Why economic policy must depend on data more than theory

Despite present interest rate rises, this short article cautions investors against hasty buying decisions.



A renowned 18th-century economist once argued that as investors such as Ras Al Khaimah based Farhad Azima accumulated riches, their investments would suffer diminishing returns and their payoff would drop to zero. This idea no longer holds in our global economy. When looking at the undeniable fact that stocks of assets have doubled as being a share of Gross Domestic Product since the 1970s, it appears that in contrast to facing diminishing returns, investors such as Haider Ali Khan in Ras Al Khaimah continue gradually to enjoy significant earnings from these investments. The reason is easy: unlike the businesses of his time, today's companies are increasingly replacing machines for manual labour, which has boosted effectiveness and productivity.

Although data gathering sometimes appears being a tiresome task, it's undeniably essential for economic research. Economic theories tend to be based on presumptions that prove to be false when relevant data is collected. Take, as an example, rates of returns on investments; a team of researchers examined rates of returns of essential asset classes across sixteen industrial economies for a period of 135 years. The comprehensive data set provides the first of its type in terms of coverage in terms of time frame and number of countries. For all of the 16 economies, they craft a long-run series showing annual genuine rates of return factoring in investment income, such as for instance dividends, money gains, all net inflation for government bonds and short-term bills, equities and housing. The authors uncovered some interesting fundamental economic facts and questioned others. Possibly such as, they have concluded that housing offers a superior return than equities over the long haul although the normal yield is quite comparable, but equity returns are a great deal more volatile. Nevertheless, this won't affect property owners; the calculation is based on long-run return on housing, taking into account rental yields because it makes up about 1 / 2 of the long-run return on housing. Needless to say, having a diversified portfolio of rent-yielding properties is not exactly the same as borrowing to purchase a personal house as would investors such as Benoy Kurien in Ras Al Khaimah likely confirm.

During the 1980s, high rates of returns on government debt made many investors think that these assets are highly lucrative. Nevertheless, long-term historical data indicate that during normal economic conditions, the returns on federal government debt are lower than a lot of people would think. There are many variables that will help us understand reasons behind this trend. Economic cycles, economic crises, and financial and monetary policy modifications can all affect the returns on these financial instruments. However, economists have discovered that the real return on bonds and short-term bills often is fairly low. Although some investors cheered at the recent interest rate rises, it is really not normally reasons to leap into buying because a reversal to more typical conditions; consequently, low returns are unavoidable.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *