Current Account Balances, Capital Flows, and International Reserves
May 4-5, 2018
City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Organized by Global Research Unit at Department of Economics and Finance, City University of Hong Kong, Representative Office for Asia and the Pacific, Bank for International Settlements, and Institute of Empirical Economic Research, Osnabrück University, Germany
Sponsored by Hong Kong Institute for Monetary Research
Hosted by Global Research Unit at Department of Economics and Finance, City University of Hong Kong
Call for Papers
Program (Updated on 2 May 2018)
Organizers
Global Research Unit, City University of Hong Kong
Institute of Empirical Economic Research, Osnabrück University, Germany
Representative Office for Asia and the Pacific, Bank for International Settlements
Sponsor
Hong Kong Institute for Monetary Research
About the Conference
Large current account deficits and surpluses have been in the limelight of both policy discussions and the academic literature. China and Germany are two prime examples of countries who have recorded surpluses of several percentage points of GDP over the past few years. The United States, by contrast, has recorded persistent current account deficits.
There are two sides to this phenomenon: On the one hand, large current account imbalances have triggered renewed interest in protectionism and capital control policies world-wide. On the other hand, net imbalances affect the pattern of gross international capital flows, which dropped considerably during the recent global financial crisis, then recovered quickly following QE policies, and slowed down again recently.
Both current account imbalances and capital flows have implications for global international reserves, which have increased substantially since the international financial crises of the 1990s. Since the more recent GFC, international linkages of reserves have developed including intra-central-bank claims and liabilities in Europe (TARGET2 balances), and international swap-lines.
Large current account imbalances, volatile capital flows, and the excessive hoarding of international reserves are deemed to have adverse effects on local economies and repercussions on the global financial system. The conference provides a platform for discussing advances in research related to these topics. Specifically, we would like to bring together academics and policy makers to assess these issues and their implications from theoretical, empirical and policy perspectives, striking a balance between academic rigor and policy relevance.
We invite researchers to present their original work on topics including, but are not necessarily limited to, the following:
Those interested in participating should send a complete paper or an extended abstract in WORD or PDF format via email to gruhkg@cityu.edu.hk by February 1, 2018. Authors of accepted papers will be notified by March 1, 2018. Final versions of the accepted papers will be posted on the conference website (https://www.cb.cityu.edu.hk/ef/conference/2018_CCI). Presenters may apply for financial support to cover economy class airfare and local accommodation expenses.
Selected papers from the conference will be given the option to be considered for publication in a special issue of the Pacific Economic Review.
Keynote Speakers
Sebastian Edwards, UCLA
Jeffry Frieden, Harvard University
Guobo Huang, CNIC Corporation Limited and Tsinghua University
Conference Committee
Yin-Wong Cheung, City University of Hong Kong
Frank Westermann, Osnabrück University
Local Organizing Committee
David E Cook, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Xuan S. Tam, City University of Hong Kong
Kit Ming Isabel Yan, City University of Hong Kong
James Yetman, Bank for International Settlements (Hong Kong Office)
Program Committee
David E Cook, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Xuan S. Tam, City University of Hong Kong
Frank Westermann, Osnabrück University
Kit Ming Isabel Yan, City University of Hong Kong
James Yetman, Bank for International Settlements (Hong Kong Office)
Enquiries:
Yin-Wong Cheung: yicheung@cityu.edu.hk
David E Cook: davcook@ust.hk
Frank Westermann: frank.westermann@uni-osnabrueck.de
James Yetman: James.Yetman@bis.org
Acknowledgement
We thank the Hung Hing Ying and Leung Hau Ling Charitable Foundation (孔慶熒及梁巧玲慈善基金) for their support through the Hung Hing Ying Chair Professorship of International Economics (孔慶熒講座教授(國際經濟)).
Useful Information
Getting to CityU: MTR (Kwun Tong Line), MTR (East Rail Line), taxi (print address label in Chinese)
