College of Business
AACSB International EQUIS - European Quality Improvement System

Conference on current account balances, capital flows and international reserves

The Global Research Unit of the Department of Economics and Finance joined hands with Bank for International Settlements Representative Office for Asia and the Pacific, and Institute of Empirical Economic Research of Osnabrück University in Germany to organise a conference “Current Account Balances, Capital Flows, and International Reserves” on 4th – 5th May 2018 in the campus. The conference was sponsored by Hong Kong Institute for Monetary Research.

Professor Cheung Yin-Wong, Director of Global Research Unit, and Hung Hing Ying Chair Professor of International Economics, opened the 2-day conference with his welcome remarks, followed by the presentations of 12 speakers who shared their research summaries and insights on international capital flows, reserve accumulation, global returns and imbalances. The speakers are world-renowned experts from leading institutions and central banks including Harvard University, UCLA, HKMA, European Central Bank, IMF, Bank of Korea, Korea Development Institute, IGIDR, Bank for International Settlements, SUNY Buffalo State, Université de Lausanne, Universität Bayreuth and Universität Osnabrück.

Topics covered in the conference include backlash against globalisation, funding run across border, international capital flows at security level, hoarding of international reserves, current account imbalances, NFA’s stabilizing role, sudden stops with TARGET2, surplus countries etc. The details are as follows:

Keynote session

  • The Political Economy of the Backlash Against Globalization
  • Current Account Imbalances and Adjustment

Session 1 - International capital flows

  • Funding Run through Cross-border Banking in Asia - An application of Network Approach
  • International Capital Flows at the security level - Evidence from the ECB's Asset Purchase Programme

Session 2 - Reserve Accumulation I

  • Precaution Versus Mercantilism: Reserve Accumulation, Capital Controls, and the Real Exchange Rate
  • Reserve Accumulation and Bank Lending: Evidence from Korea

Session 3 - Reserve Accumulation II

  • The Hoarding of International Reserves: It’s a neighborly day in Asia
  • Capital Flows and Reserve Management in Selected Asian Economies

Session 4 -  Global Portfolio Returns

  • Gradual Portfolio Adjustment: Implications for Global Equity Portfolios and Returns
  • The Stabilizing Role of NFA Returns

Session 5 - Global Imbalances

  • Sudden stops inside and outside the euro area - what a difference TARGET2 makes
  • A Tale of Two Surplus Countries: China and Germany

Presenters:

  • Dr Gustavo Adler, International Monetary Fund
  • Prof Philippe Bacchetta, Université de Lausanne
  • Ms Katharina Bergant, Trinity College Dublin and European Central Bank
  • Dr Woojin Choi, Korea Development Institute
  • Prof Sebastian Edwards, University of California at Los Angeles
  • Prof Jeffry Frieden, Harvard University
  • Prof Bernhard Herz, Universität Bayreuth
  • Dr Estelle Xue Liu, Hong Kong Monetary Authority
  • Dr Paul Luk, Hong Kong Baptist University
  • Dr XingWang Qian, SUNY Buffalo State
  • Dr Sven Steinkamp, Universität Osnabrück
  • Dr Youngjin Yun, Bank of Korea

To learn more about the conference, please visit website.