Tamon Asonuma
24 Ransom Road Apt#11                             
Brighton MA 02135
Cell: (617)-233-7163
Office: (617)-353-5687   
Fax: (617)-353-4449
E-mail: tasonuma@bu.edu
Web site: http://people.bu.edu/tasonuma

EDUCATION

9/2005-Present  Ph.D. Economics, Boston University, Boston MA, May 2010 (expected)

Thesis Title:
Essays on Emerging Economies [outline]
Thesis Committee: Laurence J. Kotlikoff, Adrien Verdelhan, Francois Gourio

3/2005  M.A. Economics, Keio University, Tokyo Japan
3/2003  B.A. Economics, Keio University, Tokyo Japan


FIELDS OF INTERESTS

International Finance, Macroeconomics, Public Finance


PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Summer 2008  International Monetary Fund, Washington D.C.
                     Summer Economist Program, Monetary and Capital Market (MCM) Department

Summer 2003  International Monetary Fund, Tokyo, Japan.
                     Summer Intern Program, Regional Office of Asia and the Pacific (OAP)

4/2005-8/2005  Keio University, Department of Economics
                      Research Associate


CURRENT RESEARCH

"Serial Default and Debt Renegotiation" 2009 (JOB MARKET PAPER) [Paper]

"Currency Composition of External Debt " 2009

"Preemptive or Expost-default Debt Renegotiation" 2009 (in progress)
with Christoph Trebesch

"Quantifying Market Perception of Foreign Exchange Intervention " with Romain Veyrune (IMF) 2009
(currently under the review for working paper)


"How Can Foreign Exchange Interventions be Distinguished from Other Official Transactions? "
with Alain Vandepeute and Romain Veyrune (IMF) 2009

(currently under the review for working paper)

"Dynamic Effect of Change in Exchange Rate System -From the Fixed Exchange Rate Regime to the Basket-peg or Floating Regime"
with Naoyuki Yoshino and Sahoko Kaji (Keio University) 2009
Submitted for publication [Paper]

"Choices of Optimal Monetary Policy Instruments under the Floating and the Basket-peg Regimes "
with Naoyuki Yoshino, and Sahoko Kaji (Keio University) 2009 Submitted for publication
[Paper]

"Incidence of Export Tax Rebate in China" 2009 (in progress)


SELECTED PRESENTATIONS (**: scheduled, *: by co-author)

Conference :
American Economic Association (**2010), European Economic Association (2009)

North American Econometric Society Summer Meeting (2009)
Midwest Macro Meeting (2009), Midwest Theory Meeting (2009)
Royal Economic Society Conference (2009), Singapore Economic Review (*2009)
Far-Eastern South Asia Econometric Society Meeting (*2009)

BC-BU Green Line Macro Meeting (2009)
Spanish Economic Association (2009)
ADBI-Keio Workshop (2009), Asia-Pacific Economic Association (*2008)
Asian Economic Panel (2008, *2005), Japanese Economic Association (*2005)

Invited Seminars:
GRIPS (2009), Keio University (2009), Osaka University (2009)

IMF Monetary and Capital Market Department (2008)
IMF Research Department (2008)
IMF Regional Office of Asia and the Pacific (2005, 2007, 2008)

Student Workshop:
Boston
University
Macro Workshop (2008)


TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Instructor:
International Finance, Boston University, Summer 2009, Spring 2010

Intermediate Macro, Boston University, Fall 2008

Intermediate Macro, Bunker Hill Community College, Fall 2007
Advanced International Finance, NEXI, Japan, Summer 2005
Intermediate International Finance, NEXI, Japan, Spring 2005

Teaching Fellow (Head):
Introductory Macro/Micro, Boston University, Spring / Fall 2009

Teaching Assistant:
Finance and Banking, Keio University, Spring 2005

Development and Environment, Keio University, Fall 2001, Spring / Fall 2002


RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

 Research Assistant, Prof. William Grimes, Boston University, Summer 2006, Summer 2007
 Research Assistant, Prof. Naoyuki Yoshino, Keio University, April 2003-Augest 2005
 Research Assistant, Japan Bank for International Corporation (JBIC), January 2004-March 2004
 Research Assistant, JCIF, Project "The Exchange Rate Arrangements in ASEAN+3 " Fall 2003
 Research Assistant, Dr. Charles Adams, IMF OAP, Summer 2003


FELLOWSHIPS AND AWARDS

Student Grant, Spanish Economic Association Annual Conference, Winter 2009
Institute for Economic Development Travel Grant, Boston University, Summer/Fall 2008, Summer2009

Teaching Fellowship, Boston University, Spring 2009-Present
Senior Teaching Fellowship, Boston University, Fall 2008
Japan-IMF Scholarship for Advanced Studies, August 2006 - July 2008


PUBLICATIONS

"The Optimal Weight and Composition of a Basket Currency in Asia "The Implications of Asymmetry"2005
SCMS Journal of Indian Management Vol.2 (4) pp74-87
with Naoyuki Yoshino and Sahoko Kaji (Keio University)

"Optimal Exchange Rate System in Two Countries with the Rest of the World" 2004
KeioEconomic Studies,Vol.41(2) pp25-75

with Naoyuki Yoshino and Sahoko Kaji (Keio Univeristy)


REFERENCES

Prof. Laurence J. Kotlikoff    

Department of Economics
Boston University
Phone: (617)-353-4002
Email: kotlikoff@bu.edu
270 Bay State Road
Boston MA 02215 USA

Prof. Adrien Verdelhan

Department of Finance
MIT Sloan School of Management
Phone: (617)-253-5123
Email:
adrienv@mit.edu
50 Memorial Drive, E52-436
Cambridge, MA 02142 USA
Prof. Francois Gourio

Department of Economics
Boston University
Phone: (617)-353-4534
Email:
fgourio@bu.edu
270 Bay State Road
Boston MA 02215 USA

Dr. Karl Habermeier


Assistant Director
Monetary and Capital Market Department
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
Phone: (202)-623-8857
Email:
khabermeier@imf.org
HQ1-7-718 IMF
700 19th Street N.W.
Washington DC 20431
USA

Dr. Mark Stone

Deputy Division Chief
Monetary and Capital Market Department
International Monetary Fund (IMF)

Phone: (202)-623-6532
Email:
mstone@imf.org
HQ1-7-718 IMF
700 19th Street N.W.
Washington DC 20431 USA

ABSTRACTS





JOB MARKET PAPER

"Serial Default and Debt Renegotiation"

Emerging countries that have defaulted on their debt repayment obligations in the past are more likely to default again in the future than are non-defaulters with
the same debt-to-GDP ratio. This paper explains this stylized fact within a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium framework that explicitly models renegotiations
between a defaulting country and its creditors. Quantitative analysis of the model reveals that the equilibrium probability of default for a givendebt-to-GDP level is
weakly increasing with the number of past defaults, consistent with empirical observations. The equilibrium of the model also accords with an additional observed
trend: a country for which default terms require less than a 100 percent recovery rate tends to pay a higher rate of return (relative to a risk-free rate) on debt that is
issued subsequently than do defaulting countries that agree to a full recovery rate.


"Currency Composition of External Debt"

Emerging countries issue a small fraction of their external debt in their local currency. Moreover, there is an empirical link between exchange rate depreciation
and default probability. This paper attempts to explore these observations within a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model in which bond issuances in local and
foreign currencies are explicitly embedded, and the exchange rate and default risk are determined endogenously. Our quantitative analysis shows that the equilibrium
share of debt denominated in the local currency is smaller than that denominated in the foreign currency. This is driven by the fact that risk-averse fore investors prefer to
lend in the foreign currency rather than the local currency in order to avoid exchange rate risk. This can lead to a vicious circle whereby the borrowing country's consequent
high exposure to exchange rate risk increases the risk of default, which in turn precipitates an exchange rate depreciation and a further increase in default risk.


"Quantifying Market Perception of Foreign Exchange Intervention"

Joint with Romain Veyrune (IMF)

This paper proposes a new method to quantify the market expectation of official actions in the foreign exchange market. Based on the time-series properties of spot
exchange rates, we assess the impact of events such as interventions or off-market transactions on estimated exchange rate inertia using a rolling regression. Our
empirical results are consistent with our hypothesis that anticipated and transparent interventions such as "regular interventions" do not have a significant impact on
market expectations, while unexpected interventions categorized as "discretionary interventions" have a impact on market expectations, except in the case of a liquid market. 




"Dynamic Effect of Change in Exchange Rate System -From the Fixed Exchange Rate Regime to
the Basket-peg or Floating Regime"

Joint with Naoyuki Yoshino and Sahoko Kaji (Keio University)

We attempt to compute dynamic effect of shifts of exchange rate system from the dollar-peg to the basket-peg or floating and obtain transition paths for the shifts,
based on a stochastic dynamic small open-economy model. We find that countries are better off shifting to the basket-peg or floating regime than maintaining the
dollar-peg regime, in the long-run perspective. Furthermore, because of welfare costs associated with volatility in nominal interest rates, the longer transition
period of adjustments, the more benefits a country would gain from suddenly shifting to the basket-peg from the dollar-peg regime rather than with adjusting
gradually. Finally, focusing on sudden shift to target regimes, our numerical analysis using Thai data shows that countries will be better off shifting to
the basket-peg rather than floating.


"How Can Foreign Exchange Interventions be Distinguished from Other Official Transactions ?"
Joint with Alain Vandepeute and Romain Veyrune (IMF)

Foreign exchange interventions are an official action under much scrutiny from economists and market participants. Designing an intervention policy or refraining
from intervening is a strategic choice. Economists need to ascertain this strategic choice so as to facilitate their analysis of a country's macroeconomic policies, while
market participants need to understand the monetary authorities' intervention policy to help them decide how to deal with foreign exchange risk. This is part of the
academic effort to classify foreign exchange arrangements, in particular to distinguish free from "dirty floats". However, identifying intervention is not easy. There are a
number of reasons for carrying out official transactions on the foreign exchange market, and not all of them involve intention to influence the exchange rate. This paper
analyzes official transactions on a qualitative basis. It concludes that the key element is the authorities' communication to the market and its ability to influence market
participant expectations. In addition, the paper argues that the ways in which the interventions are implemented constitutes the main signal that would
implicitly reveal to
market participants the authorities' intentions.



"Choices of Optimal Monetary Policy Instruments under the Floating and the Basket-peg Regimes"
Joint with Naoyuki Yoshino, and Sahoko Kaji (Keio University)

This paper determines whether adopting the basket-peg rather than the floating regime is optimal for emerging countries. Under the basket-peg regime,
there is a trade-off between practical usefulness and welfare losses associated with the movement of capital across countries. We use a small open-economy model
with micro foundations to provide a simple baske weight rule. Although this is sub-optimal, we show it is practical and easy to implement. After calibration using
Singaporean and Thai data for the period 1997Q3-2006Q2 and comparison among the cumulative losses associated with policy instrument rules, we show that
a commitment to the basket weight rule is superior to other instrument rules under the floating regime for small open economies like Singapore and Thailand.



" Preemptive or expost-default debt renegotiation"

Joint with Christoph Trebesch

Some emerging countries choose to renegotiate with their creditors preemptively before the default, while some decide to declare defaults on debt obligations
and renegotiate with the creditors later.This paper attempts to explain these observed evidences within a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model
that explicitly embeds both preemptive and expost-default renegotiations between a defaulting country and foreign investors. The quantitative exercise expects
to indicate that the country's choice of preemptive or expost-default renegotiation depends endogenously on expected and realized income level, output cost
associated with defaults and also the expected outcomes of two types of renegotiations.



" Incidence of Export Tax Rebate in China"

This paper considers the incidence of export tax rebate an emerging economy like China which imports a large share of intermediate goods from abroad
and also exports a large share of final goods to foreign countries. We build a static two-country, two-sector general equilibrium model under perfect capital
mobility, in which home government imposes both import tax on foreign intermediate goods and export tax on home final goods. Our quantitative results show
that much of the burden of import tax may concentrate in domestic labor, while those of export tax may fall on both home labor and foreign labor.
The rise in rebate rate increases incidence of both export and import tax on domestic labor on one hand, and decreases incidence of export tax on foreign labor
and total capital on the other hand.




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