Money demand and monetary policy in Europe

Money Demand and Monetary Policy in Europe.—The European Central Bank will soon have to decide on her monetary strategy. This paper discusses properties of money demand functions and implications for monetary policy in a monetary targeting regime. Special attention is paid to different concepts of stability of money demand, to the length and variability of adjustment lags, and to the controllability of the money stock. At the European level, stable money demand functions are identified for M1 and M3. However, M3 appears to be less controllable than M1. Long and variable adjustment lags in the demand for M3 weaken the case for broad money as a monetary target. JEL no. E41, E52     

利率平滑化与产出、物价波动——一个基于泰勒规则的研究

以我国的货币政策数据对泰勒规则及其扩展模型进行实证检验和验证泰勒规则在我国的适用性。在此基础上,运用泰勒规则对我国现行利率政策进行研究。发现我国的利率调节存在着小心试错,力求平滑化的操作倾向,利率调节幅度总体上小于泰勒规则值,因此在实现宏观经济稳定上力度不足。这在一定程度上导致了我国宏观经济政策当局在面临重大宏观调控需要时,更多地运用数量控制的货币政策手段,而非利率政策,这种做法一方面阻滞了经济体制转轨进程,另一方面也增加了宏观调控的政策成本。加强对利率政策工具的理论研究,使利率更好地针对通货膨胀和产出变化做出调整,对于提高我国的宏观调控质量具有重要意义。     

物价稳定目标下我国货币政策外部时滞的实证分析

货币政策的时滞性对其有效性具有重要影响作用,对货币政策时滞测算具有重要的政策参考价值。本文采用向量自回归的脉冲响应函数和预测方差分解技术对2001年1月至2009年8月间我国货币政策的物价效应时滞进行估计,研究发现:狭义货币供应量M1对CPI的作用时滞为2个月,短期贷款规模SLOAN对CPI的作用时滞为4个月,中长期贷款规模LLOAN对CPI的作用时滞为5个月。在此基础上,对样本区间内我国货币政策的出台时机进行分析。     

Interest Rates, Leverage, and Money

The current mainstream approach to monetary policy is based on the New Keynesian model and is expressed in terms of a short-term nominal interest, such as the federal funds rate in the United States. It ignores the role of leverage and also downplays the role of money in basic monetary theory and monetary policy analysis. But as the federal funds rate has reached the zero lower bound and the Federal Reserve is in a liquidity trap, the issue is whether there is a useful role of leverage and monetary aggregates in monetary policy and business cycle analysis. We address these issues and argue that there is a need for financial stability policies to manage the leverage cycle and reduce the procyclicality of the financial system. We also argue that in the aftermath of the global financial crisis and Great Contraction there is a need to get away from the New Keynesian thinking and back toward a quantity theory approach to monetary policy, based on properly measured monetary aggregates, such as the new Center for Financial Stability Divisia monetary aggregates.     

Liquidity,Transaction Costs,and Real Activity

This paper studies the liquidity effect in a pecuniary transaction-cost model. To model the asymmetric impact of monetary injections, we consider two behavioral assumptions: sluggish money demand and sluggish firm investment. It is found that, under reasonable parameterization, the model is capable of generating a dominant liquidity effect. Our result suggests that, with alternative monetary specifications and behavioral assumptions, general equilibrium models are still useful for studying the liquidity effect at business cycle frequencies.     

Monetary Union,Trade Integration,and Business Cycles in 19th Century Europe

This paper studies the impact of monetary arrangements on trade integration and business cycle correlation in late 19th century Europe. We estimate a gravity model and show that tighter monetary integration was associated with substantially higher trade, as in recent studies using contemporary data. For instance, the Austro-Hungarian monetary union improved trade between member states by a factor of 3. To explain this, we build and estimate a simple model where greater monetary integration weakens the current account constraint by fostering business cycle co-movements.     

International monetary transmission in East Asia: Floaters,non-floaters,and capital controls

This paper analyzes the impacts of the United States (US) monetary shocks on East Asian countries using structural vector-autoregression (VAR) model. We find that the impacts of the US monetary shocks on East Asian domestic interest rates and exchange rates contradict conventional wisdom. The conventional exchange rate channel is unlikely to play much role in the transmission of the US monetary policy shocks to floaters in East Asian countries, excluding Japan. In these countries, the domestic interest rates respond strongly to the US interest rate changes, by giving up monetary autonomy, probably because of fear of floating. However, the domestic interest rate does not respond much in countries with fixed exchange rate regimes and capital account restrictions, such as China and Malaysia. This may suggest that the countries with fixed exchange rate regimes enjoy a higher degree of monetary autonomy, most likely with the help of capital account restrictions.     

Nominal Wage Contracts, Adjustment Costs and Real Persistence of Monetary Shocks

This paper describes a model in which monetary shocks have persistent real effects. Starting from the limited participation model of Christiano (1991) with capital adjustment costs as suggested by Dow (1995) it is confirmed that costs of equipment installation and restrictions on consumer portfolio choices alone cannot account for the observed effects of monetary policy. However, after introducing nominal wage contracts as a third friction, the model generates real effects of monetary shocks. It is shown that these real effects are highly persistent for a realistic size of adjustment costs and strongly autocorrelated money growth shocks which are typical for Europe.     

地方财政搭便车、财政货币承诺与地方债务治理

本文通过一个简单的理论模型说明了地方政府财政搭便车、中央银行货币政策承诺、中央政府财政政策承诺以及中央政府财政统筹协调之间的关系。研究发现,中央银行的货币承诺或中央政府的财政政策承诺对于降低地方政府的财政搭便车动机至关重要。虽然中央政府的财政统筹协调可以获得与中央银行货币政策承诺或中央政府财政政策承诺相同的结果,但其具体实施存在诸多困难。在此基础上,本文提出地方政府债务治理的政策设想和可行方法。     

THE INTERTEMPORAL RELATION BETWEEN MONEY AND PRICES IN SOUTH AFRICA*

Several studies have emphasized the need to ‘filter’ the money growth and inflation data before a clear short‐run intertemporal relation between them is revealed. When a simple filtering technique is employed to changes in money and prices, the correlation of the series tends to increase as the filter used shifts to lower frequency data. The technique also reveals a statistically significant relation between money and inflation, a pattern of Granger causality that has changed with changes in the monetary and exchange rate regime during 1965‐2005, and much shorter leads/lags between money and inflation than those typically found in similar studies of the experience of developed economies.     

Stabilization policy under flexible exchange rates and liquidity

Summary A two country model under flexible exchange rates is developed. The model shows that changes in the interest rate resulting from monetary or fiscal expansion has indeterminant effects on prices, output, capital flows and liquidity demand for money under conditions of a less than full employment equilibrium. Stabilization policy recommendations previously respected in this context fall under suspicion.     

Bailouts,Inflation, and Risk-Sharing in Monetary Unions

This paper presents a new rationalization for bailouts of sovereign debt in monetary unions, such as those observed during the recent Euro crisis. It introduces a model where member countries of the monetary union are ex-ante identical, and each derives utility from consumption and disutility from the union-wide inflation rate. The union’s central bank is utilitarian and lacks commitment. Countries borrow or save in a market for nominal sovereign debt in response to idiosyncratic income shocks, with countries that receive positive income shocks saving and countries that receive negative income shocks borrowing. Ex post, the monetary union’s central bank will attempt to devalue sovereign debt through surprise inflation, as this will redistribute income from rich creditor countries to poor debtor countries. Creditor countries choose to bailout debtor countries because bailouts will weaken the redistributive motives of the central bank and forestall surprise inflation. As bailouts in this environment constitute a payment from lucky creditor countries to unlucky debtor countries, they mimic a risk-sharing arrangement that insures against income shocks. The payments made by creditor countries are incentive-compatible due to the shared currency and inflation rate in the monetary union. This ability of countries to provide each other with incentive-compatible insurance constitutes a novel theory of optimal currency areas. This insurance benefit of the monetary union is largest for countries with negatively correlated income shocks, in contrast to the classic Mundell-Friedman optimal currency area criterion.

     

Myopia,Discretion, and Commitment in a Two‐Period AS/AD Model

A large body of pedagogical literature has recently emerged to place the New Keynesian framework for analyzing business cycle fluctuations and the conduct of monetary policy into undergraduate economics curricula. This article develops the graphical apparatus for the analysis of optimal monetary policy in the context of a two‐period model under alternative assumptions about the formation of inflationary expectations. It demonstrates that differences in assumptions about the formation of inflationary expectations translate into quite different conclusions regarding the optimal conduct of monetary policy.     

Monetary Policy, Credit, and Real Activity: Evidence from the Balance Sheet of Japanese Firms

We analyze the mechanism of monetary transmission in the Japanese economy by using the quarterly time series data disaggregated by firm size. In particular we examine the channels through which monetary policy influences the firm's fixed investment with special focus on the firm's land. We estimate the vector autoregressive model where we encompass two competing hypotheses on the monetary transmission: monetary and credit channels. Our evidence is in support of the credit channel. We find that land has played a vital role in the monetary transmission, especially for small firms. Moreover, we find that fall of land value in 1990s weakened the efficacy of monetary policy considerably. J. Japan. Int. Econ., December 2000, 14(4), pp. 385–407. Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan Copyright 2000 Academic Press.Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: E22, E32, E44, E51.     

Neutraal Geld,Een Overzicht Neutral money

Summary This article traces the development of the concept of neutral money. Wicksell, Davidson, Hayek and Koopmans, though they sometimes referred to a barter economy, really treated neutrality of money as synonymous with monetary equilibrium. Post-war writers on the other hand, notably Patinkin, Gurley and Shaw, do not regard neutrality as synonymous with the maintenance of monetary equilibrium; instead, they take it to mean the restoration, following a monetary disturbance, of the original values of the real variables in a general-equilibrium model. The conditions of neutrality in the post-war sense are critically discussed. It is shown that static price expectations and an elasticity of price expectations equal to one are not necessary conditions for neutrality. Attention is paid to the distinction between inside money and outside money and to Pesek's and Saving's criticism of this distinction. Post-war and pre-war concepts of neutral money are compared. It is shown that Wicksell, Davidson and Hayek were thinking of different disturbances, both monetary and non-monetary in nature, when they formulated their criteria for neutrality. Koopmans' approach was the most general one. Finally, the rôle of money in general-equilibrium models is discussed. What is lacking is a general-equilibrium model to accommodate transaction costs and what is often — confusingly — callednon-tatônnement pricing (pricing which permits trade at non-equilibrium prices).     

信息不完全、通货膨胀目标制与货币政策声誉:跨国经验

20世纪90年代以来通行的通货膨胀目标制被认为是极具透明性、灵活性的货币政策框架，受到很多国家的推崇。本文验证通货膨胀目标制是否有助于建立货币政策声誉，构建一个基于信息不完全基础上的动态预期形成模型，通过对通货膨胀目标制能否引起结构性变化的七个发达国家的实证研究，发现政策声誉的建立是一个学习过程。通货膨胀目标制实行的时间越长，该政策对降低通货膨胀率，实现经济稳定增长越有效。     

我国前瞻性货币供给规则与宏观经济的稳定我国前瞻性货币供给规则与宏观经济的稳定性——拓展的MIU模型与中国经验

国内研究货币规则的文献大多依据＂损失函数最小化＂标准获得货币政策工具的决策准则,而鲜有从一般均衡模型不动点性质的角度评析我国货币政策规则的文章。本文将一个适用于我国转型时期的货币量规则引入一般均衡的MIU模型,拓展了传统的固定货币增长率的货币经济学模型。文章发现：消费者微观偏好和央行货币政策参数会对宏观经济系统的稳定性产生影响。数据分析显示：我国经济系统获致的不动点为鞍点,即存在一条稳定的轨迹使经济系统收敛于均衡状态。文章建议,货币政策部门密切关注居民微观行为演进和央行货币规则微调对经济系统动态特性产生的影响。

Abstract：

Most domestic literatures on monetary rules are based upon the standard of ＂loss function minimization＂ to get access to the decision-making guidelines regarding monetary policy tools.While,little article looks the problem concerning the assessment of China＇s monetary policy rule from the angle of fixed point nature in the general equilibrium model.This paper introduces a monetary policy rule compatible with our transitional reform period into a general equilibrium MIU model,which is extended from the traditional fixed-money-growth-rate model.This article argues that：micro-parameters of Consumer preferences and the central bank＇s monetary policy have great impact on macroeconomic stability.Further-more,we put forward three testable propositions.According to macro-level data from China,we find that：Our economic system has a saddle-point equilibria,that is to say,there exists a stable trajectory that the economy will converge to this equilibria.The paper suggests that our monetary policy-makers should pay close attention to the micro—behavior evolution of our residents and the monetary regime changes,which will have significant impact on the dynamic characteristics of our economy.     

Is monetary policy non‐linear in Indonesia,Korea, Malaysia,and Thailand? A quantile regression analysis

There is a growing literature on the linearity or otherwise of monetary policy in industrialised countries. The investigations have revealed that the reactions of central banks to economic variables depend on the level of the variables, confirming the non‐linearity of monetary policy in these countries. However, research into whether monetary policy is non‐linear in emerging markets has been hampered by the lack of data, as a stable, ‘modern’ monetary regime has existed in emerging markets for only a relatively short time. Employing quantile regression, which is not as constrained as other regression methods by the shortness of time series, we investigate the non‐linearity of monetary policy in four emerging Asian nations: Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, and Thailand. Our results indicate that monetary policy in all four is non‐linear. All display a ‘hump‐shaped’ response to inflation across the quantiles—policy becomes tighter, going from lower to higher quantiles, reaches a peak, and then becomes looser. These results are similar to those found previously in Japan, and likely arise from a desire to limit exchange rate appreciation, as all four countries depend heavily on exports.     

Monetary Aggregates Targeting,Inflation Targeting and Inflation Stabilization in Ghana

The central bank of Ghana (BoG) has operated monetary aggregates targeting and inflation targeting since the 1980s, to ensure enhanced output growth, low unemployment and stable, low inflation. Under inflation targeting, the inflation rate averaged 13.26 per cent per annum between 2007 and 2015, compared with 29.22 per cent per annum under monetary aggregates targeting. The relatively lower inflation rates notwithstanding, an average inflation rate of 13.2 per cent per annum is far above the medium‐term target of 8 per cent. This paper has examined the effectiveness of monetary aggregates targeting and inflation targeting in keeping inflation at moderate levels. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model was applied to the data covering the period 1970–2015. The results show that monetary targeting has steered inflation to moderate levels only in the short run while inflation targeting has maintained low inflation rates in both short run and long run. But neither regime has kept inflation at stable levels and within the target band, due to the sluggish transmission of broad money supply and prime rate changes to inflation. We implore the monetary authorities to strengthen the institutional setup for steering short‐term interest rates in Ghana. They should also enhance the BoG Act 2002 (Act 612), to develop secondary anchors and rules around output, money supply and fiscal deficit. Finally, the monetary policy committee should monetary policy credibility and transparency through strengthening its communication framework.     

Uncertainty and Fiscal Policy in an Asymmetric Monetary Union

We examine monetary and fiscal interactions in a monetary union model with uncertainty due to imperfect central bank transparency. It is first shown that monetary uncertainty discourages excessive taxation and may thus reduce average inflation and output distortions. However, as countries enter the monetary union, this tax-restraining effect of uncertainty is mitigated. The monetary union may hence lead to higher fiscal distortions in some member countries, depending on governments’ spending targets and on the change in the degree of uncertainty implied by common monetary policy.