This paper provides an overview of the Chinese banking sector, which has expanded tremendously over the past two decades. We first describe aggregate developments of the sector and compare them to the situation in other countries. Also, various financial institutions that operate in China are...

We use a Kalman filter type model of financial markets to extract a global stochastic trend from the discrete non-synchronous data on daily stock market index returns of different stock exchanges. The model is tested for robustness. In addition, we derive “most important” hours of world...

We collect data from 29 separate papers estimating the equilibrium level and possible undervaluation of the Chinese currency, the renminbi. These papers yield a total of 97 individual observations on misalignment, which we analyse with the help of meta-analysis. We find that the vast majority of...

This note looks at the correlation of short-term business cycles in the euro area and the EU accession countries. The issue is assessed with the help of vector autoregressive models. There are clear differences in the degree of correlation between accession countries. For Hungary and Slovenia,...

We review the literature on business-cycle correlation between the euro area and Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs), a topic that has gained attention in recent years as new EU entrants prepare for participation in the monetary union. Our meta-analysis suggests several CEECs already...

Conventional wisdom in banking argues that diversification tends to reduce bank risk and improve performance, but the recent financial crisis suggests that aggressive diversification strategies may have resulted in increased risk taking and poor performance. This paper addresses this important...

We analyze the business cycles in China and in selected OECD countries between 1992 and 2006 using dynamic correlations. Nearly all OECD countries showpositive correlations of the very hort-run developments which may correspond to intensive supplier linkages. However, dynamic correlations at the...

We assess the determinants of equilibrium real exchange rates in a sample of oil-dependent countries. Our basic data cover OPEC countries from 1975 to 2005. We also include three oil-producing Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries in our robustness analysis. Utilising several...

China has emerged as one of the world's leading recipients of foreign direct investment (FDI). Meanwhile, the successful transition experience of many Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) also enables them to attract an increasing share of global foreign investment, particularly from...

We assess the effects of oil price shocks on real exchange rate and output in four large energy-producing countries: Iran, Kazakhstan, Venezuela, and Russia. We estimate four-variable structural vector autoregressive models using standard long-run restrictions. Not surprisingly, we find that...