Judicial lawmaking and precedent in Supreme Courts

What does it mean for a supreme court to ‘make law?’ When is it possible to say that its decisions are ‘precedents?’ To what extent should a supreme court’s pronouncements be taken into account by others – lower courts and political branches? And how should these other actors reason with such precedents? This article shows how a particular approach to judicial lawmaking and precedent shapes answers to these questions and examines them in relation to the US Supreme Court and the French Cour de cassation. The findings are then used for a critical analysis of the European Court of Justice’s case law. It is suggested that while the US and French systems have found some ways of reconciling judicial lawmaking with the basic premises of their constitutional and political systems (although they are not entirely satisfactory), the EU system is still waiting for an account of the Court’s lawmaking and precedent. The conclusion indicates directions of possible further research relevant for all courts examined

Optimum currency area indices: evidence from the 1990s

In this paper the authors calculate OCA-indexes for industrial countries in an effort to estimate the benefit-cost ratio of adopting a common currency. The results correspond to the estimation of Bayoumi and Eichengreen (1997b) and show that the ranking of the economies suitable to form a monetary union stays the same in the 1980s as well as in the 1990s. In other words, the economies, which were structurally close to each other in the 1980s, remain close in the 1990s and the opposite is valid for the structurally different economies. This empirical estimation also does not provide evidence for views, which emphasise the seemingly striking difference between the core and the periphery of the European Union. The authors perform also an estimation of the same index by including the Czech Republic and find no support for the view that the economy of the Czech Republic could possibly structurally differ more than the EMU member countries between each other. Then they conclude that if the EMU is sustainable, the accession of the Czech economy should not change it

Official Foreign Exchange Interventions in the Czech Republic: Did They Matter?

This paper studies the impact of daily official foreign exchange interventions on the Czech koruna’s exchange rate vis-à-vis the euro (German mark prior to 1999) from 1997 to 2002. Using both the event study methodology and a variety of GARCH models reveal that central bank interventions, especially koruna purchases were fairly ineffective from 1997 to mid-1998 compared to the size of the interventions. However, from mid-1998 to 2002, koruna sales were surprisingly effective in either smoothing the path of the exchange rate or even reversing the appreciating trend up to 60 days. Higher volatility triggered koruna purchases in the period from 1997 to mid-1998, which in turn leads to higher volatility. This suggests that the CNB tried in vain to calm the markets after the currency crisis. Koruna sales simply yield more forex rate volatility, a by-product of the monetary authorities’ efforts to counter excessive appreciation.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/40146/3/wp760.pd

Currency Substitution in the Transition Economy : A Case of the Czech Republic 1993-2001

Currency substitution appears to be an important issue affecting the design of monetary policy, especially in transition economies. Therefore, this paper strives to analyze the particular relevance of a currency substitution phenomenon for the Czech Republic is case. We initially discuss various approaches and definitions of currency substitution that found in the literature. Subsequently, we discuss the role of currency substitution in small open economies in transition with some illustrations relating to the Czech Republic - we distinguish and analyse a locally and globally substituting currency from a substituted one and consequences of euroization. The empirical part of this paper presents estimations of modified Branson and Henderson portfolio model for the Czech Republic’s case. This provides a multi-perspective approach to currency substitution in a broad sense. Further, we attempt to intensify the robustness of our estimation, applying several cointegration techniques. These are namely the Johansen procedure, the ARDL, the DOLS and the ADL. Finally, we discuss potential implications of currency and assets substitution according to our estimates present in the Czech economy.Currency substitution ; demand for money ; transition ; Czech Republic ; cointegration

Official Foreign Exchange Interventions in the Czech Republic: Did They Matter?

This paper studies the impact of daily official foreign exchange interventions on the Czech koruna’s exchange rate vis-à-vis the euro (German mark prior to 1999) from 1997 to 2002. Using both the event study methodology and a variety of GARCH models reveal that central bank interventions, especially koruna purchases were fairly ineffective from 1997 to mid-1998 compared to the size of the interventions. However, from mid-1998 to 2002, koruna sales were surprisingly effective in either smoothing the path of the exchange rate or even reversing the appreciating trend up to 60 days. Higher volatility triggered koruna purchases in the period from 1997 to mid-1998, which in turn leads to higher volatility. This suggests that the CNB tried in vain to calm the markets after the currency crisis. Koruna sales simply yield more forex rate volatility, a by-product of the monetary authorities’ efforts to counter excessive appreciation.central bank intervention, foreign exchange intervention, transition economies

OPTIMUM CURRENCY AREA INDICES : EVIDENCE FROM THE 1990s

In this paper the authors calculate OCA-indexes for industrial countries in an effort to estimate the benefit-cost ratio of adopting a common currency. The results correspond to the estimation of Bayoumi and Eichengreen (1997b) and show that the ranking of the economies suitable to form a monetary union stays the same in the 1980s as well as in the 1990s. In other words, the economies, which were structurally close to each other in the 1980s, remain close in the 1990s and the opposite is valid for the structurally different economies. This empirical estimation also does not provide evidence for views, which emphasise the seemingly striking difference between the core and the periphery of the European Union. The authors perform also an estimation of the same index by including the Czech Republic and find no support for the view that the economy of the Czech Republic could possibly structurally differ more than the EMU member countries between each other. Then they conclude that if the EMU is sustainable, the accession of the Czech economy should not change it.Optimum currency area ; EMU ; monetary policy ; convergence ; core and periphery

The Debt-adjusted Real Exchange Rate for China

The paper aims to enrich the debate on the overvaluation/undervaluation of China yuan Renminbi (CNY) against USD and JPY by applying the concept of the Debt-Adjusted Real Exchange Rate (DARER). This approach is offering to monetary policy makers another indicator for more responsive management of this important economic variable. The general motivation for constructing DARER is the fact that long-term current account surplus (deficits) is linked with capital outflows (inflows), which often leads to real undervaluation (overvaluation) of domestic currency. DARER can signal to the authorities that the real exchange rate is becoming unsustainable in the medium term. Based on the DARER approach we also introduce three indicators of exchange rate misalignment.Exchange rate ; current account ; misalignment ; China ; DARER

MONETARY POLICY AND OIL PRICES

This article discusses the relationship between monetary policy and oil prices and, in a broader sense, commodity prices. Firstly, it focuses on describing the relationship between key macroeconomic variables, gas prices and other commodity prices relative to oil prices. Subsequently, it discusses the existence of “transmission channels” through which monetary policy can be propagated to oil prices (or prices of commodities). It then provides an insight into the CNB’s forecasting process, both by looking retrospectively at the oil price outlook in the past and by analysing a transitory and a permanent shock (a rise in the oil price of USD 30/b). The simulated oil price shock is calculated from the average level of Brent oil prices in the first quarter of 2010, i.e. USD 77.50/b.oil price ; monetary policy ; real interest rate ; oil price shock JEL Classification: G12 ; G14 ; D53