MONETARY POLICY UNCERTAINTY AND ECONOMIC FLUCTUATIONS

We investigate the relationship between uncertainty about monetary policy and its transmission mechanism, and economic fluctuations. We propose a new term structure model where the second moments of macroeconomic variables and yields can have a first‐order effect on their dynamics. The data favor a model with two unspanned volatility factors that capture uncertainty about monetary policy and the term premium. Uncertainty contributes negatively to economic activity. Two dimensions of uncertainty react in opposite directions to a shock to the real economy, and the response of inflation to uncertainty shocks varies across different historical episodes.     

Do long-term interest rates drive GDP and inflation in small open economies? Evidence from Poland

This article investigates the impact of long-term interest rates on macroeconomic variables in a small open economy. It shows that the time-varying term premium stabilizes GDP without affecting significantly inflation volatility in Poland – a typical open economy with flexible exchange rate. This conclusion is drawn from an estimated dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model in which segmented asset markets and imperfect asset substitutability give rise to the time-varying term premium in the long-term interest rate. Furthermore, the impulse response analysis of the model reveals that the term premium stabilizes GDP when the small economy is hit by shocks that are absent in closed economy models (country risk premium and export preference) which points to the different impact of the term premium on relatively close (large) and open (small) economies.     

Macroeconomic Control in the Transforming Chinese Economy: An Analysis of the Long‐Run Effect

This paper analyzes the issue of macroeconomic control in the Chinese economy where there is a dual structure (consisting of a state sector and a non‐state sector) and the financial sector is still under tight control by the government. Given the dual structure and financial repression, when inflation is a severe problem, the authors investigate whether it is possible for the government to bring inflation under control without hampering long‐term economic growth performance. The investigation is conducted within the context of an endogenous growth model that incorporates the two major institutional features of the transforming Chinese economy. The paper evaluates the long‐run effects of changes in government monetary and fiscal policies on the major macroeconomic aggregates. The analysis suggests that increasing in the interest rate on government bonds will reduce inflation without affecting the growth rate of output; while increasing the nominal interest rate on bank deposits will exert a stagflationary effect on the economy: raising the inflation rate but reducing the growth rate of output.     

A decomposition of the predictive content of the term structure for output growth in Canada

The purpose of this study is to identify the underlying economic disturbances that drive the predictive content of the term structure for future output growth and those that may distort its information content. The study uses a structural vector autoregressive (VAR) model of a small and open economy for Canada that takes into account its relationship with financial markets in the USA and that Canada is a relatively large exporter of commodities. The model is used to decompose the sources of the variation of the slope of the yield curve and the correlation between the term spread and output growth. Monetary policy disturbances in both Canada and the USA, as well as short-term interest rates, are found to trigger excessive volatility in short-term rates and the term spread that do not contribute to the predictive content of the term spread for future output growth at horizons relevant for monetary policy analysis. However, innovations in output growth, inflation and other macroeconomic variables do not distort the forecast power of the term spread. Unlike the evidence for the USA, disturbances in nominal long-term yields are found to contribute about the same amount to the predictive content of the term spread as unexpected movements in monetary policy.     

Benefits and unemployment in an open economy: an equilibrium analysis

This paper examines the relation between uemployment compensation and unemployment in The Netherlands. This relation is studied by menas of a small macroeconomic model for an open economy that assumes equilibrium in the labour market and on the current account. The model yields an elasticity of unemployment to benefits of 1.0, which is high compared to microeconomic research and the outcomes of disequilibrium models for The Netherlands. According to the model, a rise in the ‘wedge’ (i.e. the difference betweenn real labour cost and real net wages) leads to an increase in unemployment, whilst shifting this wedge from the employers to the employees induces a fall in unemployment.     

Stylized facts on nominal term structure and business cycles: an empirical VAR study

This paper examines the importance of various macroeconomic shocks in explaining the movement of the term structure of nominal bond yields in the post-war USA, as well as the channels through which such macro-shocks influence the yield curve, using a structural Vector Autoregressive (VAR) model. The results show that the monetary-policy and the aggregate-supply shocks are important determinants of the nominal term structure. Moreover, the monetary-policy innovations have a large but transitory effect on the nominal bond yields, primarily by changing the slope of the yield curve, and the aggregate-supply shocks from private sector have a more persistent effect on the level of the yield curve, but have little effect on the slope of the yield curve.     

An Alternative Monetary Model of Inflation and Growth

This paper presents a simple model of a monetary economy in which production takes time and is financed by loans from financial intermediaries such as banks. The model is an example of a pure credit economy, but does not contain the contentious Wicksellian construct of a natural rate of interest. Rather, the main determining factor of economic outcomes is the struggle over income distribution between finance (Keynes's rentiers), industry, and labour. The model yields a number of macroeconomic results, some of which are sharply at variance with those obtained in more orthodox or mainstream, models. In particular, a structural long-term Phillips-curve type relationship emerges in inflation-growth space, for some demand-side and monetary policy changes. In addition, the model is also able to identify other circumstances in which the opposite cases of either stagflation or non-inflationary growth can occur.     

开放经济条件下货币政策分析框架的选择

作为封闭经济条件下IS-LM模型和IS-LM-AS模型在开放经济中的拓展,M-F模型和M-F-D模型成为20世纪60—90年代开放经济宏观经济分析的工作母机。在研究开放经济中的货币问题时,M-F和M-F-D模型由于其简单明了、易于处理等优点,仍然是优先的分析工具选择。而作为M-F和M-F-D模型的新近发展,新开放经济宏观经济学框架在目前来说还难以运用于转型经济的货币政策研究。     

中国利率期限结构中的宏观经济风险因素分析——基于宏观-金融模型的研究途径

本文应用宏观-金融模型对我国利率期限结构动态过程中的时变宏观经济风险价格进行定量估计,在此基础上,对利率期限结构的预期成分和风险溢价成分进行分解,并且模拟了宏观经济对利率期限结构的冲击效应。研究结果表明,我国利率期限结构中存在着显著的时变宏观经济风险价格;不同期限利率可以明显地分解出预期成分和风险溢价成分,风险溢价成分的变动具有阶段性特点;宏观经济冲击在短期内对利率期限结构的整体水平与坡度均有明显影响,在长期内则仅对整体水平的影响较为明显。因此,我国利率期限结构可以体现出宏观经济形势的变化,应该进一步提高利率期限结构在货币政策制定中的作用。     

A dynamic Nelson-Siegel yield curve model with Markov switching

This paper proposes a model to better capture persistent regime changes in the interest rates of the US term structure. While the previous literature on this matter proposes that regime changes in the term structure are due to persistent changes in the conditional mean and volatility of interest rates we find that changes in a single parameter that determines the factor loadings of the model better captures regime changes. We show that this model gives superior in-sample forecasting performance as compared to a baseline model and a volatility-switching model. In general, we find compelling evidence that the extracted factors from our term structure models are closely related with various economic variables. Furthermore, we investigate and find evidence that the effects of macroeconomic phenomena such as monetary policy, inflation expectations, and real economic activity differ according to the particular regime realized for the term structure. In particular, we identify the periods where monetary policy appears to have a greater effect on the yield curve, and the periods where inflation expectations seem to have a greater effect in yield determination. We also find convincing evidence of a relationship between the regimes estimated by the various switching models with economic activity and monetary policy.     

Internal and external balance in a centrally planned economy

This paper presents a model of an open centrally planned economy. In a framework that allows disequilibrium and (informal) quantity rationing, we seek to represent both the effects of domestic macroeconomic processes on trade flows and the effects on domestic macro variables of foreign-sector phenomena. We investigate the adjustment of the system to exogenous shocks and the policy trade-offs facing the planners, using a diagrammatic apparatus analogous to the Swan and Mundell diagrams for an open developed market economy. The model is also intended to serve as a basis for specification of empirical models of the macroeconomic aspects of foreign trade in centrally planned economies.     

Monetary policy in a cash‐in‐advance economy: employment, capital accumulation, and the term structure of interest rates

Abstract.  In this paper we study the effects of monetary policies on employment, capital accumulation, consumption, and the term structure of interest rates in a cash‐in‐advance economy, where money is required for consumption expenditures. Monetary policy involves targeting the inflation rate. The detailed dynamics of the model are fully worked out. As no numerical analysis is involved, we are able to identify very clearly the different channels through which monetary policy will impinge on the important macroeconomic variables. The model is also used to discuss the 'Great Canadian Slump.' JEL Classification: E52 and E43     

2011-2012年中国宏观经济分析与预测——复苏放缓、风险上扬与结构刚性冲击下的中国宏观经济

本文通过全面总结2011年中国宏观经济的3大表现,利用中国人民大学宏观经济预测模型,指出2012年中国将面临外部经济放缓、内部房地产市场深度调整、泡沫经济逆转以及金融风险加剧的冲击,但在结构刚性的约束下,政府将全面转变政策定位,从而保证中国经济在加速回落中实现反弹,全年经济增长呈现“前低后缓”的模式.     

Utilizing financial market information in forecasting real growth,inflation and real exchange rate

In this paper we build an open economy extension of the Gordon (1962) valuation model that suggests a simple forecasting system for three macroeconomic variables; the real growth, inflation and real exchange rate. All the forecasting equations in our system utilize current financial market information in the form of dividend yields and short-term interest rate. Our empirical results indicate that these simple forms of financial market information are relevant for forecasting the time-varying underlying trends in the macroeconomic data for the U.K., Eurozone and Japan, when treating the U.S. as the world market.     

宏观经济波动与人民币汇率政策的影响因素分析

本文通过对当前新一轮宏观经济波动特征的分析,发现随着中国经济对外开放度的日益提高,汇率政策对宏观经济的运行已具有越来越重要的影响.目前中国国际收支顺差过大、外汇储备增长过快已成为加剧宏观经济过热的重要因素之一.通过调整名义汇率来解决顺差过大的思路受制于价格总水平调整幅度的局限,因为在影响我国商品和劳务的价格因素中,劳动力价格水平与发达国家相比悬殊过大既是影响商品价格水平的一个主导性因素又是一个长期性因素,在短期内不可能大幅度的缩小这一差距.由此,决定了目前不可能采取对人民币汇率水平大幅升值的办法来解决国际收支失衡和外汇储备过快增长的问题.解决人民币汇率的市场化形成机制和汇率水平向真实汇率回归问题是一项相对长期的政策选择,因而,短期的汇率政策只能以外汇储备的结构调整为主导.     

潜在变量、宏观变量与动态利率期限结构——基于DRA模型的实证分析

本文从金融-宏观经济学视角出发,运用DRA模型研究了潜在变量、宏观变量与利率期限结构之间的动态关系。通过脉冲响应函数分析了潜在变量与宏观变量之间的相互冲击效应的大小,以及潜在变量、宏观变量对收益率曲线冲击的影响,借助于方差分解量化了潜在变量、宏观变量冲击对收益率曲线预测误差的贡献率,并利用似然比检验,发现中国的收益率曲线与宏观变量之间存在双向的互动关系,但收益率曲线对未来宏观变量的影响更强。     

On modeling the agricultural sector in developing economies: An integrated approach of micro and macroeconomics

The paper introduces a theoretically consistent and empirically implementable method for the construction of general equilibrium models of the agricultural sector in a developing economy. The point of departure is the agricultural household, for which the microeconomic behavioral relations are formulated based on the assumption of utility and profit maximization. These relations are estimated from microeconomic data. In the second step the estimated microeconomic behavioral relations are aggregated across households into the macroeconomic behavioral relations, i.e., the supply and demand functions for the agricultural sector. Third, the linkage equations between the agricultural sector and the rest of the economy are specified on the basis of alternative assumptions on environmental and institutional characteristics and they are estimated from macroeconomic data. Finally, the macroeconomic behavioral relations and linkage equations are combined to provide a general equilibrium solution of the agricultural sector. The solution of the alternative equilibrium models can be used for comparative statics analysis of government policies and of changes in other exogenous variables. The illustrative application of the model is based on Indian data.     

Estimating the Fractional Order of Integration of Yields in the Brazilian Fixed Income Market

This paper presents evidence that yields on the Brazilian fixed income market are fractionally integrated, and compares the period before and after the implementation of the Inflation Targeting (IT) regime. The paper employs the commonly used GPH estimator and recently developed wavelets-based estimator of long memory. Empirical results suggest that interest rates are fractionally integrated and that interest rate spreads are fractionally integrated, with a higher order of integration in the period after the implementation of the IT regime. These results have important implications for the development of macroeconomic models for the Brazilian economy and for long-term forecasting. Furthermore, they imply that shocks to interest rates are long-lived .     

The effectiveness of fiscal policy in a keynesian-monetarist model of Canada

This paper presents a simple macroeconomic model that includes all of the main channels of transmission for fiscal policy and that can generate either Keynesian or monetarist results for the impact of fiscal policy depending on the values assumed for particular parameters. The structure of this model, called KEMO for KEynesian-MOnetarist, was kept very simple and schematic. The objective of this paper is to examine through simulations of the model the degree of sensitivity of the fiscal multiplier to certain hypotheses concerning the way the economy functions and the value of certain parameters, as well as the dynamic process of adjustment of the economy to a fiscal shock.