Corporate debt and unconventional monetary policy: The risk-taking channel with bond and loan contracts

We investigate the effects of unconventional monetary policies on corporate debt through the risk-taking channel using corporate bond and syndicated loan contracts from 2000 to 2016 in Japan. In this period, the policy rate remained fixed near the zero bound. Using the daily changes in the yield curve on monetary policy meeting days, we identify one call rate shock and two unconventional monetary policy shocks that do not affect short-term rates. We find that QE shocks, which move all medium-to-long-term rates, increase the maturity of debt contracts, especially for syndicated loans. In addition, such QE shocks decrease the size of corporate bonds with short maturity. On the other hand, QQE shocks, which raise medium-term rates and lower long-term rates, decrease the size of loans and corporate bonds with longer maturity. These effects imply the existence of the risk-taking channel of unconventional monetary policy: it stimulates investment in longer-maturity assets and decreases investment in assets with lower yields. Our findings show that unconventional policies affect debt contracts even in an extremely low interest rate environment.     

Scaling behaviour of Treasury rates in India

This study finds that the scaling properties of India’s nominal and real Treasury rates are time varying, as is their multiscaling behaviour. We observe an association between the scaling behaviour of interest rates and the stages of development of the bill market. Interest rate behaviour is influenced by structural reforms, microstructure changes, and improvement in the operational efficiency of the Treasury market. Our findings suggest that monetary policy shocks have a persistent effect, but rates eventually revert to the mean. We show that the adaptive market hypothesis helps to delineate the dynamics of an emerging market undergoing a series of institutional and structural changes.     

The impact of monetary policy on asset prices

Estimating the response of asset prices to changes in monetary policy is complicated by the endogeneity of policy decisions and the fact that both interest rates and asset prices react to numerous other variables. This paper develops a new estimator that is based on the heteroskedasticity that exists in high-frequency data. We show that the response of asset prices to changes in monetary policy can be identified based on the increase in the variance of policy shocks that occurs on days of FOMC meetings and of the Chairman's semi-annual monetary policy testimony to Congress. The identification approach employed requires a much weaker set of assumptions than needed under the “event-study” approach that is typically used in this context. The results indicate that an increase in short-term interest rates results in a decline in stock prices and in an upward shift in the yield curve that becomes smaller at longer maturities. The findings also suggest that the event-study estimates contain biases that make the estimated effects on stock prices appear too small and those on Treasury yields too large.     

Interest rate pass-through in India

The success of the interest rate channel depends upon the size and speed with which retail interest rates respond to changes in policy or money market interest rates. This study estimates the dynamic elasticities of the pass-through of the official monetary policy rate to the money market and retail interest rates in India and examines whether the speed and magnitudes of the pass-through have changed following introduction of the Liquidity Adjustment Facility in 2000. The results show that the speed of adjustment is highest for call rates and lowest for 364-day Treasury Bill yield. The pass-through elasticities with respect to call rate show marginal improvement in the case of deposit and lending rates and worsening in the case of Treasury Bills.     

公开市场操作与利率期限结构行为——基于混频数据信息的研究视角

在混频数据信息环境中,精准识别公开市场操作(央行政策利率)和国债收益率曲线(基准利率体系)之间的关联机制至关重要,其影响了货币政策期限结构传导的有效性。本文在混频Nelson-Siegel(N-S)利率期限结构模型框架下,引入央行政策利率,揭示公开市场操作与利率期限结构(水平、斜率、曲度)因子之间的作用机制。实证结果表明:混频数据信息条件下,引入的公开市场操作信息显著改进国债收益率曲线的拟合效果;斜率因子冲击对公开市场操作具有显著的正向影响,而利率期限结构因子对政策调控的反应不敏感。进一步研究表明,2015年以来,公开市场操作对斜率因子的影响逐渐扩大,政策利率向国债收益率曲线的传导效率得到显著提高,我国现代货币政策框架日益健全。     

On the financial market impact of euro area monetary policy: A comparative study before and after the Global Financial Crisis

Using daily data from thirteen euro area and four non-euro countries covering the years 2000 to 2018, we explore whether the Global Financial Crisis 2008–2010 and the introduction of unconventional monetary policy measures has led to a change in the financial market impact of euro area monetary policy. For this purpose, we construct a conservative measure of monetary policy innovations based on the heteroscedasticity-approach of Rigobon and Sack (2004), and investigate the response of national and euro-wide equity indices, derived volatility indices, as well as of government bond yields. We find that financial market participants respond more strongly to monetary policy after the Global Financial Crisis. Moreover, we find that cross-country differences in the responsiveness of government bond yields correlate with average national unemployment rates and with inflation rates, suggesting that monetary policy communication was more effective in countries that had faced a severe economic downturn.     

Interest Rate Skewness and Biased Beliefs

Conditional skewness of Treasury yields is an important indicator of the risks to the macroeconomic outlook. Positive skewness signals upside risk to interest rates during periods of accommodative monetary policy and an upward-sloping yield curve, and vice versa. Skewness has substantial predictive power for future bond excess returns, high-frequency interest rate changes around Federal Open Market Committee announcements, and survey forecast errors for interest rates. The estimated expectational errors, or biases in beliefs, are quantitatively important for statistical bond risk premia. These findings are consistent with a heterogeneous-beliefs model in which one of the agents is wrong about consumption growth.     

The Response of Equity Prices to Movements in Long‐Term Interest Rates Associated with Monetary Policy Statements: Before and After the Zero Lower Bound

Monetary policy actions since 2008 have influenced long‐term interest rates through forward guidance and quantitative easing. I propose a strategy to identify the comovement between interest rate and equity price movements induced by monetary policy when an observable representing policy changes is not available. A decline in long‐term interest rates induced by monetary policy statements has a larger positive effect on equity prices prior to 2009 than in the subsequent period. This change appears to reflect the impact of the zero lower bound on short‐term interest rates.     

银行间债市收益率上扬的成因及后市展望

自2013年6月以来,利率的上行趋势已从货币市场利率扩散到中长端国债收益率,并蔓延到短端收益率。回归分析结果表明,经济基本面和资金面仅可部分解释国债收益率的上涨。文章进一步分析指出,货币政策维持中性偏紧趋向、金融机构调整资产配置结构削减债券投资额度、银行筹资方式多元化推高资金成本这三大因素,也是引起本轮利率接力上行的显著外力。中长期看,债券市场收益率中枢将随之抬升。在中性偏紧的货币政策基调没有改变前,债券市场将只有阶段性回嗳而无趋势性好转的行情。     

Model-free jump measures and interest rates: common patterns in US and UK monetary policy around major economic events

We employ model-free jump measures to study monetary policy operations in the UK and USA around major economic events by exploiting the relationship between jumps, interest rates, and macroeconomic news releases related to monetary policy. In our analysis, we explicitly account for the timing of jumps in UK and US interest rates and the correlation across jumps in the same two interest rates and whether these match Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC)/Monetary Policy Committee news releases. We find that FOMC news releases lag jumps in US interest rates, but lead jumps in UK Gilt rates. Overall, our analysis suggests that US Treasury Bills react to information in the aforementioned news releases before their announcement while UK Gilt yields react after them and that the Fed and Bank of England react similarly around major economic events.     

Economic determinants of the nominal treasury yield curve

Macroeconomic shocks account for most of the variability of nominal Treasury yields, inducing parallel shifts in the level of the yield curve. We develop a new approach to identifying macroeconomic shocks that exploits model-based empirical shock measures. Technology shocks shift yields through their effect on expected inflation and the term premium. Shocks to preferences for current consumption affect yields through their impact on real rates and expected inflation. For both shocks, the systematic reaction of monetary policy is an important transmission pathway. We find little evidence that fiscal policy shocks are an important source of interest rate variability.     

Global asset prices and FOMC announcements

This paper analyzes the impact of U.S. monetary policy announcement surprises on foreign equity indexes, short- and long-term interest rates, and exchange rates in 49 countries. We use two proxies for monetary policy surprises: the surprise change to the current target federal funds rate (target surprise) and the revision to the expected path of future monetary policy (path surprise). We find that different asset classes respond to different components of the monetary policy surprises. Global equity indexes respond mainly to the target surprise; exchange rates and long-term interest rates respond mainly to the path surprise; and short-term interest rates respond to both surprises. On average, a hypothetical surprise 25-basis-point cut in the federal funds target rate is associated with about a 1 percent increase in foreign equity indexes and a 5 basis point decline in foreign short-term interest rates. A surprise 25-basis-point downward revision in the expected path of future policy is associated with about a ½ percent decline in the exchange value of the dollar against foreign currencies and 5 and 8 basis point declines in short- and long-term interest rates, respectively. We also find that asset prices’ responses to FOMC announcements vary greatly across countries, and that these cross-country variations in the response are related to a country’s exchange rate regime. Equity indexes and interest rates in countries with a less flexible exchange rate regime respond more to U.S. monetary policy surprises. In addition, the cross-country variation in the equity market response is strongly related to the percentage of each country’s equity market capitalization owned by U.S. investors. This result suggests that investors’ asset holdings may play a role in transmitting monetary policy surprises across countries.     

国库现金管理对我国货币政策的影响:一个实证分析

中央财政管理的国库资金是社会资金流量中的一个重要组成部分,对中央银行制定货币政策、调控货币供应量和公开市场操作都影响重大,在现代市场经济条件下,国库已成为连接财政和金融的窗口和桥梁,对财政政策和货币政策的有机配合发挥着重要的作用。本文以近年来我国正在开展的国库集中支付制度改革为背景,实证分析了国库现金管理对我国货币政策格局的影响,提出了我国进一步提高国库管理水平、加强货币政策管理的政策建议。     

Monetary policy and speculative spillovers in financial markets

This paper examines the role of monetary policy (MP) as a driver of connectedness patterns in speculative activities in financial markets. Examining measures of speculation in four major markets including gold, equities, Treasury bonds and crude oil, we show that speculative activities can spill over across markets with the stock market generally serving as the main transmitter of speculative shocks. While unconventional MP is associated with greater connectedness of speculative activities in financial markets, we also find that unconventional (conventional) MP drives gold (financial assets) to serve as a net transmitter of speculative shocks to the other markets. The findings establish an important link between the monetary policy signals and trading behavior in financial markets with significant policy implications.     

Monetary Policy Uncertainty and the Response of the Yield Curve to Policy Shocks

This paper studies the nonlinear response of the term structure of interest rates to monetary policy shocks and presents a new stylized fact. We show that uncertainty about monetary policy changes the way the term structure responds to monetary policy. A policy tightening leads to a significantly smaller increase in long-term bond yields if policy uncertainty is high at the time of the shock. We also look at the decomposition of bond yields into expectations about future policy and the term premium. The weaker response of yields is driven by the fall in term premia, which fall more strongly if uncertainty about policy is high. Conditional on a monetary policy shock, higher uncertainty about monetary policy tends to make securities with longer maturities relatively more attractive to investors. As a consequence, investors demand even lower term premia. These findings are robust to the measurement of monetary policy uncertainty, the definition of the monetary policy shock, and to changing the model specification.     

Monetary Policy Transmission with Interbank Market Fragmentation

This paper shows how interbank market fragmentation disrupts the transmission of monetary policy. Fragmentation is the fact that banks, depending on their country of location, have different probabilities of default on their interbank borrowings. Once fragmentation is introduced into standard theoretical models of monetary policy implementation, excess liquidity arises endogenously. This leads short-term interest rates to depart from the central bank policy rates. Using data on monetary policy operations, I show that this mechanism has been at work in the euro area since 2008. The model is used to analyze conventional and unconventional monetary policy measures.     

Monetary policy,bond risk premia,and the economy

Within an affine model of the term structure of interest rates, where bond yields get driven by observable and unobservable macroeconomic factors, parameter restrictions help identify the effects of monetary policy and other structural disturbances on output, inflation, and interest rates and decompose movements in long-term rates into terms attributable to changing expected future short rates versus risk premia. When estimated, the model highlights a broad range of channels through which monetary policy affects risk premia and the economy, risk premia affect monetary policy and the economy, and the economy affects monetary policy and risk premia.     

International Transmission of U.S. Monetary Policy Shocks: Evidence from Stock Prices

This paper analyzes intraday changes in firm‐level equity prices around interest rate announcements to assess the transmission of U.S. monetary policy to the global economy. We document that foreign firms on average are roughly as sensitive to U.S. monetary policy as U.S. firms, although we also find considerable cross‐sectional variation across firms. In particular, foreign stocks in cyclically sensitive industries show stronger responses to interest rate surprises, consistent with a demand channel of policy transmission. In addition, transmission of U.S. policy appears to be stronger to economies with fixed exchange rates. Evidence for a credit channel is weaker.     

Understanding the impact of monetary policy announcements: The importance of language and surprises

Monetary policy announcements have a significant impact on financial market liquidity. This study provides a novel perspective on the factors driving this relationship in the market for 10-year Treasury note futures: Target rate surprises and the complexity of the monetary policy statement language are important determinants. Differences of opinion resulting from interpretation of complex language appear to result in more trading volume despite relatively low levels of liquidity (a negative liquidity-volume relationship), while large target rate surprises reduce trading activity (a positive liquidity-volume relationship). The dynamic changes over time, as unconventional polices are adopted by monetary authorities and, high frequency traders become more pervasive. Central bankers may aid market liquidity by minimizing surprises, and issuing statements that are easier to understand (with shorter sentences and more familiar words).     

The impact of monetary policy on corporate bonds under regime shifts

We study the effects of a conventional monetary expansion, quantitative easing, and the maturity extension program on corporate bond yields using impulse response functions obtained from flexible models with regimes. Using a three-state Markov switching model with time-homogeneous vector autoregressive (VAR) coefficients that emerges from a systematic model specification search, we find that unconventional policies may have been generally expected to decrease both corporate yields and spreads. However, even though the sign of the responses is the one desired by policymakers, the size of the estimated effects depends on the assumptions regarding the decline in long-term Treasury yields caused by unconventional policies, on which considerable uncertainty remains. Further tests based on yield spreads and a variable that measures inflation expectations show that, in the crisis regime, unconventional monetary policies do not produce any perverse effects on expected inflation. These results prove robust to adopting a framework that allows VAR coefficients to break, to imposing coefficient restrictions that increase parsimony, and to a range of different ordering schemes that identify shocks in alternative ways.