Behavior of the money stock: Is there a puzzle?

This paper examines the factual and logical bases underlying recent proposals that the Federal Reserve should reduce the attention it attaches to the monetary aggregates and finds these arguments seriously lacking on both counts. By and large the case against the aggregates rests on the finding that some money demand functions have experienced serious difficulties in explaining recent developments. Our results suggest that the problem is not due so much to the instability in the public's asset preferences but rather to the restrictive specifications of the functions employed. Moreover, it is shown that even if the demand function for money has become less predictable, this is not sufficient to justify a reduction in the attention devoted to the aggregates. Finally, we examine the recent performance of a modified version of the St. Louis reduced-form equation for nominal income and find that the relationship that it incorporates between the growth in money and the growth in GNP has remained remarkably stable.     

Interest Rates,Uncertainty and the Livingston Data

The observed relationship between the standard deviation of forecasts and past forecast errors as found in the Livingston survey suggests the interpretation of the standard deviation as a measure of inflation uncertainty. The mean and the standard deviation for the inflation rate forecast found in the Livingston survey, furthermore, are used as regressors in a reduced-form interest rate equation. The results indicate a large negative effect of such uncertainty on interest rates. The inclusion of the uncertainty measure and commonly omitted lagged values of all variables in our analysis of data leads to more theoretically plausible estimated effects of money growth and expected inflation on interest rates than do standard estimates.     

Does modeling framework matter? A comparative study of structural and reduced-form models

This study provides a rigorous empirical comparison of structural and reduced-form credit risk frameworks. The literature differentiates between structural models that are based on modeling of the evolution of the balance sheet of the issuer, and reduced-form models that specify credit risk exogenously by a hazard rate process. Until now, there has been no common agreement in academia and practice on which model framework better captures credit risk. As major difference we focus on the discriminative modeling of the default time. In contrast to the previous literature, we calibrate both approaches to the same data set, apply comparable estimation techniques, and assess the out-of-sample prediction quality on the same time series of credit default swap prices. As our empirical implementations of both approaches rely on the same market information we are able to judge whether empirically the model structure itself makes an important difference. Interestingly, our study shows that the models’ prediction power are quite close on average indicating that for pricing purposes the modeling type does not greatly matter compared to the input data used. Still, the reduced-form approach outperforms the structural for investment-grade names and longer maturities. In contrast the structural approach performs better for shorter maturities and sub-investment grade names.     

Reduced-form valuation of callable corporate bonds: Theory and evidence

We develop a reduced-form approach for valuing callable corporate bonds by characterizing the call probability via an intensity process. Asymmetric information and market frictions justify the existence of a call-arrival intensity from the market's perspective. Our approach both extends the reduced-form model of Duffie and Singleton (1999) for defaultable bonds to callable bonds and captures some important differences between call and default decisions. A comprehensive empirical analysis of callable bonds using both our model and the more traditional American option approach for valuing callable bonds shows that the reduced-form model fits callable bond prices well and that it outperforms the traditional approach both in- and out-of-sample.     

Financial innovation,new assets,and the behavior of money demand

Two fundamental changes in US banking regulations have affected the behavior of money demand (M1). The first authorized checkable deposit accounts paying explicit interest rates. The second allowed these rates to be market determined. The theoretical literature does not directly address the impact of these events, suggesting that they are primarily an empirical issue. However, the empirical literature has yet to agree on the impact of financial innovation on money demand; for example, several studies report an increase in the elasticity of money demand, several others report a decline. This paper uses a Lancaster-type choice model to analyze formally the expected impact of these two changes on the demand for money. The model derives specific conditions under which (i) the demand for money increases as new assets are introduced and (ii) the impact of either the introduction of new assets or the elimination of interest rate restrictions on the elasticity of money demand.     

MONEY SUPPLY ANNOUNCEMENTS AND INTEREST SENSITIVE STOCKS

Much of the money announcement literature provides evidence that there is a significant response of nominal interest rates to unexpected changes in the money stock, especially in the October 1979-October 1982 period. These money announcements provide a proxy for unexpected interest rate changes which can be used in a novel test for the interest sensitivity of stocks. Using the response of disaggregated stock price data to money announcements, we reach two major conclusions. First, that the interest rate response observed in the money announcement literature was predominantly a change in real rates. Second, an unusual group of stocks are excessively sensitive to these real rate changes and many groups of stocks that might logically have been expected to be sensitive are not.     

RESPONSE OF STOCK PRICES TO MONEY SUPPLY ANNOUNCEMENTS: AUSTRALIAN EVIDENCE

This paper extends the literature on the money supply announcement effect by examining the response of stock prices to the monthly announcements of the money supply made in Australia. The unexpected component of the money supply change is identified using both a market based survey of expectations and rolling ARIMA time series models. The analysis is further extended to examine the impact of the money supply announcements during the period of monetary target-ting; the cross-sectional impact of the announcements across various stock price indices and the pre- and post-announcement responses of stock prices. The results documented show no evidence of a significant stock price response to the money supply announcements in Australia.     

A Quantitative Comparison of Sticky-Price and Sticky-Information Models of Price Setting

I estimate sticky-price and sticky-information models of price setting for the United States via maximum-likelihood techniques, reaching several conclusions. First, the sticky-price model fits best, and captures inflation dynamics as well as reduced-form equations once hybrid-behavior is allowed. Second, the importance of hybrid behavior in sticky-price models is potentially consistent with a role for some information imperfections, such as sticky information, as a complement to nominal price rigidities. Finally, the favorable results herein for the hybrid sticky-price model when evaluated by statistics that summarize the relative fit of different models is consistent with the existing literature that is both supportive and dismissive of such models, as this literature has largely ignored fit in evaluating such models. Many previous studies have focused on ancillary issues, such as the standard errors associated with certain parameters or Granger-causality tests that may not provide much information about sticky-price models.     

Safe Assets as Commodity Money

This paper presents a model in which safe assets are systemic because they are the medium of exchange in risky assets. It connects the literature from banking and finance on safe assets to the monetary literature on alternative monetary systems involving commodity money, interest bearing money, and private money creation. Because safe assets have intrinsic value, changes in their supply lead to changes in market efficiency. Additionally, because safe assets are costly to produce, there is overproduction of safe assets relative to the social optimum. When the model is calibrated to plausible liquidity premiums the resulting inefficiencies are not large.     

Monetary disequilibria and the euro/dollar exchange rate

Although stable money demand functions are crucial for the monetary model of the exchange rate, empirical research on exchange rates and money demand is more or less disconnected. This paper tries to fill the gap for the euro/dollar exchange rate. We investigate whether monetary disequilibria provided by the empirical literature on US and European money demand functions contain useful information about exchange rate movements. Our results suggest that the empirical performance of the monetary exchange rate model improves when insights from the money demand literature are explicitly taken into account.     

On the optimal monetary policy response to noisy indicators

We describe a behavior of a central bank when its measures of current inflation and output are subject to measurement errors, in a framework of optimizing models with nominal price stickiness. In our model, a central bank sets the interest rate equal to its current estimate of the so-called Wicksellian natural rate of interest. This is shown to imply that the interest rate responds to the central bank's estimates of both current inflation and output gap, as advocated by Taylor (1993). It is also shown that the noise contained in the indicators justifies a degree of policy cautiousness. A reduced-form representation of optimal policy should exhibit interest-rate smoothing, which is often found in the empirical literature on monetary policy reaction functions.     

Investigating M3 money demand in the euro area

Euro area monetary growth has exceeded its target since 2001. Likewise, recent empirical studies did not find evidence in favour of a stable long-run money demand function. In contrast to the bulk of the literature, we are able to identify a stable long-run money demand relationship. This result is obtained when the analysis is done without the short run homogeneity restriction between money and prices. The basic equation can be improved by allowing for asymmetric adjustment. In a low inflation environment, opportunity costs of holding money have decreased. Thus, the apparent monetary overhang is reconciled within standard models.     

Keynesian and monetarist theories of the monetary transmission process: Doctrinal aspects

This paper investigates the doctrinal link underlying differences between Keynesian and monetarist approaches regarding the transmission mechanism of monetary policy. Consideration of the post-General Theory literature reveals that a key aspect of that link concerns the velocity of circulation of money. The Keynesian emphasis on compartmentalizing the demand for money into active and idle components resulted in a mechanical interpretation of velocity and the associated view that money does not matter. The monetarist tradition illustrates the behavioral perspective adduced to velocity via adaptive price expectations by earlier quantity theorists leading to a capital-theoretic reformulation of the quantity theory in terms of a stable demand function for money.     

货币供应量统计口径演变历程及其影响

文章在介绍货币供应量统计口径调整的基本原则并回顾其在我国经历的三次调整及其原因的基础上，详细分析了目前货币供应量统计指标的组成部分及其中需注意的问题，说明了目前尚未计入M2的货币相关成分。最后，文章分析了货币供应量统计口径可能的调整对我国宏观调控和金融市场发展等方面的影响。     

Instability of sunspot equilibria in real business cycle models under adaptive learning

We provide conditions under which a general, reduced-form class of real business cycle (RBC) models has rational expectations equilibria that are both indeterminate and stable under adaptive learning. Indeterminacy of equilibrium allows for the possibility that non-fundamental “sunspot” variable realizations can be used to drive the model, and several researchers have offered calibrated structural models where sunspot shocks play such a role. However, we show that the structural restrictions researchers have adopted lead to reduced-form systems that are always unstable under adaptive learning dynamics, thus calling into question the plausibility of these sunspot-driven RBC models.     

The optimal mix of taxes on money,consumption and income

We determine the optimal combination of taxes on money, consumption and income in transactions technology models where exogenous government expenditures must be financed with distortionary taxes. We show that the optimal policy does not tax money, regardless of whether the government can use as alternative fiscal instruments an income tax, a consumption tax, or the two taxes jointly. These results are at odds with recent literature. We argue that the reason for this divergence is an inappropriate specification of the transactions technology adopted in the literature.     

On the positive fundamental value of money with short-sale constraints

This paper is concerned with the pricing of money in a framework with restrictions on trading, under an extension of the standard-asset pricing theory that recognizes both tangible and intangible returns. It is argued that the underlying motivations for demanding money give content to its fundamental value and the bubble component. This approach is illustrated by analyzing the case where no short-sales are allowed, as two examples from the literature are made used to assert that money is a pure pricing bubble. Owing to this setup exhibits technically incomplete financial markets, the fundamental value of money is not uniquely defined over the set of generalized state-price processes. Then, these examples are shown to comprise an extreme case, as money is a pure store of value for the state-prices chosen (i.e., it is a pricing bubble). Instead, the fundamental value of money can be positive for other state-prices, representing the role of money in the trading process. Therefore, money should not be considered the equivalent of a pure pricing bubble.      

The essentiality of money in environments with centralized trade

Lagos and Wright (2005) introduced an influential model of monetary exchange in which trade alternates between centralized and decentralized markets and money is essential. A limitation of their model and of the literature that follows is that they do not provide a microfoundation for the process of exchange in the centralized market. In this paper, we show that how one models exchange in the centralized market matters for the essentiality of money by describing the centralized market as a strategic market game and studying conditions under which money is essential.     

从市场功能看我国货币市场结构的合理性

从市场要素角度看,我国货币市场结构的合理性已大大提高,但市场发展的最终目的是要充分发挥其特有的功能,因此有必要进一步从功能角度考察我国货币市场结构的合理性.货币市场是企业筹集短期资金的市场,是商业银行进行流动性管理的市场,是中央银行实施金融宏观调控的市场,本文从这三个方面系统评判了我国货币市场结构的合理性.     

An integrated view of tests of rationality,market efficiency and the short-run neutrality of monetary policy

This paper analyzes an important class of models in which expectations play an important role. Topics included in the analysis are tests of: (1) rationality of forecasts in either market or survey data, (2) capital market efficiency, (3) the short-run neutrality of monetary policy and, (4) Granger causality in macroeconometric models. The common elements of these tests are highlighted. In particular, cross-equation tests for rationality or the short-run neutrality of money are shown to be equivalent to more common regression tests in the literature. These results demonstrate that the exact specification of the relevant information set used in rational forecasts is not necessary for the cross-equation tests to have desirable asymptotic properties. Also discussed are the conditions for identification of coefficients and testability of hypotheses.