Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Kazutaka Kurasawa Author-Name-First: Kazutaka Author-Name-Last: Kurasawa Author-Email: k-kurasawa@ygu.ac.jp Author-Workplace-Name: Yamanashi Gakuin University Title: Policy Uncertainty and Foreign Exchange Rates: The DCC-GARCH Model of the US / Japanese Foreign Exchange Rate Abstract: Since the breakdown of the Bretton Woods system in the 1970s, the US / Japan foreign exchange rate has been largely influenced by policy changes in the United States and Japan. This study applies the multivariate dynamic conditional correlation (DCC) ? generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (GARCH) models to analyze the time-varying effects of policy uncertainty, measured by the economic policy uncertainty (EPU) index of Baker et al. (2013, 2016), on the US / Japan foreign exchange rate. Using the EPU index as a proxy variable, it shows that the dynamic conditional correlations between policy uncertainty and the exchange rate are not time-invariant, but even sign-changing in the sample period. The analysis also empirically examined what drives the evolution of the time-varying correlations. The driving force of the correlations is, however, mostly attributed to unknown random factors. Classification-JEL: C32, F31 Keywords: policy uncertainty, foreign exchange rate, DCC model, GARCH model, time-varying correlation Journal: International Journal of Economic Sciences Pages: 1-19 Volume: 5 Issue: 4 Year: 2016 Month: December File-URL: https://iises.net/international-journal-of-economic-sciences/publication-detail-938 File-URL: https://iises.net/international-journal-of-economic-sciences/publication-detail-938?download=1 Handle: RePEc:sek:jijoes:v:5:y:2016:i:4:p:1-19 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Teodoras Medaiskis Author-Name-First: Teodoras Author-Name-Last: Medaiskis Author-Email: tmedaiskis@takas.lt Author-Workplace-Name: Vilnius University Author-Name: Tadas Gudaitis Author-Name-First: Tadas Author-Name-Last: Gudaitis Author-Email: tadas.gudaitis@ef.vu.lt Author-Workplace-Name: Vilnius University Author-Name: Jaroslav Me?kovski Author-Name-First: Jaroslav Author-Name-Last: Me?kovski Author-Email: jaroslav.meckovski@gmail.com Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Economics, Vilnius University Title: The Effect of Second Pillar Pension to Old Age Pension: Lithuanian Case Abstract: This paper evaluates the Lithuanian second pillar pension system from the point of view of individual participant. The goal of the paper is to evaluate whether the participants who joined second pillar pension system in 2004 and retire at the beginning of the year 2019 made the beneficial decision and increase their retirement income. Three different methods are used by comparing the accumulated values of a second pillar pension based on the fully funded principle with the reduced values in the first pillar pension based on the pay-as-you-go principle. The analysis is based on the historical results and data of pension accumulation of an 12 years period from 2004 until the end of 2015 with forecasted continuation of participation for the 2016-2018 period based on the methodology prepared by the authors. The results demonstrate that participation in the fully funded second pillar pension system, compared with non-participation, may in general be assessed as positive and effective. However, the benefits of participation directly depend not only on investment returns and life expectancy, but also on the long-run indexation of the first pillar old-age pension, which is a highly politically reliant variable. Various presumptions concerning this issue are also discussed in the paper. Classification-JEL: H55, J26, J32 Keywords: Pension reform, retirement policies, old-age pay-as-you-go public pension, fully funded private pension, pension funds Journal: International Journal of Economic Sciences Pages: 20-31 Volume: 5 Issue: 4 Year: 2016 Month: December File-URL: https://iises.net/international-journal-of-economic-sciences/publication-detail-898 File-URL: https://iises.net/international-journal-of-economic-sciences/publication-detail-898?download=2 Handle: RePEc:sek:jijoes:v:5:y:2016:i:4:p:20-31 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Heekyung SON Author-Name-First: Heekyung Author-Name-Last: SON Author-Email: hkson08@korea.kr Author-Workplace-Name: Statistical Research Institute in Statistics Korea Title: Trust, Economic Growth and Importance of the Institution Abstract: To keep making economic development continuously these days, there is a newly widespread awareness that it is definitely important to accumulate not only the physical and human capital but also the social capital. Many people have been paying attention to the trust which is one of the most representative factors in the social capital from an economic point of view as there are increasing empirical evidences to demonstrate pretty convincingly that the social capital significantly contributes to the economic growth.In order to analyze how the social capital has an impact on the economic growth and what kind of factors make the level of trust changed, I adopted the Corruption Perception Index(CPI) as the indicator representing the "trust" so as to compare its CPI with those of other countries and analyzed data of the CPI from 34 OECD member countries from 2001 to 2013. As for the analysis of the variable factor for the level of trust, I made use of detailed institutional variables such as the political stability, the level of law and order, whether corruption is controlled or not, economic freedom and so on.As a result, the CPI has a positive correlation with the growth rate of the real GDP per capita in the pooled OLS and random effect panel analysis while it has a negative correlation with them in the fixed effect panel analysis, which means there are a variety of regulations to control corruption and the more members of society put even more efforts to abide by social norms, the more negative the growth rate of the real GDP per capita gets as time goes by. I think that's why almost all of advanced countries already built such enough social norms and standards that they do not play any significant role in economy. Classification-JEL: O43, C23 Keywords: Social capital, GDP, Economic growth, Trust, Institution Journal: International Journal of Economic Sciences Pages: 32-50 Volume: 5 Issue: 4 Year: 2016 Month: December File-URL: https://iises.net/international-journal-of-economic-sciences/publication-detail-970 File-URL: https://iises.net/international-journal-of-economic-sciences/publication-detail-970?download=3 Handle: RePEc:sek:jijoes:v:5:y:2016:i:4:p:32-50 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: wei-bin zhang Author-Name-First: wei-bin Author-Name-Last: zhang Author-Email: wbz1@apu.ac.jp Author-Workplace-Name: Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University Title: Public Debt and Economic Growth in Uzawa?s Two-Sector Model with Public Goods Abstract: This paper studies public debt dynamics in a neoclassical growth model. The economy consists of one capital, one service and one public sector. The model is a synthesis of Solow?s growth, Uzawa?s two-sector, and Diamond?s debt models. The public sector supplies services which directly affect productivity of the two sectors and welfare of the population. The government finances public expenditure by taxing the outputs, consumption, wealth income, and wage households. The study focuses on the effects of changes in government?s expenditure, the public sector?s productivity, and different taxes on the dynamics of public debt and economic growth. Comparative dynamic analysis examines the effects of changes in preference and polices. Classification-JEL: O41, H41, H63 Keywords: public debt, tax rates, public good, growth Journal: International Journal of Economic Sciences Pages: 51-72 Volume: 5 Issue: 4 Year: 2016 Month: December File-URL: https://iises.net/international-journal-of-economic-sciences/publication-detail-953 File-URL: https://iises.net/international-journal-of-economic-sciences/publication-detail-953?download=4 Handle: RePEc:sek:jijoes:v:5:y:2016:i:4:p:51-72