchandise exports and more than 30 percent of its imports. In the same year, capital goods imports represented an average of roughly 30 of total imports for 82 industrial and developing countries, and almost 9 percent of their GDP. This report shows that the presence of imported capital goods greatly changes the short- and long-run effects of macoreconomic policies and external shocks on key macroeconomic variables. Using a rational-expectations aggregate model with intertemporally optimizing agents and with trade in both consumption and capital goods, it finds that the long-run equilibrium of the economy displays a negative relationship between the real exchange rate and real output - that is, a real appreciation is associated with an increase in long-run output and the capital stock. With investment subject to adjustment costs, the response to unanticipated permanent disturbances involves a changing real exchange rate and a non-zero current account. The author analyzes the macroeconomic consequences of changes infiscal policy and of transfers of wealth from abroad. He show that both have well-defined long-run effects on the capital stock and real output. Fiscal expansion, in particular, may have a long-run crowding-in effect on investment. By constrast, the impact of disturbances on the current account is ambiguous. The author shows that it depends critically on the degree of intertemporal substitutability in both consumption and investment - with the latter measured by the magnitude of investment adjustment costs.Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Macroeconomic Management,International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT

Infrastructure and economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa

An adequate supply of infrastructure services has long been viewed by both academics and policy makers as a key ingredient for economic development. Sub-Saharan Africa ranks consistently at the bottom of all developing regions in terms of infrastructure performance, and an increasing number of observers point to deficient infrastructure as a major obstacle for growth and poverty reduction across the region. This paper offers an empirical assessment of the impact ofinfrastructure development on growth and inequality, with a focus on Sub-Saharan Africa. The paper uses a comparative cross-regional perspective to place Africa's experience in the international context. Drawing from an updated data set of infrastructure quantity and quality indicators covering more than 100 countries and spanning the years 1960-2005, the paper estimates empirical growth and inequality equations including a standard set of control variables augmented by infrastructure quantity and quality measures, and controlling for the potential endogeneity of the latter. The estimates illustrate the potential contribution of infrastructure development to growth and equity across Africa.Transport Economics Policy&Planning,Infrastructure Economics,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Theory&Research

An empirical macroeconomic model for policy design : the case of Chile

The authors construct, estimate, and simulate a macroeconomic model for Chile. This model allows aggregate supply and demand factors to interact in determining such key economic variables as inflation, the real wage, the real exchange rate, real output and employment, and the current account balance. The model ensures the consistency of different aggregates by imposing the relevant budget constraints on the fiscal sector, the central bank, and the balance of payments. To this consistent framework, the model adds behavioral equations with sound analytical foundations. The authors use model simulations to explore the effects of domestic policies and external shocks (like a balanced-budget fiscal expansion, a policy of increased growth in minimum wages, a fall in world copper prices, and an oil price shock). These simulations help illustrate the effects of economic policies and external factors that shape current policy discussions in Chile.Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Stabilization,Macroeconomic Management,Inequality

Undervaluation through foreign reserve accumulation : static losses, dynamic gains

This paper shows that real exchange rate undervaluation through the accumulation of foreign reserves may improve welfare in economies with learning-by-investing externalities that arise disproportionately from the tradable sector. In the presence of targeting problems or when policy choices are restricted by multilateral agreements, first-best policies such as subsidies to capital accumulation, or subsidies to tradable production are not feasible. A neo-mercantilist policy of foreign reserve accumulation"outsources"the targeting problem or overcomes the multilateral restrictions by providing loans to foreigners that can only be used to buy up domestic tradable goods. This raises the relative price of tradable versus non-tradable goods (i.e. undervalues the real exchange rate) at the static cost of temporarily reducing tradable absorption in the domestic economy. However, since the tradable sector generates greater learning-by-investing externalities, it leads to dynamic gains in the form of higher growth. The net welfare effects of reserve accumulation depend on the balance between the static losses from lower tradable absorption versus the dynamic gains from higher growth.Economic Theory&Research,Debt Markets,Currencies and Exchange Rates,Access to Finance,Emerging Markets

A normal relationship ? Poverty, growth, and inequality

Using a large cross-country income distribution dataset spanning close to 800 country-year observations from industrial and developing countries, the authors show that the size distribution of per capita income is well approximated empirically by a lognormal density. The null hypothesis that per capita income follows a lognormal distribution cannot be rejected-although the same hypothesis is unambiguously rejected when applied to per capita consumption. The authors show that lognormality of per capita income has important implications for the relative roles of income growth and inequality changes in poverty reduction. When poverty reduction is the overriding policy objective, poorer and relatively equal countries may be willing to tolerate modest increases in income inequality in exchange for faster growth-more so than richer and highly unequal countries.Achieving Shared Growth,Inequality,Economic Conditions and Volatility,Services&Transfers to Poor,Poverty Impact Evaluation

Private investment and macroeconomic adjustment : an overview

This paper reviews current investment theories, recent models linking macroeconomic policies and private investment, and the effect of uncertainty and credibility on irreversible investment decisions. Empirical studies on the subject are also reviewed, and the general implications of this literature for the design of growth-oriented adjustment programs are discussed.Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,Financial Intermediation,Banks&Banking Reform

Infrastructure in Latin America

An adequate supply of infrastructure services has long been viewed by both academics and policy makers as a key ingredient for economic development. Over the past quarter-century, the retrenchment of Latin America's public sector from its dominant position in the provision of infrastructure, and the opening up of these industries to private participation, have renewed the debate on the role of infrastructure in the region's development. The focus of this paper is three-fold. First, it documents, in a comparative cross-regional perspective, the trends in Latin America's infrastructure development, as reflected in the quantity and quality of infrastructure services and the universality of their access. Overall, this suggests the emergence of an infrastructure gap vis-a-vis other industrial and developing regions. Second, it provides an empirical assessment of the contribution of infrastructure development to growth across Latin America. Third, it examines the trends in the financing of infrastructure investment -- documenting the changing roles of the public and private sectors -- and analyzes how they have been shaped by macroeconomic policy constraints.