Risk,uncertainty and monetary policy

The VIX, the stock market option-based implied volatility, strongly co-moves with measures of the monetary policy stance. When decomposing the VIX into two components, a proxy for risk aversion and expected stock market volatility (“uncertainty”), we find that a lax monetary policy decreases both risk aversion and uncertainty, with the former effect being stronger. The result holds in a structural vector autoregressive framework, controlling for business cycle movements and using a variety of identification schemes for the vector autoregression in general and monetary policy shocks in particular. The effect of monetary policy on risk aversion is also apparent in regressions using high frequency data.     

Dynamic and asymmetric impacts of macroeconomic fundamentals on an integrated stock market

A large body of evidence indicates that macroeconomic and financial variables are dynamically interrelated. In an international setup, we analyze the transmission mechanisms of macroeconomic shocks on the stock market of a small open economy in an increasingly integrated world. We use a time-varying vector error correction model (VECM) that allows analysis of asymmetric impacts that depend on the state of the business cycle. A special focus is directed on monetary policy surprises, where we find that foreign shocks exert a strong influence on an integrated stock market, and that the stage of the business cycle heavily affects the signals of the shocks.     

Macroeconomic news, announcements, and stock market jump intensity dynamics

This paper examines the effect of macroeconomic releases on stock market volatility through a Poisson-Gaussian-GARCH process with time-varying jump intensity, which is allowed to respond to such information. The day of the announcement, per se, is found to have little impact on jump intensities. Employment releases are an exception. However, when macroeconomic surprises are considered, inflation shocks show persistent effects while monetary policy and employment shocks reveal only short-lived effects. Also, the jump intensity responds asymmetrically to macroeconomic shocks. Evidence on macroeconomic variables relevance in explaining jump dynamics and improving volatility forecasts on event days is provided.     

The Impact of Monetary and Fiscal Policy Shocks on Stock Markets: Evidence from China

We study the impact of Chinese monetary and fiscal policy shocks and the interaction of the two policies on stock markets. We find that, first, when we focus on the contemporaneous correlation, Chinese fiscal policy has significant, negative contemporaneous relationships with stock market performance, while monetary policy’s impact on stock market performance varies, depending on the fiscal policy. Second, with respect to the lagged variables, Chinese monetary and fiscal policy both have a significant and direct positive effect on stock market performance. Meanwhile, interaction between the two policies plays an extremely important role in explaining the development of stock markets.     

Monetary policy and stock valuation: structural VAR identification and size effects

This paper examines the relationship between the US monetary policy and stock valuation using a structural VAR framework that allows for the simultaneous interaction between the federal funds rate and stock market developments based on the assumption of long-run monetary neutrality. The results confirm a strong, negative and significant monetary policy tightening effect on real stock prices. Furthermore, we provide evidence consistent with a delayed response of small stocks to monetary policy shocks relative to large stocks.     

中国货币政策对股票市场影响的再考察

本文运用DAG方法、VAR模型和马尔科夫转换模型考察了货币政策对股市价格水平的影响,结果表明中短期内货币政策对股票市场价格水平存在影响显著,并表现出较强的非对称效应。股市低迷期的紧缩性货币政策会进一步降低股市收益率,减小股市从熊市转入牛市的概率;相反,股市繁荣期的紧缩性货币政策将增加股市从牛市转入熊市的概率。     

Monetary policy,exchange rates and stock prices in the Middle East region

A structural vector autoregressive model is employed to investigate the impact of monetary policy and real exchange rate shocks on the stock market performance of Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan. In order to identify the structural shocks both short run and long run restrictions are applied. Unlike previous literature the contemporaneous interdependence between the financial variables is left unrestricted to give a more accurate depiction of the relationships. The heterogeneity of the results reflects the different monetary policy frameworks and stock market characteristics of these countries. Mainly, monetary policy and the real exchange rate shocks have a significant short run impact on the stock prices of the countries that apply a relatively more independent monetary policy and flexible exchange rates.     

Dynamic interdependencies among the housing market,stock market,policy uncertainty and the macroeconomy in the United Kingdom

In this study, we examine the dynamic interdependencies among the housing market, stock market, policy uncertainty and the macroeconomy in the United Kingdom, over the period 1997 M1–2015 M02. The findings of this study suggest the following empirical regularities. First, the transmission of various types of shocks contributes significantly to economic fluctuations in the United Kingdom. Second, spillovers show large variations over time. Third, in the wake of the global financial crisis, spillovers have reached unprecedented levels. Specifically, we find large spillovers of shocks from the housing market, stock market and economic policy uncertainty to inflation, economic growth and monetary policy stance. These results illustrate the contagion from the housing and financial crisis to the real economy and the policy reaction to stabilize the economy.     

Monetary policy and stock returns: Financing constraints and asymmetries in bull and bear markets

We examine asymmetries in the impact of monetary policy surprises on stock returns between bull and bear markets in the period 1994 to 2005. We ask how these impacts respond to the relative ability of firms to obtain external finance. We find that the impact of a surprise monetary policy in a bear market is large, negative, and statistically significant, and this holds across size decile portfolios. The impact of a surprise policy action in a bear market for most industries is significantly greater than the impact of surprise monetary policy in a bull market. Controlling for the capacity for external finance, stock returns of firms in bear states respond more than firms in bull states. Capacity for external finance is more important in a bear market, as it partially mitigates the larger impact of monetary policy in a bear market.     

Simultaneous monetary policy announcements and international stock markets response: An intraday analysis

This paper investigates the return and volatility response of major European and US equity indices to monetary policy surprises by utilizing extensive intraday data on 5-min price quotes along with a comprehensive dataset on monetary policy decisions and macroeconomic news announcements. The results indicate that the monetary policy decisions generally exert immediate and significant influence on stock index returns and volatilities in both European and the US markets. The findings also show that press conferences held by the European Central Bank (ECB) that follow monetary policy decisions on the same day have a clear impact on European index return volatilities. This implies that they convey additional important information to market participants. Overall, our analysis suggests that the use of high frequency data is critical to separate the effect of monetary policy actions from those of macroeconomic news announcements on stock index returns and volatilities.     

Sources of Fluctuations in Islamic,U.S., EU,and Asia Equity Markets: The Roles of Economic Uncertainty,Interest Rates,and Stock Indexes

This article analyzes the economic and financial sources of fluctuations among the U.S. federal funds rates, the U.S. economic policy uncertainty, and the indices of the U.S., European, Asian, and Islamic stock markets. The impulse response analysis shows that the U.S. economic policy uncertainty shocks have significant and negative effects unanimously on the U.S., European, Asian, and Islamic stock markets. A contractionary monetary policy shock, in terms of a higher federal funds rate, has also a statistically significant and negative effect on all of the stock markets. The variance decomposition results indicate that the Islamic stock index is mainly affected by the U.S. stock index shock, thus negating its dichotomy hypothesis. The U.S. economic uncertainty shock explains an important portion of fluctuations for all four stock indices. The degree of synchronization between the EU stock market and other markets has weakened after the U.S. financial crisis.     

The impact of monetary policy shocks on stock prices: Evidence from Canada and the United States

Using structural VAR models with short-run restrictions appropriate for Canada and the United States, we empirically examine whether trade and financial market openness matter for the impact on and transmission to stock prices of monetary policy shocks. We find that, in Canada, the immediate response of stock prices to a domestic contractionary monetary policy shock is small and the dynamic response is brief, whereas in the United States, the immediate response of stock prices to a similar shock is relatively large and the dynamic response is relatively prolonged. We find that these differences are largely driven by differences in financial market openness and hence different dynamic responses of monetary policy shocks between the two countries that we model in this paper.     

Empirical investigation of changes in policy uncertainty on stock returns—Evidence from China’s market

This study finds evidence that a rise in economic policy uncertainty (EPU) leads to a decline in stock returns in Chinese market; however, a positive coefficient was observed in the lagged EPU as stock prices rebound. This phenomenon also holds true for a rise in uncertainty innovations in fiscal policy, monetary policy, trade policy and global policy. The evidence leads to conclude that policy uncertainty premiums should be priced into China’s stock prices. An escalation of U.S. policy uncertainty has a significantly harmful effect on Chinese stocks regardless of whether firms are stated own or listed on U.S. market.     

Macroeconomic cycles and the stock market’s reaction to monetary policy

This paper examines cyclical variation in the effect of Fed policy on the stock market. We find a much stronger response of stock returns to unexpected changes in the federal funds target rate in recession and in tight credit market conditions. Using firm-level data, we also show that firms that face financial constraints are more affected by monetary shocks in tight credit conditions than the relatively unconstrained firms. Overall, the results are consistent with the credit channel of monetary policy transmission.     

Financial and monetary policy responses to oil price shocks: evidence from oil-importing and oil-exporting countries

In this study, we investigate the financial and monetary policy responses to oil price shocks using a Structural VAR framework. We distinguish between net oil-importing and net oil-exporting countries. Since the 80s, a significant number of empirical studies have been published investigating the effect of oil prices on macroeconomic and financial variables. Most of these studies though, do not make a distinction between oil-importing and oil-exporting economies. Overall, our results indicate that the level of inflation in both net oil-exporting and net oil-importing countries is significantly affected by oil price innovations. Furthermore, we find that the response of interest rates to an oil price shock depends heavily on the monetary policy regime of each country. Finally, stock markets operating in net oil-importing countries exhibit a negative response to increased oil prices. The reverse is true for the stock market of the net oil-exporting countries. We find evidence that the magnitude of stock market responses to oil price shocks is higher for the newly established and/or less liquid stock markets.     

Real Activity, Inflation, Stock Returns, and Monetary Policy

We find that contractionary monetary policy shocks generate statistically significant movements in inflation and expected real stock returns, and that these movements go in opposite directions. Since positive shocks to output precipitate monetary tightening, we argue that the countercyclical monetary policy process is important in explaining the negative correlation between inflation and stock returns. Examining the 1979–1982 period, we find that monetary policy tightens significantly in response to positive shocks to inflation, and that the impact of monetary policy shocks on stock returns is negative and volatile. Therefore, we see evidence that an “anticipated policy” hypothesis is at work.     

Do foreign investors insulate firms from local shocks? Evidence from the response of investable firms to monetary policy

Extant research shows that stock returns of investable firms are highly sensitive to foreign market and global information shocks, suggesting that having foreign investors might insulate investable firms from shocks to local fundamentals. Examining 24 emerging markets, we find that both investable and non-investable firms are sensitive to local monetary policy shocks. This allays the concern that emerging-market opening reduces the efficacy of local monetary policy. We also find that in 11 countries (46% of our country-sample), investable firms are more sensitive to local shocks than non-investable firms. Differences in leverage, stock liquidity, size, domestic product-market exposure, or industry cyclicality do not drive this finding.     

THE INTERACTION OF MONETARY POLICY AND STOCK RETURNS

The “irrational exuberance” of the stock market in the late 1990s led to a discussion of the appropriate policy response by monetary authorities. Any response would be contingent on the stock market reaction to policy shocks. In this study, I employ a structural vector autoregression to estimate the response of the stock market returns to innovations in the federal funds rate. The role of the stock market in the Federal Reserve policy rule can also be examined empirically.     

The impact of monetary policy surprises on asset return volatility: the case of Germany

This paper investigates the impact of monetary policy surprises by the FED or Bundesbank/ECB on the return volatility of German stocks and bonds using a GARCH-M model. We show that stock return volatility is susceptible to monetary policy surprises in the United States, whereas monetary policy surprises in the Euro zone matter for bond return volatility. These findings are robust for other Euro zone stock markets, but not significant for other Euro zone bond markets. The empirical evidence also suggests that monetary policy surprises have larger effects on German stock return volatility in bear markets than in bull phases. Moreover, our results support the claim that stock return volatility can be negatively correlated with stock returns, contradicting predictions made by many asset pricing models (e.g., CAPM or ICAPM) and the empirical finding of an insignificant relationship often reported in the literature.

不同的政策不确定性对股市波动影响相同吗?

本文基于多因子混频波动率模型,研究经济政策不确定性对股市行业波动的影响,为预防出现结构性断点,将样本分为经济增长和经济平稳两个时期,分别探讨两个时期内经济政策不确定性对股市波动的影响。研究发现,在全样本时期货币政策不确定性会显著增强行业波动,贸易和外汇政策不确定性会抑制行业波动,而财政政策不确定性的影响存在行业差异性;子样本结果显示,贸易政策不确定性对行业波动的影响存在非对称性,在经济增长期存在助推作用,在经济平稳期存在抑制作用;同时行业波动在经济增长期对贸易政策反应敏感,在经济平稳期对财政政策反应敏感。