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Social Science > Demography

You are looking at 1 - 10 of 10 items for :

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Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Japan: Selected Issues
International Monetary Fund. Asia and Pacific Dept
This Selected Issues paper assesses the relationship between demographic trends and housing prices in Japan. Among various issues in the context of regional disparities, the paper focus on regional differences in population dynamics to try and understand to what extent demographic trends have influenced housing market prices in Japan in the past twenty years. Large cities, notably the Greater Tokyo area, are experiencing net migration inflows, while other regions are experiencing net migration outflows. Due to the durability of housing compared to other forms of investment, the magnitude of house price declines associated with population losses is larger than that of house price increases associated with population gains. These model-based predictions are likely to underestimate the actual fall in house prices associated with future population losses, as expectations of lower housing prices in the future could trigger more population outflows and disposal of houses, especially in rural areas. The paper suggests policy measures to help close regional disparities and avoid potential over-investment by taking account of demographic trends for housing supply.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; Japan; fertility rate; income; income balance; fertility rate relationship; IMF staff calculation; Japan's fertility rate; GDP shock; Personal income; Housing prices; Price stabilization; Tourism; Inflation; Global; Middle East; Europe; North America; Asia and Pacific
Cover IMF Working Papers
The Economic Impact of Natural Disasters in Pacific Island Countries: Adaptation and Preparedness
Dongyeol Lee
,
Huan Zhang
, and
Chau Nguyen
Pacific island countries are highly vulnerable to various natural disasters which are destructive, unpredictable and occur frequently. The frequency and scale of these shocks heightens the importance of medium-term economic and fiscal planning to minimize the adverse impact of disasters on economic development. This paper identifies the intensity of natural disasters for each country in the Pacific based on the distribution of damage and population affected by disasters, and estimates the impact of disasters on economic growth and international trade using a panel regression. The results show that “severe” disasters have a significant and negative impact on economic growth and lead to a deterioration of the fiscal and trade balance. We also find that the negative impact on growth is stronger for more intense disasters. Going further this paper proposes a simple and consistent method to adjust IMF staff’s economic projections and debt sustainability analysis for disaster shocks for the Pacific islands. Better incorporating the economic impact of natural disasters in the medium- and long-term economic planning would help policy makers improve fiscal policy decisions and to be better adapted and prepared for natural disasters.
Keywords:
WP; GDP growth; percentile rank; balance-to-GDP ratio; estimation result; Natural Disaster; Growth; Fiscal Balance; International Trade; Debt Sustainability; coefficient estimate; disaster year; mass movement; Natural disasters; Fiscal stance; Trade balance; Debt sustainability analysis; Pacific Islands
Cover IMF Working Papers
Are the Asia and Pacific Small States Different from Other Small States?
Ms. Patrizia Tumbarello
,
Ezequiel Cabezon
, and
Mr. Yiqun Wu
The small states of the Asia and Pacific region face unique challenges in raising their growth potential and living standards relative to other small states due to their small populations, geographical isolation and dispersion, narrow export and production bases, exposure to shocks, and heavy reliance on aid. Higher fixed government costs, low access to credit by the private sector, and capacity constraints are also key challenges. The econometric analysis confirms that the Pacific Island Countries (PICs) have underperformed relative to their peers over the last 20 years. Although these countries often face more limited policy tools, policies do matter and can further help build resilience and raise potential growth, as evidenced in the recent business cycle. The Asia and Pacific small states should continue rebuilding buffers and improve the composition of public spending in order to foster inclusive growth. Regional solutions should also continue to be pursued.
Keywords:
WP; IMF staff calculation; micro state; country authorities; real GDP; Asia and Pacific; small states; micro states; Pacific islands; growth; volatility; Asia-Pacific small state government; ECCU country; effective purchasing power; Pacific region; small states-Asia; country information; Income; Terms of trade; Government consumption; Climate change
Cover Policy Papers
Asia and Pacific Small States - Raising Potential Growth and Enhancing Resilience to Shocks
International Monetary Fund
The small states of the Asia and Pacific region face unique challenges in raising their growth potential and living standards. These countries are particularly vulnerable because of their small populations, geographical isolation and dispersion, narrow export and production bases, lack of economies of scale, limited access to international capital markets, exposure to shocks (including climate change), and heavy reliance on aid. In providing public services, they face higher fixed government costs relative to other states because public services must be provided regardless of their small population size. Low access to credit by the private sector is an impediment to inclusive growth. Capacity constraints are another key challenge. The small states also face more limited policy tools. Five out of 13 countries do not have a central bank and the scope for diversifying their economies is narrow. Given their large development needs, fiscal policies have been, at times, pro-cyclical. Within the Asia-Pacific small states group, the micro states are subject to more vulnerability and macroeconomic volatility than the rest of the Asia-Pacific small states.
Keywords:
PP; IMF staff calculation; Pacific small states; country authorities; real GDP; Pacific region; terms of trade; Asia-Pacific small state government; private sector; Income; Terms of trade; Inclusive growth; Asia and Pacific; Pacific Islands
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
New Zealand: Selected Issues Paper
International Monetary Fund
The Savings Working Group in New Zealand presented recommendations in February 2011, and suggested raising national saving by 2–3 percent of GDP. The increase in net public saving in the country explains part of the reason for lower net private saving in New Zealand. Net public saving of the country is about 3 percent of GDP above the average of advanced countries for the past 15 years. Financial liberalization also appears to have played a role in saving behavior.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; Australia; saving; GDP; national saving; saving rate; commodity price; public saving; business cycle; Private savings; Spillovers; Terms of trade; Vector autoregression; Commodity prices; Australia and New Zealand; Asia and Pacific
Cover IMF Working Papers
Estimating The Inflation–Growth Nexus—A Smooth Transition Model
Mr. Raphael A Espinoza
,
Mr. Ananthakrishnan Prasad
, and
Mr. Gene L. Leon
Motivated by the global inflation episode of 2007-08 and concern that high levels of inflation could undermine growth, this paper uses a panel of 165 countries and data for 1960-2007 to revisit the nexus between inflation and growth. We use a smooth transition model to investigate the speed at which inflation beyond a threshold becomes harmful to growth, an important consideration in the policy response to rising inflation as the world economy recovers. We estimate that for all country groups (except for advanced countries) inflation above a threshold of about 10 percent quickly becomes harmful to growth, suggesting the need for a prompt policy response to inflation at or above the relevant threshold. For the advanced economies, the threshold is much lower. For oil exporting countries, the estimates are less robust, possibly reflecting heterogeneity among oil producers, but the effect of higher inflation for oil producers is found to be stronger.
Keywords:
WP; growth-inflation relationship; inflation threshold; growth-inflation literature; inflation-growth literature
Cover IMF Working Papers
Growth Determinants Revisited
Mr. Charalambos G Tsangarides
and
Mr. Alin T Mirestean
This paper revisits the cross-country growth empirics debate using a novel Limited Information Bayesian Model Averaging framework to address model uncertainty in the context of a dynamic growth model in panel data with endogenous regressors. Our empirical findings suggest that once model uncertainty is accounted for there is strong evidence that initial income, investment, life expectancy, and population growth are robustly correlated with economic growth. We also find evidence that debt, openness, and inflation are robust growth determinants. Overall, the set of our robust growth determinants differs from those identified by other studies that incorporate model uncertainty, but ignore dynamics and/or endogeneity. This underscores the importance of accounting for model uncertainty and endogeneity in the investigation of growth determinants.
Keywords:
WP
Cover IMF Working Papers
What is Really Good for Long-Term Growth? Lessons from a Binary Classification Tree (BCT) Approach
Rupa Duttagupta
and
Mr. Montfort Mlachila
Although the economic growth literature has come a long way since the Solow-Swan model of the fifties, there is still considerable debate on the "real' or "deep" determinants of growth. This paper revisits the question of what is really important for strong long-term growth by using a Binary Classification Tree approach, a nonparametric statistical technique that is not commonly used in the growth literature. A key strength of the method is that it recognizes that a combination of conditions can be instrumental in leading to a particular outcome, in this case strong growth. The paper finds that strong growth is a result of a complex set of interacting factors, rather than a particular set of variables such as institutions or geography, as is often cited in the literature. In particular, geographical luck and a favorable external environment, combined with trade openness and strong human capital are conducive to growth.
Keywords:
WP; growth outcome; economic policy; life expectancy; model state; country's trade hub
Cover IMF Working Papers
How Much Do Trading Partners Matter for Economic Growth?
Mr. Vivek B. Arora
and
Mr. Athanasios Vamvakidis
This paper empirically examines the extent to which a country's economic growth is influenced by its trading partner economies. Panel estimation results based on four decades of data for over 100 countries show that trading partners' growth and relative income levels have a strong effect on domestic growth, even after controlling for the influence of common global and regional trends. One interpretation is that conditional convergence is stronger, the richer are a country's trading partners. A general implication of the results is that industrial countries benefit from trading with developing countries, which grow rapidly, while developing countries benefit from trading with industrial countries, which have relatively high incomes.
Keywords:
WP; trading partner; GDP; trading partner growth; country's trading partners; International Trade; Economic Growth; trading partners' growth; growth effect; growth performance; trading partner data; Personal income; Terms of trade; Population growth; Direction of trade; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Threshold Effects in the Relationship Between Inflation and Growth
Mr. Abdelhak S Senhadji
and
Mr. Mohsin S. Khan
This paper reexamines the issue of the existence of threshold effects in the relationship between inflation and growth, using new econometric techniques that provide appropriate procedures for estimation and inference. The threshold level of inflation above which inflation significantly slows growth is estimated at 1–3 percent for industrial countries and 7–11 percent for developing countries. The negative and significant relationship between inflation and growth, for inflation rates above the threshold level, is quite robust with respect to the estimation method, perturbations in the location of the threshold level, the exclusion of high-inflation observations, data frequency, and alternative specifications.
Keywords:
WP; growth rate; rate of inflation; standard deviation