Market structure and competitive conditions in the Arab GCC banking system

This paper investigates the market structure of Arab GCC banking industry during the years of 1993–2002 using the most frequently applied measures of concentration k-bank concentration ratio (CRk) and Herfindahl–Hirschman Index (HHI) and evaluates the monopoly power of banks over the ten years period using the ‘H-statistic’ by Panzar and Rosse. The results show that Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and UAE have moderately concentrated markets and are moving to less concentrated positions. The measures of concentration also show that Qatar, Bahrain and Oman are highly concentrated markets. The Panzar–Rosse H-statistics suggest that banks in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the UAE operate under perfect competition; banks in Bahrain and Qatar operate under conditions of monopolistic competition; and we are unable to reject monopolistic competition for the banking market in Oman.     

Self-oriented monetary policy,global financial markets and excess volatility of international capital flows

This paper explores the nature of macroeconomic spillovers from advanced economies to emerging market economies (EMEs) and the consequences for independent use of monetary policy in EMEs. We first empirically document that a US contractionary monetary policy shock leads a retrenchment in EME capital flows, a fall in EME GDP, and an exchange rate depreciation. We construct a theoretical model that can help to account for these findings. In the model, macroeconomic spillovers may be exacerbated by financial frictions. Absent financial frictions, international spillovers are minor, and an inflation targeting rule represents an effective policy for the EME. With frictions in financial intermediation, however, spillovers are substantially magnified, and an inflation targeting rule has little advantage over an exchange rate peg. However, an optimal monetary policy markedly improves on the performance of naive inflation targeting or an exchange rate peg. Furthermore, optimal policies don't need to be coordinated across countries. A non-cooperative, self-oriented optimal policy gives results very similar to those of a global cooperative optimal policy.     

金融创新、基本普尔分析与我国货币政策中介目标选择

本文将金融创新因素纳入基本普尔分析之中,对货币政策中介目标选择问题进行了分析,并得出了两个基本结论:(1)在金融创新发展的初期,总需求冲击方差相对于货币需求冲击方差仍然较大,同时IS曲线相对LM曲线会变得更加陡峭,此时中央银行将优先选择货币供给量作为中介目标;(2)在金融创新的快速发展阶段,货币需求函数将变得极不稳定,以致于货币需求冲击远远超过总需求冲击时,无论IS曲线和LM曲线的斜率如何,选择利率充当中介目标将变得更加有吸引力。就我国而言,现阶段货币供给量作为中介目标还是较优的选择;长期来看,利率作为中介目标也会因金融创新而失效,一个可行的选择是通货膨胀目标制度。     

中国货币政策工具选择研究

本文在普勒规则研究的基础上进行适当扩展,对我国货币政策工具选择问题展开研究。通过研究本文发现:第一,货币政策工具的选择,与经济体所承受的冲击主要来自商品需求层面还是货币需求层面、货币需求主要来自商品市场还是货币市场以及总需求相对名义利率水平的弹性系数相关,而与社会福利损失函数中通货膨胀的厌恶系数、商品市场供给层面的诸变量(包括商品市场供给层面的冲击、商品供给曲线的斜率等)无关;第二,当经济体的所受冲击主要来自商品需求层面、市场货币需求主要来自商品市场、且货币政策对总需求的调节作用效果较小时,则货币当局采用数量型货币政策工具更有利于维护公众的社会福利;反之,则价格型货币政策操作更有利于维护公众的社会福利。     

Monetary policy for emerging market economies: beyond inflation targeting

Monetary policymakers normally seek to achieve multiple objectives: for prices as well as real economic activity, sometimes for the composition of real activity as well as the aggregate, and often for aspects of the economy's international balance. The fact that monetary policy has only one basic instrument to use therefore creates both complexity and tensions among these objectives. Although inflation targeting represents a way of imposing a logical consistency on monetary policy, in the presence of multiple policy objectives inflation targeting undermines policy transparency and therefore makes accountability more difficult too. Because of the limitation of monetary policy's having only one instrument, but multiple objectives, fiscal policy and prudential supervision and regulation of financial institutions are also important for enabling emerging market economies to achieve their macroeconomic aims.     

Currency crises and monetary policy: A study on advanced and emerging economies

The studies regarding the appropriate monetary policy response in defending the domestic currency following a currency crisis do not gather around a robust answer. This study tries to emphasize the notion that there is no single policy applicable for all currency crises happened and happening in the global world. The approach of the study is presenting empirical evidence by focusing separately on the advanced and emerging economies and proving that the monetary policy response for the emerging economies should be different from the advanced economies, depending mainly on the vulnerabilities of these economies preceding and during the crisis periods. The study includes twenty four economies, in which fifteen of them are emerging and nine of them are advanced, for the crisis periods between 1986 and 2009. The main finding of the study is that the tight monetary policy is effective in the advanced economies, and detrimental in the emerging economies faced financial turbulence. The monetary policy has no significance in recent crisis episodes both for advanced and emerging economies. Advanced economies besides having more independent central banking, lower country riskiness and almost no default history; mainly have second generation model weaknesses which cause the increased interest rates to be successful in stabilizing the exchange rates. For the emerging economies the third generation model weaknesses play a major role together with the first generation model vulnerabilities. Thus the major policy implication follows that the policy makers should take into account the economic fragilities during the crisis in implementing the monetary policy.     

四十年来中央银行的研究进展及中国的实践

改革开放四十年来,中国金融体系从无到有,发生了翻天覆地的变化,目前已基本建成了与中国特色社会主义市场经济相适应、具有活力和国际竞争力的现代金融体系。这四十年,现代货币经济学和全球中央银行政策实践也发生了深刻变革。作为全球最大的新兴发展加转轨经济体的中央银行,中国人民银行面临的现实约束条件更加复杂,央行的研究为推动中国金融体系发展和央行科学决策提供了可靠支撑,既与世界同步,也具有自己的鲜明特征。本文以世界经济十年左右的周期波动及与之相伴随的货币经济学理论进展和中央银行政策变迁为主线,总结了四十年来中央银行的研究进展和中国经验,旨在进一步推动中央银行的理论研究,更好地促进金融高质量发展。     

货币政策传导过程中的金融体系研究

金融体系在货币政策传导过程中起“中介”作用,货币渠道过程是通过金融市场从货币政策冲击到市场零售利率的价格传导过程,信贷渠道是通过商业银行从中央银行到商业银行的数量传导过程。完善我国金融体系有利于提高货币政策传导效果,同时也是市场经济体制改革的要求,我国中央银行实施货币政策时应该考虑区域金融差异的客观事实。     

金融创新对贷币供求的影响分析

上世纪70年代开始的金融创新对金融和经济产生了深刻的影响,尤其是新的金融工具的出现,对货币供给和需求产生了很大的影响,从而影响了央行的货币政策制定和实施效果。本文分析了金融创新对货币供给和需求可能产生的影响,对金融创新在我国开展后的货币政策制定具有借鉴意义。     

International spillovers of monetary policy: Lessons from Chile,Korea, and Poland

In this paper, we assess evidence on international monetary policy spillovers to domestic bank lending in Chile, Korea, and Poland, using confidential bank-level data and different measures of monetary policy shocks in relevant currency areas. These three emerging market economies are small and open, their banking systems do not have significant presence overseas, and they can be considered as price takers in the world economy. Such features allow for better identification of binding financial constraints and foreign monetary policy shocks. We find that the monetary policy shocks spill over into domestic bank lending, modifying the degree to which financial frictions tighten or relax, and this evidence is consistent with international bank lending and portfolio channels.     

The Role of Money in Monetary Policy at the Lower Bound

In light of the current low-interest-rate environment, we reconsider the merits of strict money growth targeting (MGT) relative to conventional inflation targeting (IT) and to price level targeting (PLT). We evaluate these policies in terms of social welfare through the lens of a New Keynesian model and accounting for a zero lower bound (ZLB) constraint on the nominal interest rate. Although MGT makes monetary policy vulnerable to money demand shocks, MGT contributes to achieving price level stationarity and significantly reduces the incidence and severity of the ZLB relative to both IT and PLT. Furthermore, MGT lessens the need for fiscal expansions to supplement monetary policy in fighting recessions.     

Monetary policy for small emerging market economies: the way forward

Discretionary monetary policy for small emerging market economies, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, can benefit from closer scrutiny and strengthening through appropriate and incremental policies. Field research and related analysis challenge the conventional wisdom on the relationship between interest rates and inflation. Lessons learned suggest that monetary policy needs to be tempered to prevailing social, cultural, and socio-economic factors. In addition, access to credit through financial inclusion policies and programmes needs to be addressed, and the overarching role of good governance cannot be overlooked. Given the broad scope of weaknesses inherent in monetary policy-making (and the systems that support it) in small emerging market economies such as Botswana's, two options are available to tackle the problems: either monetary union should be adopted or incremental new directions to the status quo are required.     

Is the dollar peg suitable for the largest economies of the Gulf Cooperation Council?

The slumping of the GCC currencies against other major currencies and the ensuing rising imported inflation have sparked an ongoing debate about the viability of the dollar peg. This paper extends and applies the contribution of Berger et al. (2001) to the largest economies of the GCC, namely Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE, by introducing a foreign inflation dimension. Empirical estimations suggest little or no evidence supporting the suitability of a fixed exchange rate regime in any of the three analyzed economies. It is this paper's contention that policy makers ought to play an immediate and active role in identifying a suitable more flexible exchange rate regime as well as an achievable timeline and road map to effectively abandoning the dollar peg.     

国际货币体系新架构:后金融危机时代的研究

本文旨在探讨金融危机之后国际货币体系的演变。我们首先分析国际金融危机爆发前世界经济发展基本格局,其特点包括新兴市场国家快速增长,国际贸易与全球化的飞速推进,以及全球金融深化、跨境资本流动金额迅速上升,这导致世界经济对具有普遍良好信用的国际货币的需求大大增加。与此密切相关的是危机爆发前国际货币体系的三大特点:(1)美元成为各国中央银行最为倚重的储备货币,事实上成为超级货币;(2)欧元的快速崛起;(3)美国货币政策以及美元货币条件对全球经济具有巨大影响力和冲击力。基于这些分析,我们论证,国际金融危机之后,现行国际货币体系难以为继,尤其是因为美元信用基础发生了根本性的动摇,其超级国际货币的地位必然丧失。我们认为金融危机后的国际货币体系有两种主要可能的演变方向,一是各国通力合作创造出超主权国际货币;二是欧元以及人民币不断崛起,与美元形成三足鼎立的多基准货币的新国际货币体系。我们论证,第二种可能性更大。我们建议,中国应长期倡导并参与国际货币体系的改革,积极参与IMF改革,以彰显中国作为一个崛起中的大国积极推动国际合作的风范;但是,由于各种国际政治力量的干扰,我们必须做好第二种情形的准备,人民币国际化是我们最为现实和有效...     

论双支柱政策调控

货币政策的理论脉络是基于需求不足。凯恩斯学派与弗里德曼的思维逻辑差别是利率主要直接由什么决定,利率的作用会被什么因素抵消。货币政策的当代实践值得关注的问题:一是作用的对象、范围、力度、效应;二是西方货币政策传导理论的新进展;三是中国货币政策怎样传导;四是要关注货币政策作用的差别。货币政策调控的中国创造即社会融资规模。结合中国实际,中国系统性的金融风险主要是金融机构大面积的不健康;2015年中国股灾,是系统性金融风险的集中表现;要认知在中国特色社会主义制度下,金融风险和金融周期形成的特殊机制;对怎样衡量适度货币供给进行分析。     

Monetary policy and stock prices – Cross-country evidence from cointegrated VAR models

This study applies the Cointegrated Vector-Autoregressive (CVAR) model to analyze the long-run relationships and short-run dynamics between stock markets and monetary policy across five developed and three emerging economies. Our main aim is to check whether monetary policy plays an important role for stock market developments. As an innovation, monetary policy enters the analysis from three angles: in the form of a broad monetary aggregate, short-term interest rates and net capital flows. Based on this framework, we analyze whether central banks are able to influence stock market developments. Our findings suggest different patterns and causalities for emerging and industrial economies with the stock markets of the former economies more frequently related to monetary aggregates and capital flows. A direct long-run impact from short-term interest rates on stock prices is only observed for 3 out of 8 economies.     

Macro-financial implications of central bank digital currencies

The considerable deployment of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) is imminent, as its interest has attracted the whole world. However, CBDCs faces several political, technological, and legal challenges. We add a few more challenges that have not received much attention and summarize them in the extant literature. We then emphasize a broad version of money to examine its likely impact on financial stability. Moreover, using time series data of three leading economies and replying to past episodes’ evidence of financial innovation, the historical behaviour to incorporate the impact of CBDCs, and the velocity of circulation, we scrutinize the hypothetical influence of CBDCs on financial stability and inflation. This study employs McCallum’s policy rule based on money growth, which deals with monetary policy. Our simulations indicate that the CBDCs do not produce higher inflation while setting financial stability at risk. This study also suggests the necessary policy implications.     

Managing price and financial stability objectives in inflation targeting economies in Asia and the Pacific

Many central banks have adopted explicit objectives for financial stability, raising the possibility of trade-offs between price and financial stability objectives. Based on structural vector autoregressions that incorporate both monetary and macroprudential policy shocks for four inflation targeting economies in Asia and the Pacific, we analyse the role of each policy shock in explaining deviations from the other policy’s objective, by applying historical decompositions. The macroprudential measures used in the study affect credit extended to the private sector. We find that there are periods when macroprudential policy shocks have contributed to pushing inflation away from the central bank’s inflation target and when monetary policy shocks have contributed to buoyant credit, suggesting that there have been short-term trade-offs between price and financial stability objectives. However, we also find periods when macroprudential policy shocks helped stabilise inflation and monetary policy shocks contributed to financial stability.     

Butterfly effect: The US real estate market downturn and the Asian recession

We construct a comprehensive measure for the evolution of the US financial crisis by extracting the common components in the real estate market (S&P Case-Shiller composite-10 housing price index), the equity market (S&P 500 index), and the money market (M2 money multiplier). We then investigate the effects of this crisis on six Asian economies. Using the quarterly data from Q1 1991 to Q1 2010, we find that, surprisingly, the Asian equity markets are not contagious by the crisis; rather, trade contagion is the dominant transmission channel for the crisis to be transmitted to Asia. Finally, our empirical investigations suggest that monetary policy, rather fiscal policy, is a better choice for assisting Asian economies during this crisis.     

Money and macroeconomic performance: revisiting divisia money

Recent research suggests that the relation between money and the macroeconomy has sharply weakened in the U.S. after 1980. We reexamine this alleged breakdown by testing for cointegration between the macroeconomy and simple-sum and Divisia monetary aggregates. We check the robustness of our results by modeling multiple key breakpoints around the early 1980s. Unlike the case of simple-sum monetary aggregates, the evidence is overwhelming in its support for cointegration between Divisia money and macroeconomic variables, which persists despite several policy shifts and dramatic financial innovations in the post-1980 period. These results support Divisia money over simple-sum monetary aggregates as a guide in the implementation of monetary policy.