International Finance Symposium： Professor Charles Engel from UW-Madison

On December 20, 2016, Charles Engel, the Hester Professor of Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will deliver two talks at the Department of Economics, National Taiwan University.

In the morning (10:00–11:30), it will be a research talk. The title is “Debauchery and Original Sin: Currency Composition of Sovereign Debt.” He will give a talk about his recent research on the “Original Sin” issue: why some countries are not able to borrow in their own currency. This is mostly a theoretical paper, though he will compare some of its predictions to data. One of the interesting things that is coming out is that, while credibility of monetary policy matters, it would be hard to find evidence of that credibility in the data. That is, for example, a country that is not good at controlling inflation would not be able to borrow much if any in its own currency, so then would actually have less incentive to inflate. This might explain why Eichengreen was not able to find much empirical evidence of factors that explained which countries could borrow in their own currency. The “Original Sin” is now a recent hot issue, appeared in the media, as China tops the Original Sin Index constructed by S&P global.

In the afternoon (15:30–17:00), there will be a “Symposium on Frontier Research in Exchange Rate Economics.” He will provide some insightful guidance on frontier research in exchange rate economics.

On December 20, 2016, Charles Engel, the Hester Professor of Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will deliver two talks at the Department of Economics, National Taiwan University.

In the morning (10:00–11:30), it will be a research talk. The title is “Debauchery and Original Sin: Currency Composition of Sovereign Debt.” He will give a talk about his recent research on the “Original Sin” issue: why some countries are not able to borrow in their own currency. This is mostly a theoretical paper, though he will compare some of its predictions to data. One of the interesting things that is coming out is that, while credibility of monetary policy matters, it would be hard to find evidence of that credibility in the data. That is, for example, a country that is not good at controlling inflation would not be able to borrow much if any in its own currency, so then would actually have less incentive to inflate. This might explain why Eichengreen was not able to find much empirical evidence of factors that explained which countries could borrow in their own currency. The “Original Sin” is now a recent hot issue, appeared in the media, as China tops the Original Sin Index constructed by S&P global.

In the afternoon (15:30–17:00), there will be a “Symposium on Frontier Research in Exchange Rate Economics.” He will provide some insightful guidance on frontier research in exchange rate economics.

Please click here to register https://goo.gl/forms/5Y3ihnsZly3SFbKC2