Unconventional monetary policy announcements and information shocks in the U.S.

We study unconventional policy shocks and information shocks associated with central bank announcements in the U.S. While unconventional policy shocks capture the direct influence of announced monetary policy actions, information shocks are associated with central bank information conveyed with the announcement. To disentangle these two types of shocks, we impose sign restrictions on high frequency changes in interest rates and stock prices around announcements. We find that information shocks lead to persistent declines in the 10-year government bond yield, whereas the actual unconventional policy shock induces only small interest rate responses. We also find that expansionary output effects of unconventional monetary policy are to some extent counteracted by the information shock.     

HOW DID UNCONVENTIONAL MONETARY POLICY AFFECT ECONOMIC FORECASTS?

We study how unconventional monetary policy announcements affected professional forecasters' predictions of bond rates, gross domestic product growth and inflation using data from the monthly survey by the Wall Street Journal. We find that unconventional monetary policy (UMP) announcements moved predicted bond rates in the direction the Fed intended. UMP announcements had differential impacts on forecasters' predictions; they also tended to move growth and inflation predictions in directions opposite those the Fed intended due to Fed information effects. A policy implication of our study is that the Fed should communicate economic projections to the public separately from monetary policy announcements to mitigate Fed information effects. (JEL E52, E58)     

Unconventional monetary policy and the dollar–euro exchange rate: first results from time-series analysis

This article examines the impact on the US dollar–euro (USD–EUR) exchange rate of the unconventional monetary policy conducted by the US Federal Reserve (Fed) and the European Central Bank (ECB). To that end, we make use of time-series analysis to obtain a reasonable long-run and short run representation of the data generation process and use dummy variables to study how announcements about monetary policy changes can affect the USD–EUR exchange rate. Our results indicate that the announcement and subsequent implementation of such measures by the ECB would have caused an appreciation of the dollar, while those by the Fed would have caused a depreciation of the dollar.     

Reactions of real yields and inflation expectations to forward guidance in the United States

We study the impact of forward policy rate guidance by the Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) used as an unconventional monetary policy tool at the zero lower bound of the policy rate on real and breakeven US Treasury yield curves. We find that explicit FOMC policy rate guidance announcements led to a significant reduction in real yields at horizons of 2 to 5 years ahead. By contrast, long-term breakeven inflation rates were little affected, suggesting that inflation expectations have remained well anchored, and that explicit FOMC policy rate guidance has not adversely affected central bank credibility.     

The High‐Frequency Responses of Australian Financial Futures to Unexpected Cash Rate Announcements*

This study examines the high‐frequency responses of Australian financial futures to monetary surprises using intra‐day futures data. Using the event window method with tick data to control for the endogeneity between market interest rates and the cash rate, our empirical findings support the following. First, monetary policy announcements significantly impact not only short‐term interest rate futures but also longer‐term treasury security future markets. Second, the most significant responses of these markets occur in the event window that contains the policy announcement. Third, we also find that the monetary policy is not well anticipated by market participants until the Reserve Bank of Australia’s policy release.     

Shadow short rate and monetary policy in the Euro area

Empirical modelling of the monetary policy effects using conventional linear econometric models is put to a great test when interest rates approach the zero-lower bound. A possible remedy recently proposed in the literature is to introduce a shadow short rate (SSR) obtained from the yield curve model as an alternative monetary policy measure. This paper examines the usefulness of shadow rates as a policy stance measure for the Euro area. Moreover, the SSR can be used to study the country-specific monetary policy stance. We incorporate the shadow short rate in a standard vector autoregressive analysis to study the effects of monetary policy shocks both at the level of the Euro area and for two periphery EA countries, Italy and Spain, that endured significant financial stress during the crisis. Our analysis shows that monetary policy shocks identified form the SSR produce similar macro responses as shocks identified from the standard policy rate. The Euro area shocks can directly translate to a corresponding change in the country-specific financing conditions in the periphery, whereas the reverse effect is limited. The historical decomposition of the stochastic component of the SSR series shows that the unconventional policy measures were effective in stabilising the sovereign crisis in 2011, however, their relatively limited quantity provided only a weak stimulus to the economy.     

我国货币政策有效性及其与股票市场的交互影响*——基于SVAR模型的实证研究

本文构建以货币政策变量、股票价格变量和宏观经济变量为基础且同时施加有短期和长期约束的结构向量自回归（SVAR）模型,将货币政策与股票市场的当期关系纳入分析,利用1997—2015年的数据,实证检验了我国货币政策和股票市场间的交互作用及其对宏观经济的影响。实证结果表明,现阶段我国货币政策冲击对股票市场没有显著影响,但股票价格冲击在2005年人民币汇率制度改革之后对我国的产出、M2供应及通货膨胀影响的显著性均明显提升。     

Identifying the Interdependence Between Monetary Policy and Financial Stress: Evidence from China

We estimate the interdependence between Chinese monetary policy and financial stress using structural vector autoregression. To solve the simultaneity problem, we employ a strategy including both short‐run and long‐run restrictions that maintains the qualitative properties of monetary policy shocks derived from the literature. This method is applied to Chinese monthly data, together with a newly constructed index of financial stress in this paper. Our findings suggest there exists strong interdependence between monetary policy and financial stress. The financial stress index increases immediately by 0.4 of its standard deviation after a monetary policy shock that raises the M2 growth rate by 1 percentage point. An increase of financial stress by one standard deviation leads to a decline in the M2 growth rate by 2 percentage points.     

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.     

The impact of the ECB's conventional and unconventional monetary policies on stock markets

Using an event study method, we examine how stock markets respond to the policies of the European Central Bank during 1999–2015. We use market prices of futures (government bonds) to identify surprises in (un)conventional monetary policy. Our results suggest that especially unconventional monetary policy surprises affect the EURO STOXX 50 index. We also find evidence for the credit channel, notably for unconventional monetary policy surprises. Our results also suggest that value and past loser stocks show a larger reaction to monetary policy surprises. These results are confirmed if identification of monetary policy surprises is based on the Rigobon–Sack heteroscedasticity approach.     

Exchange rates,central bank news and the zero lower bound*

The zero lower bound (ZLB) may restrict the responsiveness of exchange rates to news. A proxy for central bank communication is added as a determinant in a model of exchange rate movements. Two reserve currencies, the British pound and euro, and two currencies of small open economies, the Canadian dollar and Swedish krona, are examined. Reserve currencies are more vulnerable to the ZLB constraint, while the currencies of small open economies become more responsive to foreign central bank announcements. Certain unconventional monetary policy announcements were found to significantly impact exchange rates at the ZLB.     

The Sovereign Yield Curve and the Macroeconomy in China

A dynamic Nelson–Siegel model is adopted to estimate three time‐varying factors of yield curves, the level, the slope and the curvature, and a vector autoregressive model is built to study interactions between macro variables and the yield curve. Results show that, first, money supply growth is a more effective instrument to curb inflation than the monetary policy interest rate; however, the central bank also adjusts the interest rate to stabilize money supply. Second, investment is an important measure to stimulate the Chinese economy, but it also pushes up money supply growth, which results in higher inflation. Third, the yield curve reacts significantly to innovations to investment growth and money supply growth. The segmentation of China's bond market hinders the efficient implementation of monetary policy, and the monetary policy transmission mechanism is still weak in China. Finally, interactions between the yield curve and the macroeconomy in China are nearly unidirectional. Macroeconomic variables reshape the yield curve, but direct adjustments of the yield curve do not significantly change macroeconomic variables. Due to the incomplete liberalization of financial markets, there exists a wide disjunction between the real economy and financial markets in China.     

Tipping the scale? The workings of monetary policy through trade

The monetary policy entails demand‐augmenting and diverting effects, and its impact on the trade balance—and on other countries—depends on the magnitude of these opposing effects. Using U.S. data and a sign‐restricted structural vector autoregressive identification, we investigate the importance of these effects. Overall, the results indicate that a monetary loosening (tightening) leads to a strengthening (weakening) of the overall trade balance, indicating that demand diversion dominates. The paper also explores changes in the effects following the global financial crisis, reflecting the impaired monetary transmission mechanism.     

LIQUIDITY,MONETARY POLICY,AND UNEMPLOYMENT: A NEW MONETARIST APPROACH

We discover a consumption channel of monetary policy in a model with money and government bonds. When the central bank withdraws government bonds (short‐term or long‐term) through open market operations, it lowers returns on bonds. The lower return has a direct negative impact on consumption by households that hold bonds and an indirect negative impact on consumption by households that hold money. As a result, firms earn less profits from production, which leads to higher unemployment. The existence of such a consumption channel can help us understand the effects of unconventional monetary policy.     

Announcements credibility and government securities: evidence from Colombia

This article evaluates the effect of central bank announcements on government securities yields in emerging economy. In particular, based on the Colombian experience, we present empirical evidence to address the effect of credibility scenario in which the central bank announcements are made. The findings denote that credibility performance must be taken into account to verify the impact of monetary policy announcements.     

The Impact of Monetary Surprises on Australian Financial Futures Markets: An Insight into Cash Rate Target Announcements

This paper investigates the impact of unanticipated Australian monetary policy changes on AUD/USD exchange rate futures, and 3‐year and 10‐year Australian Treasury bond futures, during the period from January 1997 to April 2010. Our study contributes to the literature by using both the 30‐day and the 90‐day bank accepted bill (BAB) rates to disentangle the unexpected surprise component of monetary policy changes from overall cash rate target changes in the Australian money market, and by concurrently modelling the effects of monetary surprises and other key macroeconomic announcements in Australia. The empirical results suggest that the 30‐day BAB rate is the best proxy for the expected monetary policy actions. We find that the effect of monetary surprises on the volatility of the 3‐ and 10‐year bond future instruments is significant and persistent. We have also documented a strong monetary policy effect on the mean returns of the exchange rate futures, indicating that unexpected monetary policy adjustments have a significant impact on the level of the exchange rate movements rather than on the volatility of the FX futures market.     

THE DISTRIBUTION OF MONEY BALANCES AND THE NONNEUTRALITY OF MONEY*

Recent monetary models with explicit microfoundations are made tractable by assuming that agents have access to centralized markets after one round of decentralized trade. Given quasi‐linear preferences, this makes the distribution of money degenerate—which keeps the models simple but precludes the discussion of distributional effects of monetary policy. We generalize these models by assuming two rounds of trade before agents can readjust their money holdings to study a range of new distributional effects analytically. We show that unexpected, symmetric lump‐sum money injections may increase short‐run output and welfare, whereas asymmetric injections may increase long‐run output and welfare.     

The effectiveness of monetary policy and output fluctuations: An asymmetric analysis

Previous studies have investigated asymmetries in the effects of monetary policy on the real economic activity by using either vector autoregressive (VAR)-based regime-switching models with smooth transition technique or Gaussian functions to parameterise the dynamic effects of structural shocks on the economy. These kinds of VAR models assume asymmetry as a short-run relationship between the series since the long-run neutrality hypothesis of money states that monetary policy can only affect productive capacity of the economy in the short run, but not in the long run. The recent theoretical literature shows that this hypothesis is not quite right. Thus, this paper examines the extent to which monetary policy has a long-run asymmetric effect on output in a number of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries by using a nonlinear hidden cointegration analysis within a likelihood-based panel framework. The findings indicate that there is a long-run relationship between the real interest rate as an indicator of monetary policy and the growth rate of real output in five countries out of nine under review. This gives support for the view that output has responded asymmetrically to the real interest rate changes. The economic implication of our results is that monetary policy affects positive and negative output fluctuations differently.     

Predicting Canadian recessions using dynamic probit modelling approaches

Abstract This paper examines the ability of various financial and macroeconomic variables to forecast Canadian recessions. It evaluates four model specifications, including the advanced dynamic, autoregressive, dynamic autoregressive probit models as well as the conventional static probit model. The empirical results highlight several significant recession predictors, notably the government bond yield spread, growth rates of the housing starts, the real money supply and the composite index of leading indicators. Both the in‐sample and out‐of‐sample results suggest that the forecasting performance of the four probit models is mixed. The dynamic and dynamic autoregressive probit models are better in predicting the duration of recessions while the static and autoregressive probit models are better in forecasting the peaks of business cycles. Hence, the advanced dynamic models and the conventional static probit model can complement one another to provide more accurate forecasts for the duration and turning points of business cycles.     

The impact of fiscal policy announcements by the Italian government on the sovereign spread: A comparative analysis

This paper attempts to evaluate the impact of fiscal policy announcements by the Italian government on the long-term sovereign bond spread of Italy relative to Germany. After collecting data on relevant fiscal policy announcements, we perform an econometric comparative analysis between the three administrations that followed one another during the period 2009–2013. The results indicate that only fiscal policy announcements made by members of Monti's cabinet had a significant impact on the Italian spread. We argue that these findings may be partly explained by a credibility gap between Monti's technocratic administration and Berlusconi's and Letta's governments.