Testing the transparency benefits of inflation targeting: Evidence from private sector forecasts

Using inflation forecast data for 11 IT adoption countries, IT adoption is found to promote convergence in forecast errors, suggesting that it enhances transparency. This result, which is subjected to several robustness checks and found to be robust, supports Morris and Shin's (2002) contention that better public information is most beneficial for forecasters with bad private information. However, it does not support their hypothesis that better public information could make private forecasts less accurate.     

When does a central bank׳s balance sheet require fiscal support?

Using a simple, general equilibrium model, we argue that it would be appropriate for a central bank with a large balance sheet composed of long-duration nominal assets to have access to, and be willing to ask for, support for its balance sheet by the fiscal authority. Otherwise its ability to control inflation may be at risk. This need for balance sheet support — a within-government transaction — is distinct from the need for fiscal backing of inflation policy that arises even in models where the central bank׳s balance sheet is merged with that of the rest of the government.     

Inflation persistence: Alternative interpretations and policy implications

In this paper, I consider the policy implications of two alternative structural interpretations of observed inflation persistence, which correspond to two alternative specifications of the new Keynesian Phillips curve (NKPC). The first specification allows for some degree of intrinsic persistence by way of a lagged inflation term in the NKPC. The second is a purely forward-looking model, in which expectations farther into the future matter and coefficients are time-varying. In this specification, most of the observed inflation persistence is attributed to fluctuations in the underlying inflation trend, which are a consequence of monetary policy rather than a structural feature of the economy. With a simple quantitative exercise, I illustrate the consequences of implementing monetary policy, assuming a degree of intrinsic persistence that differs from the true one. The results suggest that the costs of implementing a stabilization policy when the policymaker overestimates the degree of intrinsic persistence are potentially higher than the costs of ignoring actual structural persistence; the result is more clear-cut when the policymaker minimizes a welfare-based loss function.     

央行前瞻性指引与提升政策透明度

金融危机中,许多发达国家央行致力于提升政策透明度,在货币政策目标分析和政策对外沟通方面取得了进步。文章介绍了前瞻性指引的概念,分析了美国、日本、英国和欧洲央行实施新一轮前瞻性指引的内容及其引发的讨论,并简析了未来前瞻性指引的运用空间。     

货币政策透明度与通货膨胀的关系研究——基于PVAR模型的实证检验

通过使用PVAR模型对11个发达国家1999～2009年的中央银行货币政策透明度与通货膨胀的动态关系进行的实证分析表明:11国中央银行货币政策透明度的提高显著地降低了通货膨胀水平,但这种效应存在滞后;反之,通货膨胀对于货币政策透明度没有显著影响。因此,提高货币政策透明度、加强中央银行的信息披露从长期看对治理通货膨胀具有积极的作用。     

Dynamic central bank independence indices and inflation rate: A new empirical exploration

It has been argued that economies with more independent central banks experience lower inflation over time. In this paper we show that this relationship is sensitive to the methodology through which central bank independence indices are constructed. We stress the importance of employing dynamic central bank independence indices in two ways. First, we perform unit root tests with structural breaks to verify if the implementation of central bank reforms represents a structural break for the inflation rate dynamics. Second, we implement a panel data analysis.We find evidence that legislative reforms that modify the degree of independence of a central bank have a strong impact on the inflation rate dynamics. Moreover, underlying the importance of employing dynamic central bank independence indices, we confirm the negative relationship between the latter and inflation for a sample of 10 OECD countries.     

低通货膨胀与货币政策

持续15年的全球低通货膨胀,主要得益于各国成功的稳定化政策。低通货膨胀显示货币政策好处的同时,也给货币政策带来挑战。根据美日等国家的低通货膨胀经验,一个国家最好不要走向零利率的边缘,采取预防性的政策防止经济陷入通货紧缩至关重要。此外,需要正确认识货币政策的作用,货币政策长期的目标应该是为经济发展提供一个稳定的货币环境。美日国家预防低通货膨胀的经验对于中国宏观经济的平稳运行具有重要的借鉴意义。     

Financing decisions of firms and central bank policy

This paper aims to explain why unhedged foreign borrowing by South East Asian corporations rose sharply during the few years prior to the crisis despite little change in fundamentals. We show that decisions of firms and decisions of the central bank are complementary. Consequently, a small shock to fundamentals may have a large and permanent impact on the equilibrium composition of firms’ borrowing.     

Comment on: “When does a central bank’s balance sheet require fiscal support?” by Marco Del Negro and Christopher A. Sims

A central bank is insolvent if its plans imply a Ponzi scheme on reserves so the price level becomes infinity. If the central bank enjoys fiscal support, in the form of a dividend rule that pays out net income every period, including when it is negative, it can never become insolvent independently of the fiscal authority. Otherwise, this note distinguishes between intertemporal insolvency, rule insolvency, and period insolvency. While period and rule solvency depend on analyzing dividend rules and sources of risk to net income, evaluating intertemporal solvency requires overcoming the difficult challenge of measuring the present value of seignorage.     

1998—1999年美国货币政策及其对中国的启示

本文从美国经济的持续增长入手,主要探讨美联储审慎的货币政策在美国“新经济”中的作用。通过分析美联储在１９９８－１９９９年以利率为主线、以其他货币政策工具为补充的货币政策的实施过程,并具体剖析了其主要特点,最后对我国在货币政策的实施过程中就各种货币政策工具提出了一些建议。     

Central banks’ preferences and banking sector vulnerability

According to “Schwartz's conventional wisdom” and what has been called “divine coincidence”, price stability should imply macroeconomic and financial stability. However, in light of the global financial crisis, with monetary policy focused on price stability, scholars have held that banking and financial risks were largely unaddressed. According to this alternative view, the belief in divine coincidence turns out to be benign neglect. The objective of this paper is to test Schwartz's hypothesis against the benign neglect hypothesis. The priority assigned to the inflation goal is proxied by the central banks’ conservatism (CBC) index proposed by Levieuge and Lucotte (2014), here extended to a large sample of 73 countries from 1980 to 2012. Banking sector vulnerability is measured by six alternative indicators that are frequently employed in the literature on early warning systems. Our results indicate that differences in monetary policy preferences robustly explain cross-country differences in banking vulnerability and validate the benign neglect hypothesis, in that a higher level of CBC implies a more vulnerable banking sector.     

Inflation targeting in Brazil: constructing credibility under exchange rate volatility

This paper assesses the challenges faced by the inflation-targeting regime in Brazil. The inflation-targeting framework has played a critical role in macroeconomic stabilization. We stress two important challenges: construction of credibility and exchange rate volatility. The estimations indicate the following results: (i) the inflation targets have worked as an important coordinator of expectations; (ii) the Central Bank has reacted strongly to inflation expectations; (iii) there has been a reduction in the degree of inflation persistence; and (iv) the exchange rate pass-through for “administered or monitored” prices is two times higher than for “market” prices.     

Liquidity, redistribution, and the welfare cost of inflation

The long-run welfare costs of inflation are studied in a micro-founded model with trading frictions and costly liquidity management. By modelling the liquidity management decision, the model endogenizes the responses of velocity, output, the degree of market segmentation, and the distribution of money. Compared to the traditional estimates based on a representative agent model, the welfare costs of inflation are significantly smaller due to distributional effects of inflation. The welfare cost of increasing inflation from 0% to 10% is 0.62% of consumption for the US economy. Furthermore, the welfare cost is generally non-linear in the inflation rate.     

The Great Inflation and the Greenbook

Can the story of evolving Federal Reserve beliefs in The Conquest of American Inflation simultaneously explain the Great Inflation and the forecasts published in the Greenbook during that time? If Sargent is correct then evolving beliefs should be reflected not only in policy outcomes but also in Greenbook forecasts. In this paper they are. By conditioning on the Greenbook, it is show that both inflation outcomes and Greenbook forecasts can be rationalised by evolving beliefs. The results improve on recent empirical evidence that has been criticised for relying on unrealistic beliefs that produce forecasts inconsistent with the Greenbook.     

货币政策目标规则的研究现状及评述

货币政策规则研究的进展是近年来货币政策研究的重要突破。本文对货币政策目标规则研究领域的代表性文献进行了系统的分类梳理和总结,并展望国际上相关研究的发展方向,作为我们进一步研究的基础和借鉴。借鉴西方货币政策规则的理论和实践,建立适应新形势的货币政策框架是我国货币政策的发展方向。对中国货币政策目标规则的研究尚处于刚刚起步阶段,今后的相关研究应更多地考虑中国作为新兴市场和转轨国家的经济和金融特征。