A quantile-copula approach to dependence between financial assets

This article unveils the dependence structure between United States stock prices, crude oil prices, exchange rates, and U.S. interest rates. In particular, we employ linear and nonlinear estimation methods, such as quantile regression and the quantile-copula approach. Over the 1998–2017 period, we find that there is a positive relationship between the dollar value and the S&P 500 stock price, with the exception of the lower and upper tails of the stock return distribution. Further evidence is obtained on the dependence structure between other asset returns. The stock returns are negatively related to oil prices but positively to U.S. interest rates. Our results highlight the way that financial assets are linked, which have implications for risk management and monetary policy.     

Impact of Currency Boards on Fiscal Policy in Central and Eastern European Countries

The paper focuses on the impact of currency boards on fiscal policy in transition economies. Starting with an overview of theoretical and empirical studies in the related area, it tests for the interaction between monetary policy regimes and fiscal policy in Central and Eastern European countries who aim for the membership in the European Union. The theoretical background of this study lies in the model of Tornell and Velasco (1998). They demonstrate that fiscal transfers do not ultimately depend on the chosen exchange rate and monetary policy, but only on the worlds real rate of interest and the rate of time preference of the fiscal authority. A sample of 10 accession candidates constitutes a group of countries which go through similar macroeconomic stabilisation processes but have chosen different nominal anchors. The paper investigates whether there are any systematic differences between those countries with a currency board arrangement and those without. The empirical evidence suggests that currency boards enhance fiscal discipline in Central and Eastern European countries.     

Monetary policy in deflation: the liquidity trap in history and practice

The experience of the U.S. economy during the mid-1930s, when short-term nominal interest rates were continuously close to zero, is sometimes taken as evidence that monetary policy was ineffective and the economy was in a “liquidity trap.” Close examination of the historical policy record for the period indicates that the evidence does not support such assertions. The incomplete and erratic recovery from the Great Depression can be traced to a failure to pursue consistently expansionary policy resulting from an incorrect understanding of monetary policy in an environment of very low short-term nominal interest rates. Commonalities with the Japanese experience during the late 1990s, and the inadequacy of short-term interest rates as indicators of the stance of monetary policy are discussed and a robust operating procedure for implementing monetary policy in a low-interest-rate environment by adjusting the maturity of targeted interest-rate instruments is described.     

GDP trend deviations and the yield spread: the case of eight E.U. countries

Several studies have established the predictive power of the yield curve in terms of real economic activity. In this paper we use data for a variety of E.U. countries: both EMU (Germany, France, Italy, Portugal and Spain) and non-EMU members (Norway, Sweden and the U.K.). The data used range from 1991:Q1 to 2009:Q3. For each country, we extract the long run trend and the cyclical component of real economic activity, while the corresponding ECB euro area government benchmark bond interest rates of long and short term maturities are used for the calculation of the yield spreads. We also augment the models tested with non monetary policy variables: the respective unemployment rates and stock indices. The methodology employed in the effort to forecast real output, is a probit model of the inverse cumulative distribution function of the standard distribution, using several formal forecasting and goodness of fit evaluation criteria. The results show that the yield curve augmented with the non-monetary variables has significant forecasting power in terms of real economic activity but the results differ qualitatively between the individual economies examined raising non-trivial policy implications.     

On the feasibility of monetary union among Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries: does the symmetry of shocks extend to the non-oil sector?

GCC countries’ output is heavily dichotomized into oil and non-oil. Oil shocks have similar effects on all member countries but little is known about their responses to non-oil shocks. This paper sets out to determine (1) whether aggregate demand (AD) and non-oil supply shocks (AS) are symmetrical across these countries to justify their suitability for monetary union; and (2) whether there is any commonality of shocks with the United States and the three major European countries, namely France, Germany, and Italy, which can warrant the choice of either the US dollar or the Euro as the anchor for the expected common currency of the bloc. We use bivariate structural vector autoregression models identified with long-run restrictions to extract the shocks. Our results show that (a) AD shocks are unequivocally symmetrical but non-oil AS shocks are weakly symmetrical across GCC countries thereby suggesting a monetary union is feasible, but not overwhelmingly; (b) neither AD nor AS shocks are symmetrical between GCC countries and the selected European countries; (c) GCC’s AD shocks are symmetrical with the US but non-oil AS shock are not. Furthermore, there are no significant changes in the results when we aggregate the GCC countries as a bloc. We therefore surmise that the US dollar is a more appropriate anchor for the new currency than the Euro since US monetary policy can at least help smooth demand shocks in GCC countries.     

The small open macroeconomy and the yield curve: A state-space representation

This study extends a state-space representation of the yield curve and the macroeconomy to a small open economy in order to study the dynamic interaction between the yield curves in Canada and the U.S. The framework treats the U.S. term structure of interest rates as being exogenous to both the Canadian yield curve and macroeconomy. The empirical results support very strong links between the yield curves in the two countries, with the U.S. yield curve accounting for as much as 45 per cent of the variation of the movement in the level and about 30 per cent of the movements in the slope and the curvature of the Canadian yield curve. Canadian yield-curve factors are found to account for about 50 per cent of the variation in output and the monetary policy rate, and about 25 per cent of the variation in inflation, much larger than the yield curve effects found for future developments of the macroeconomies of other countries. A relatively strong bilateral relationship is found to exist between the yield curve and the instrument of monetary policy, supporting recent studies that find the dynamic relationship between the yield curve and the macroeconomy is due to the pivotal role that monetary policy plays in the macroeconomy.     

Linkages between emerging and developed equity markets: Empirical evidence in the PMG framework

This paper empirically investigates the international equity market causal links between Central and South-Eastern Europe, on the one hand, and developed countries (Western Europe and the United States), on the other hand, over the monthly sample period spanning from October 2000 to September 2012. Unlike previous studies, we use the pooled mean group (PMG) approach of Pesaran et al. (1999), which is suitable to estimate dynamic heterogeneous panels to draw reliable conclusions. After cointegration is found between the stock markets of interest, the PMG estimates show evidence of each market's sensitivity to the fluctuations of the other markets over both the short- and long-run, supporting the feedback hypothesis. The impact of developed markets on emerging markets is more important than that of emerging markets on developed markets and the bidirectional impact is higher between emerging and Western European markets than between these emerging markets and the United States. These conclusions are robust to an alternative specification, which supports the view that the stock markets are closely interlinked. The findings are of great interest and have important implications for policy makers, investors, and practitioners.     

美国与中国货币政策工具选择的差异分析

综合近十年美国与中国在货币政策运用方面的表现,文章认为存在着注重利率的调节和注重准备金率的调节两种不同取向。文中对这种差异从利率市场化、货币政策目标及金融市场发展程度三个层面分析,并分析两国在货币政策使用的效果,最后提出我国货币政策的调整应该依据具体的经济情况、加强中国利率市场化以及建立风险防范机制三点建议。     

Time-frequency co-movements between oil prices and interest rates: Evidence from a wavelet-based approach

This paper investigates time–frequency co-movements between crude oil prices and interest rates. To test this relationship, the study applied a continuous wavelet and cross wavelet approaches to data from West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil prices and interest rates in the United States (U.S.). Results from the sample period revealed significant relationships, in the intermediate term, between WTI crude oil prices and U.S. interest rates. Moreover, co-movements between oil price and interest rate variables were especially sensitive during abnormal political events and periods of financial ‘meltdown’. We further use Partial Wavelet Coherence (PWC) and Multiple Wavelet Coherence (MWC) methods to investigate the impacts of five major control variables namely GDP growth, unemployment, three-month Treasury bill, CPI index and industrial production index. The results show a powerful impact of control variables on oil-interest rates co-movements under different frequencies. Finally, we show evidence of co-integrating long run relationship between oil markets and control variables. These results have important implications for energy investors and policy makers.     

On credit and output: Is the supply of credit relevant?

The consensus that changes in the supply of credit were irrelevant to making monetary policy decisions existed among macroeconomists during the second half of the twentieth century. Transmission of shocks to the real economy through changes in the supply of credit, however, played an important role in the recent U.S. financial crisis. This paper explores the extent to which policymakers should consider changes in the supply of credit when making forecasts and monetary policy decisions. More specifically, it considers whether a measure of real credit balances offers consistent and stable information, beyond that of a real interest rate and real money balances, about future output gaps during the U.S. post-war era. Results yield evidence that changes in real credit balances are the only variable, among those considered, to provide consistent and stable information about future output gaps over the entire sample period. Each information variable, however, provides relatively little value added for forecasting future output gaps, beyond a simple autoregressive model. To improve upon forecasts and monetary policy decisions, policymakers therefore should consider a broader range of information variables and occasionally reassess the relative weightings assigned to each.     

The Globalization of Privacy

A bstract . The Council of Europe is currently considering a directive that would harmonize data protection laws throughout the European Community. If approved, this directive would affect exchanges of personal information between European countries and the United States. This article argues that the proposed Data Protection Directive will lead to a strengthening of American privacy laws. This will occur not as a simple reaction to a perceived economic threat, but because a number of social, economic and political changes in the privacy environment in the United States converge at this time. The European Directive presents an opportunity for policy change to occur, but will not be the cause of the change.     

U.S. interest rates and the exchange value of the dollar: A test of causality

This study examines the causal relationship between interset rates and the exchange value of the dollar using Granger causality tests. Cointegration tests show that error correction models are not necessary in this case. The results suggest that the combination of short- and long-term U.S. interest rates, in nominal or real terms, Granger cause the exchange value of the dollar, and that the difference between nominal domestic and foreign rates does not Granger cause the exchange value of the dollar. This result supports the proposition that budget deficits contribute to trade deficits.     

National natural rates of interest and the single monetary policy in the euro area

We estimate time‐varying national natural real rates of interest (r^?) for the four largest economies of the euro area over 1999–2016. We further derive the associated national real interest rate gaps, which gauge the perceived monetary policy stance in each country. We find that the average r^? have been lower after 2008. Furthermore, national r^? were significantly negative in southern countries during the sovereign crisis. As their effective real rates soared, national rate gaps across the euro area diverged. However, a common policy stance has been restored since 2014 as the European Central Bank's unconventional programs gathered pace.     

Slowdown of credit flows in Jordan in the wake of the global financial crisis: Supply or demand driven?

This paper estimates a disequilibrium model of credit supply and demand to evaluate the relative role of these factors in the slowdown of credit flows in the Jordanian economy in the wake of the global financial crisis. The empirical analysis suggests that the credit stagnation is mainly driven by the restricted credit supply amid tighter monetary policy conditions in Jordan relative to the United States, as evidenced by the widened interest differential between the Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ) re-discount and the U.S. Federal Reserve funds rates. Although it appears that demand side factors related to the slowdown of economic activity have also had an impact, their role has been relatively modest. The estimation results imply that economic policies targeted towards stimulating the supply of credit are likely to be a more effective tool for expanding credit flows relative to demand stimulating policies.     

Are stock prices related to the political uncertainty index in OECD countries? Evidence from the bootstrap panel causality test

This study applies the bootstrap panel causality test proposed by Kónya (2006. Econ Modell 23, 978) to investigate the causal link between political uncertainty and stock prices for seven OECD countries over the monthly period of 2001.01 to 2013.04. This modeling approach allows us to examine both cross-sectional dependency and country-specific heterogeneity. Our empirical results indicate that not all the countries are alike and that the theoretical prediction that stock prices fall at the announcement of a policy change is not always supported. Specifically, we find evidence for the stock price leading hypothesis for Italy and Spain, while the political uncertainty leading hypothesis cannot be rejected for the United Kingdom and the United States. In addition, the neutrality hypothesis was supported in the remaining three countries (Canada, France and Germany), while no evidence for the feedback hypothesis was found.     

Winds of tapering,financial gravity and COVID-19

Real interest rates have fallen dramatically since the early 1980s. Economic theory states that lower real rates discourage savings while promoting spending. However, today, in the world economy, we face a global saving glut problem in which, even in negative real rates, economic agents keep saving. This situation leads to excess demand for safe assets (US Treasuries), lower bond yields, and higher equity valuations. Thus, the world economy has become more dependent on major economies, especially the United States. In this research, we aim to measure the dependency of the world economy on United States monetary policy. We called this new methodology “financial gravity” and tried to quantify the nature by using panel data analysis. We define monetary dependency (financial gravity) by US Investment flows and their reaction against International Reserves, Credit Default Spreads (CDS), and Foreign Exchange Rates. Our empirical findings support that financial gravity is positively related to international reserves and negatively related to Credit Default Swap Spreads (CDS) and Foreign Exchange rates. We also analyzed the COVID-19 period and found that pandemics positively contributed to world reserve accumulation due to economic lock-down measures, fiscal stimulus packages (unemployment benefits), and decreased global spending.     

货币区建设与货币政策的独立性：一个分析框架

美国次贷危机引发了全球性金融危机,这凸显了以美国为核心的“金融资本主义模式”和以美元为核心的国际货币金融体系的制度性缺陷,改革现行的以美元为核心的国际货币金融体系势在必行,建立货币区是较为现实的选择。但在现行货币政策框架下,货币区不可避免会出现“三元悖论”困境。本文提出的贷款准备金政策框架模型,能够解决货币区在保证其内在要求的资本自由流动和汇率稳定基本前提下,区内各个成员保持货币政策的独立性问题。     

Global Financial Transmission of Monetary Policy Shocks*

The paper analyses the transmission of US monetary policy shocks to global equity markets and the macroeconomic determinants of the underlying transmission process. We show that there is a substantial cross‐country heterogeneity in reactions across 50 equity markets worldwide, with returns falling on average around 2.7% in response to a 100 basis point tightening of US monetary policy, but ranging from a zero response in some to a reaction of 5% or more in other markets. As to the determinants of the strength of transmission to individual countries, we test the relevance of their macroeconomic policies and the role of real and financial integration. We find that in particular the degree of global integration of countries – and not a country's bilateral integration with the United States – is a key determinant for the transmission process.     

Leading indicators of inflation in market economies

Inflation rates are cyclical in major market-oriented economies. Recently Geoffrey H. Moore and Stanley Kaish applied the well-known leading indicator approach to the development of a leading index of inflation cycles for the United States. Their index was based on measures of tightness in the labor market, and a measure of tightness in total credit markets, along with a measure of changes in industrial commodity prices. They found that this composite index reflects changes in inflation rate cycles reasonably well, and that it was more reliable than any of the three components taken alone. The present study broadens their study by attempting to duplicate the leading inflation index for forecasting changes in inflation rates in Canada, the United Kingdom, West Germany, France, Italy, and Japan. In general we find that the leading index is useful in anticipating changes in inflation rates in all these countries with the exception of France and Italy. As such we find that the forecasting properties of this index are often as promising in other countries as they have been in the U.S. Where they are not we conclude that there is a need for further research.