Sovereign Debt Management and the Transformation from Keynesian to Neoliberal Monetary Governance in Britain

ABSTRACT

Private financial markets are central to the implementation of monetary governance. This necessary integration of public and private finance means the way states govern must evolve with developments in financial markets. This article examines how the rise of liability management underpinned a shift to market-based banking and transformed the operation of monetary policy in Britain. It assesses the period of reform between 1967 and 1981 and what this meant for monetary governance. Political economy literature depicts this period as a shift to depoliticised, deregulated governance with public authority giving way to market power. This paper challenges this perspective on the grounds that it misconstrues the problem policymakers faced. The shift from Keynesian to neoliberal monetary governance came in response to the change in banking practice with the rise of liability management and a parallel money market. This underpinned an explosion of credit creation that the old system of monetary policy, organised around the Base Rate and ‘primary’ discount market could not fix. As a result, the monetary authorities had to render this new financial environment governable. The period should therefore be reassessed in terms of the capacities the state attempted to construct to conduct monetary governance.     

基于金融稳定的货币政策框架修正研究

文章构造了一个四期二叉树模型,对货币稳定和金融稳定的关系进行了分析,发现仅以维护货币稳定为目标的货币政策无法同时实现金融稳定。基于此,文章对货币政策框架进行了修正,将货币稳定和金融稳定纳入统一的货币政策框架予以考察,并对我国货币政策的实践进行了实证分析。VAR检验结果表明,银行信贷增长率和房地产价格指数都是我国货币政策应当关注的金融稳定指标。货币政策应根据金融稳定指标进行逆周期调控,调控重点是金融稳定指标预期,而非稳定指标本身。     

Monetary policy on interest rates: a retrospective analysis since Thornton

Abstract

In response to the affirmation by certain authors and critics of a recent return to an interest-rate policy that, in their opinion, resembles a throwback to the nineteenth century theory of monetary policy on interest rates, I pose the question of the difficulties of interest-rate policy in a retrospective analysis beginning with the current that founded the short-term interest rate policy within classical analysis and by focusing my discussion on several key authors (Thornton, Banking School, Bagehot, Wicksell, Keynes, contemporary authors such as Woodford). To this end, I study the importance that the interbank money market plays for these authors, which determines the target rate for the central bank.     

货币政策透明度指数:理论方法与实证检验

文章通过建立货币政策透明度指数,并利用我国金融市场的利率数据进行检验,认为我国中央银行在基准利率调整和准备金率改变等重大政策决策上,货币当局更倾向于采用模糊的政策操作方式,由此可能会导致市场预期的混乱,并最终对政策实施效果产生负面影响。因此,我国有必要借鉴西方国家的政策操作经验,进一步有选择地增加货币政策操作的透明度,并借以最终建立一个简单透明、效率更高的政策调控框架。     

Monetary policy under a multiple-tool environment

Since the 2008 global financial crisis, central banks have been using a new set of policy tools in addition to conventional tools (such as short-term interest rates) to conduct monetary policy. This paper employs a methodology that captures 25 of these tools with a limited number of factors for Turkey. Due to a set of factors such as the high volatility of inflation, market-friendly financial architecture and its size, Turkey provides a unique environment to capture these factors and their effects on economic performance. The three factors identified here can be categorized as interest rate, central bank foreign exchange position and liquidity. The empirical evidence reveals that these three factors affect all the economic-state variables considered in the paper in different directions and magnitudes.     

Monetary policy implications of short-term capital flows in Turkey

The advent of global financial crisis in 2008, unleashed volatile short term capital flows to the emerging markets. This has forced many central banks in the developing world to adopt innovative policy measures to address concerns related to financial instability caused by the volatile nature of capital flows. In 2010 Turkish Central Bank included financial stability in addition to price stability as one of primary goals of its monetary policy. Several macro-prudential measures had been taken and ‘corridor system’ of setting the short-term policy rates had been introduced. In this paper, we have estimated an extended Taylor rule, using error correction model, to examine the impact of global financial factors in impacting the setting up of the policy rate in the pre and post 2010 periods in Turkey. It has been found that in the post-2010 period, global financial factors and monetary policy stance of the core economy, USA, have become major factor(s) in shaping up the monetary policy. Particularly our results of variance decomposition show that global financial indicators such as, VIX and EMBI have taken prominence in the setting of the short-term policy rate. This has not only made the domestic monetary more dependent on external factors but has also made pro-cyclical in nature.     

Transparency of Monetary Policy: Theory and Practice

Transparency has become one of the main features of monetarypolicymaking during the last decade. This article establishesstylized facts and provides a systematic overview of the practiceof monetary policy transparency around the world. It shows muchdiversity in information disclosure, even for central bankswith the same monetary policy framework, including inflationtargeting. Nevertheless, the study finds significant differencesin transparency across monetary policy frameworks. The empiricalfindings are explained using key insights distilled from thetheoretical literature. Thus, this article aims to bridge thegap between the theory and practice of monetary policy transparency.(JEL codes: E58, D82)     

Monetary policy: Why money matters (and interest rates don’t)

Since the late 1980s the Fed has implemented monetary policy by adjusting its target for the overnight federal funds rate. Money’s role in monetary policy has been tertiary, at best. Indeed, several influential economists suggest that money is irrelevant for monetary policy because central banks affect economic activity and inflation by (i) controlling a very short-term nominal interest rate and (ii) influencing financial market participants’ expectation of the future policy rate. I offer an alternative perspective: Money is essential for monetary policy because it is essential for controlling the price level, and the monetary authority’s ability to control interest rates is greatly exaggerated.     

Openness and the Effectiveness of Monetary Policy: A Cross-country Analysis

Abstract

This paper evaluates the relationship between a country's openness to trade and the effectiveness of monetary policy in changing output growth and inflation in 29 different countries. Using quarterly data from the 1957–2003 period, empirical estimates based on individual country specifications show that the direction, significance and nature of the relationship between openness and the effectiveness of monetary policy on output growth as well as inflation vary considerably across countries.     

银行金融创新与货币政策有效性

本文在对银行金融创新与货币政策有效性理论分析的基础上得出,银行金融创新的普及会在一定程度上削弱货币政策的有效性。从这一论断出发,本文运用1994年-2008年的季度数据,对银行金融创新与货币政策有效性进行了实证分析,实证结果表明,银行金融创新能够抑制产出存款准备弹性的释放,但就产出实际利率弹性的影响却不明显,实证结果一定程度上支持了理论模型推导的结果,最后本文就金融危机形势下,中央银行在银行金融创新普及的状态下如何有效发挥货币政策效力提出了简要建议。     

Optimal Degrees of Transparency in Monetary Policymaking

According to most academics and policymakers, transparency in monetary policymaking is desirable. I examine this proposition in a small theoretical model emphasizing forward–looking private sector behavior. Transparency makes it easier for price setters to infer the central bank's future policy intentions, thereby making current inflation more responsive to policy actions. This induces the central bank to pay more attention to inflation rather than output gap stabilization. Then, transparency may be disadvantageous. It may actually be a policy–distorting straitjacket if the central bank enjoys low–inflation credibility, and there is need for active monetary stabilization policy.
JEL classification : E 42; E 52; F 58     

货币信贷运行特点与货币政策操作取向

本文回顾了2009年中国货币政策操作的主要措施,说明了2009年金融运行情况和特征,分析了2010年货币政策运行环境,提出了货币政策建议。本文认为,2009年,为了应对国际金融危机的不利影响,中国人民银行实行了适度宽松的货币政策,货币环境宽松,有力地支持了经济企稳回升。2010年,随着经济形势的变化,中国人民银行需要在保增长、调结构和防风险之间取得平衡,因此需要在保持货币政策的连续性和稳定性的同时,进一步增强货币政策的前瞻性、针对性和灵活性,保持货币信贷的合理均衡增长,促进经济稳定发展。     

The Effectiveness of Unconventional Monetary Policy in Japan

Since the global financial crisis of 2007–2008, central bankers around the world have been forced to abandon conventional monetary policy tools in favor of unconventional policies such as quantitative easing, forward guidance, and even lowering the interest rate paid on bank reserves into negative territory. Japan, which faced a crisis in its banking sector and came up against the theoretical zero lower bound on interest rates nearly a decade earlier, was a pioneer in the use of many of these unconventional policy tools. This article analyzes the effectiveness of Japan’s bold experiment with unconventional monetary policy. Using a panel of bi-annual bank data covering the full universe of Japanese commercial banks over a fifteen-year period, this study analyzes the effectiveness of quantitative easing policy on the bank lending channel of monetary policy transmission. Our findings suggest that Japan’s unconventional monetary policy worked: there is a bank lending channel of monetary policy transmission in Japan. These results are robust to the inclusion of time fixed effects and generalized method of moments analysis.     

中央银行独立性与货币、金融稳定政策协调

当今,金融危机给经济发展带来了极大的危害,为此,金融稳定是当务之急.审视中国的金融现状,我们必须加强金融体系各组成部分内部及其相互之问的有效风险配置、资源配置等核心功能,将中央银行独立性、货币稳定政策及金融稳定政策纳入统一框架之下,有效协调货币、金融稳定政策,提高金融机构风险管理水平.     

货币政策、资产价格与金融稳定性

传统的货币政策理论认为,中央银行制定货币政策时应严格以通货膨胀为目标,但金融危机的爆发,资本市场的膨胀、资产价格的波动,都不断地冲击货币政策的有效性,并在一定程度上影响金融体系的稳定性,由此引发学术界对货币政策中介目标的探讨。本文以具有变参数特征的动态金融景气指数(DFCI)为工具,考察了DFCI对CPI和金融稳定性的预测作用,在此基础上,扩展前瞻性中央银行利率反应函数,将包含资产价格信息的DFCI纳入反应函数,研究中央银行货币政策行为,并拓展直接以资产价格为操作目标的泰勒准则作比较。实证表明:在扩展形式的前瞻性利率反应函数中,DFCI变量统计显著,包含资产价格的DFCI要比不包含资产价格的DFCI显著,以资产价格作为货币政策目标的利率规则作用效应不完全显著。这说明,DFCI的建立具有合理性,资产价格波动显著地影响货币政策的有效性,严格的通货膨胀目标规则存在不足,中央银行的货币政策行为需要考虑资本市场的变化以及资产价格的波动,但直接将资产价格作为目标的货币政策具有不确定性。     

零利率下限、货币政策与金融稳定?

文章通过构建包含零利率下限约束的D SGE 模型,系统探讨了存在零利率下限时外生不利冲击对经济的影响。研究结果表明：(1)当名义利率触及零利率下限时,宏观经济和金融体系的不稳定性和脆弱性会显著增加,外生不利冲击对产出、通胀、信贷等经济变量的影响也会明显放大。(2)当存在零利率下限时,传统泰勒规则已无法有效稳定经济,最优的货币政策规则不仅应盯住产出缺口和通胀缺口,还应对资产价格和信贷给予重点关注并做出适度反应。(3)货币政策更适于保持产出缺口和通胀缺口的稳定,但难以有效减缓房价和信贷的波动。只有将逆周期监管的宏观审慎政策和货币政策有效搭配,才能保证经济系统和金融系统的全面稳定。为了应对不利冲击,我国应进一步完善宏观审慎监管框架,并将其与货币政策有效搭配以保持宏观经济的全面稳定。     

Constructing the Monetary Conditions Index for China

How can we fit different monetary transmission channels together to understand the effect of China’s monetary policy? This paper focuses on China’s monetary conditions and aggregate demand in terms of the monetary conditions index (MCI), which has been widely used as an important indicator for central banks, financial institutions, and scholars. To construct an MCI in the context of China over 1987Q1–2010Q2, we consider three channels through which monetary conditions might influence aggregate demand: the primary lending rate, the real effective exchange rate, and the bank credit. The weights of the component variables are obtained by estimating both the IS equation and the vector autoregressive model (VAR), which yield somewhat similar results. Further empirical tests show that the MCIs we derived contain useful information about future output growth and inflation in China over the short and medium term. From a historical perspective, the MCI we derived is more informative than individual monetary variables for the understanding of the development of China’s monetary conditions between 1987 and 2010.     

中国货币政策与股票市场的关系

本文提出的综合理论框架全面分析描述了以稳定物价水平、促进国民经济持续增长为目的的货币政策与股票市场的关系 ,着重对中央银行干预股票市场的必要性和有效性进行理论分析和实证检验。本文应用的动态滚动式的计量检验方法适应中国经济体制不断调整的特征 ,不但可以完成我们的理论分析 ,更可以检测中央银行对股票市场干预的机制及干预的有效性 ,从而分析进一步的政策含义 ,为中央银行的货币政策制订和预期效果提供一个前瞻性的预测分析框架。     

A Macro-Level Account of Money and Credit to Explain Gendered Financialization

ABSTRACT

The paper intervenes in the debate on macroeconomics, money, gender, and financialization. Generally, there is an omission in gender studies on gender-specific effects of monetary policy. Not only is there a blind-spot about the role of monetary policy in feminist political economy, there is equally a blind-spot in meso-level analysis which focus on the social construction of institutional mechanisms and the predatory market power of oligopolistic banks. Yet, monetary policy is neither neutral in the short-term nor long-term. Such policies have gender-differentiated effects on employment, income, consumption, savings which in turn have feed-back effects on economic growth. My intent is to focus on the changing role of monetary policy and highlight the omission in gender studies on financialization, as well as argue that the shift of the credit cycle to fictitious capital (future revenue) is one of the central explanatory variables in the predatory banking model of subprime lending. Yet, the financial crisis of 2007 did not usher in a normalisation of the credit and finance system. Exactly the opposite happened. Unconventional monetary policy continues to facilitate a credit system based on future claims which has gendered distributional effects, in the process increasing the wealth inequality on a global scale.     

2011-2012年中国货币政策分析与展望

本文回顾了2011年中国货币政策操作的主要措施和金融运行情况,分析了2012年货币政策运行环境,提出了货币政策建议。本文认为,2011年,面对不断上升的通货膨胀压力,中国人民银行实行了稳健的货币政策,货币信贷条件向常态水平回归,有效遏制了物价过快上涨的势头。2012年,在经济增长下行压力和物价上涨压力并存的局面下,中国人民银行需要继续实施稳健的货币政策,进一步增强货币政策的针对性、灵活性和前瞻性,根据经济形势的变化,适时适度进行预调微调,保持货币信贷总量和社会融资规模的合理适度增长,更好地服务于实体经济发展。