Final Exam Lectures (+Cengage Brain questions) Flashcards
In a free market, which factors contribute to changes in short-run exchange rates?
- real interest rate differentials,
- news about market fundamentals,
- speculative opinion about future exchange rates.
In the long run, what are four key factors that contribute to changes in exchange rates?
- relative productivity levels,
- relative price levels,
- preferences for domestic goods and foreign goods
- barriers to trade.
What are the economic benefits of immigration?
- For immigrating worker and their family: private economic benefits such as income, educational, and job opportunities, as well as public benefits through taxes paid.
- Filling available labor demands (both low and high skill) in destination country
- Source of cheap labor to host country’s firms. Low-cost labor, means lower costs to the firm and could lead to the firm charging lower prices.
- Payments(or remittances) to source country
- Help solve demographic challenges in the destination country. Ex: social security benefits and the worker/beneficiary ratio. 1960 -5:1, 2005 -3:3, 2040 -2:1
What are some of the costs of immigration?
- Brain drain in source country; important in new economy based on technology, innovation, and knowledge generation
- Public sector and social sector costs in destination country: health services, welfare programs, and public education. (short-term effects)
- Wage effects on low-skill labor force in the destination country as firms get to avoid raising wages to attract and retain workers
- Wage effects contribute to increasing income inequality by mitigating income levels of low income workers
What are some characteristics of Multi-National Enterprises or Mult-National Corporations?
- Operation in many host countries
- High ratio of foreign sales to total sales
- Cross-national borders
- Diverse manufacturing, mining, extraction, and business services operations
- R&D activities
- Directed from a distant company planning center
- Multinational stock ownership
- Multinational company management
Types of integration (Multinational companies)
- Vertical Integration
* Parent MNE establishes foreign subsidiaries or produce raw & intermediate input for the finished product - Horizontal Integration
* Parent company sets up a subsidiary to produce an identical product in the host country or simply acquires another company. - Conglomerate Integration
* Diversify into nonrelated markets
For multinational corporations what are some sources of competitive advantage?
There are many:
- Vertical integration and supply chains
- Horizontal integration
- Economies of scale in production: outsourcing of labor functions, financing, R&D, market information.
- Knowledge and market flexibility in responding to changing market conditions
- Lower risk due to diversification across different markets
What are some issues multinational corporations (or MNE) face?
- Local labor market effect: employment losses –>ability to minimize bargaining power, expatriate workers means lower gains for local workers, and buying local business vs creating new ones means lower employment gains for local population.
- Abuses of transfer prices: internal pricing within MNE typically to avoid/reduce taxes.
- Technology transfer
- For source country: tax compromises or loss of revenue for treasury and outsourcing means loss of employment.
The importance of the monetary aspects of trade
- International financial market transactions dwarf trade in goods and services
- Global finance is an important source of global integration
- Exchange rates strongly influence merchandise trade - exchange rates “common denominator” in trade
- Role of central bank and other governmental policies in affecting interest rates, exchange rates, and economic growth
What are five types of capital?
- Natural capital
- Physical capital
- Financial capital
- Human capital
- Social capital
**Capital assets - the engine of economic growth**
Financial capital markets. What is its purpose?
Financial capital markets serve to - pool domestic savings, attract foreign capital, intermediate between lenders and borrowers, and provide financing to entrepreneurs, all in order to promote economic growth
How is an international portfolio investment distinctive in comparison to a foreign direct investment?
It is an investment to diversify investor’s portfolio, not involving direct management control.
What is a foreign direct investment?
Flow of funding (lending and/or purchase) to establish or acquire influence and/or partial control of a foreign firm or to expand or reinvest in said firm
What account is the FDI ( Foreign Direct Investment) part of?
Capital and Financial account
What is a capital and financial account?
- Records financial transactions which affect the balance of assets between countries: corporate stocks and bonds, government securities, real estate, and commercial deposits. (e.g. U.S. foreign investments [capital outflow (-)] and foreign investments in the U.S. assets [capital inflow(+)])
- Includes private sector and central bank transactions
- Other financial transactions include: debt forgiveness, transfer of migrants financial assets, sales & purchases of patents, copyrights, trademarks, and leases
What is a current account?
Measures net balance of exports and imports of goods and services. The current account balance is composed of: goods (merchandise balance or “balance of trade”), services (services balance), income (investment income), and transfers (unilateral transfers).
**A current account balance is a more comprehensive measure than “balance of trade”**
What are motivations of international capital flow?
- Maximize expected rate of return on capital
- Diversify risk within international portfolio (explains two-way investment flows)
- Market expansion and diversification
- Minimize costs of production
- Horizontal or vertical integration
- Secure access to raw materials
- Secure access to promising markets
What are capital controls?
Government-imposed barriers on capital outflows (domestic savers or investors investing abroad) or capital inflows (foreign savers or investors investing domestically)
Why may government want to impose capital controls?
- Regulate foreign exchange and influence its balance of payments position and domestic currency value
- Encourage or discourage specific transactions (using parallel exchange rate system)
- Enable domestic monetary or fiscal policy to be more flexible and powerful by limiting scope of exchange rate policy
- Limit financial market stability by regulating inflows/outflows
Benefits for Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) for host country
- Increased tax production, exports, and employment
- Generate tax revenues
- Achieve scale economies and production efficiency
- Human capital development, increased managerial and technical skills
- Technology transfer
- Increased competition with domestic industry may lower market power and thus reduce prices
Problems with Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in host country
- Instability in the exchange rate and balance of payments
- Adverse impact on terms of trade
- Crowding out of domestic investment and shifting of sizable funds away from alternative investments
- Loss of country over domestic policy
Balance of Payments (BOP)
- Statistical account of the transactions between the residents of one country and the rest of the world for one year or a fraction thereof
- BOP accounts based on system of double-entry bookkeeping with a credit (inflow) and debit (outflow) entered for each transaction
- Total credits always = total debits
HISTORY/HANDLING OF: Balance of Payments (BOP)
Post WW2 to 1973
- Under Bretton Woods system there was an emphasis on BOP surplus/deficit indicator of pressure to devalue or revalue currency
Since 1970s
- Less stress on BOP due to acceptance of monetarist principal that BOP surplus/deficit is temporary; focus on XC rates as long-run equilibrating mechanism
Balance of Payments: What is a credit?
Inflow of payments: Any payment to a resident or anything that creates a claim to payment to a resident
- exports of goods and services
- income (dividends, interest, etc.) earned on foreign investments
- unilateral transfers to residents
Balance of Payments: What is debit?
Outflow of payments: Any payment by a resident or anything that creates a claim by a resident
- imports of goods and services
- interest and dividends paid to foreign bond or stockholders
- capital outflows
- unilateral transfers abroad
What is a Settlement Account
Records net changes in central bank assets and official reserves: foreign exchange holdings, gold, inventories, loans to IMF, foreign holdings of domestic currency, etc…
Why are there imbalances in the balance of payments?
Short-Run:
- Domestic income or income in ROW(rest of the world), may increase or decrease via economic growth or recession
- Prices of imports and exports change
- Demand for currency changes
- Customer tastes and preferences
- Natural and man-made disasters (9/11, Japanese tsunami, financial crisis, etc..)
Sources of imbalance of the balance of payments in the long run.
Long-Run:
- Inflation changes
- Rate of economic growth - especially relative rates
- Interest rates
- Resource discovery and depletion
- Technology affecting competitiveness
- Policy: preferential trading agreements: trade liberalization or fiscal and monetary policy
What is the foreign exchange rate?
The price of foreign currency denominated in terms of domestic currency. In other words, the foreign exchange rate is a price like any other price.
What are functions of money?
- Medium of exchange
- Unit of account
- Store of value
What are some observations concerning exchange rates?
- Demand and supply of foreign exchange are two sides of the same phenomenon
- Foreign exchange rate represents equilibrium price as in any other market (“equilibrium exchange rate”)
Though exchange rates are like prices how are they different?
- Can be defined in terms of many other currencies (N-1 unique exchange rates)
- If there are N countries(currencies), there are N-1 exchange rates
- Exchange rates are relative prices
- Exchange rates are constantly and instantaneously changing
- Extensive government intervention in foreign markets
Spot market
Sale or purchase of foreign currency for immediate delivery