Financial structure and the heterogeneous impact of monetary policy across industries

The two general channels by which monetary policy impacts output are the neo-classical cost of capital channel and the credit channel. This paper decomposes the output response to a change in the stance of monetary policy to each of these channels. We use a unique industry level data set that measures the financial characteristics of firms operating at the industry level through time. We bring these financial characteristics formally into the regression analysis, thus allowing for a more precise identification of the two channels. The evidence indicates that both channels are active in the Canadian economy.     

论金融稳定作为货币政策目标的依据

在目前的金融稳定问题危及经济发展的新经济环境下,各国基于现行货币政策目标体系的货币政策的有效性再次受到质疑.本文拟对在当前经济环境下将金融稳定纳入货币政策目标体系的货币政策的依据和影响进行论证.     

Financial liberalization and money demand in Peru: Implications for monetary policy

In 1990 a process of financial liberalization was begun in Peru with the aim of achieving economic stability and sustained development. Due to the economic policies that had been applied throughout the second half of the 1980s, this took place in a context of hyperinflation and financial repression. This article examines the effects that financial liberalization has had on the demand for real balances in Peru and discusses the implications for the conduct of monetary policy.     

Openness and optimal monetary policy

We show that the composition of international trade has important implications for the optimal volatility of the exchange rate, above and beyond the size of trade flows. Using an analytically tractable small open economy model, we characterize the impact of the trade composition on the policy trade-off and on the role played by the exchange rate in correcting for price misalignments. Contrary to models where openness can be summarized by the degree of home bias, we find that openness can be a poor proxy of the welfare impact of alternative monetary policies. Using input–output data for 25 countries we document substantial differences in the import and non-tradable content of final demand components, and in the role played by imported inputs in domestic production. The estimates are used in a richer small-open-economy DSGE model to quantify the loss from an exchange rate peg relative to the Ramsey policy conditional on the composition of imports. We find that the main determinant of the losses is the share of non-traded goods in final demand.     

Exchange rate expectations and monetary policy

The adjustment process to a monetary disturbance is studied in a model of perfect capital mobility and flexible exchange rates. Exchange rate expectations are emphasized and used to establish an adjustment process. In the short run, a monetary expansion gives rise to a depreciation in the exchange rate and a reduction in saving due to the terms of trade deterioration. The exchange rate depreciation, in the short run, may be in excess of the long-run depreciation. The trade balance in the short run may worsen. The long-run equilibrium of the analysis conforms to the Mundell-Fleming results that establish the force of monetary policy under flexible rates.     

European monetary policy: Institutional design and policy experience

The following article examines design issues relevant to European monetary policy: central bank independence, and the accountability and transparency of monetary policy strategy. An empirical approach is then applied which allows a comparison between the ECB and other central banks. It also enables an investigation of whether the ECB simply follows the US Federal Reserve Bank, as is sometimes claimed.     

International monetary policy surprise spillovers

This is the first paper to examine international monetary surprise spillovers and to estimate the response of security prices to monetary and nonmonetary surprises. Monetary surprises have a slope effect on the domestic yield curve—short maturity yields adjust much more than longer maturity yields. These results are similar to other studies. The following results are new. US monetary surprises spill over and affect Australian yields and equity returns. Australian monetary surprises do not spill over to the US. Nonmonetary surprises are much more important than monetary policy surprises in explaining longer maturity yield changes and equity returns.     

Inflation,uncertainty, and monetary policy

Low inflation likely reflects factors whose influence should fade over time. But many uncertainties attend this assessment, and downward pressures on inflation could prove to be unexpectedly persistent. My colleagues and I may have misjudged the strength of the labor market, the degree to which longer-run inflation expectations are consistent with our inflation objective, or even the fundamental forces driving inflation. In interpreting incoming data, we will need to stay alert to these possibilities and, in light of incoming information, adjust our views about inflation, the overall economy, and the stance of monetary policy best suited to promoting maximum employment and price stability. How should policy be formulated in the face of such significant uncertainties? In my view, it strengthens the case for a gradual pace of adjustment. But we should also be wary of moving too gradually. It would be imprudent to keep monetary policy on hold until inflation is back to 2%.     

Consumer credit and monetary policy in Malaysia

What is the impact of monetary policy on the Malaysian consumer? The study addresses this issue by empirically investigating the consequences of interest rate shocks on consumer credit in Malaysia. The study relies on the impulse response functions and the variance decomposition analysis based on the structural Vector Auto‐regression methodology. Apart from analysing the responses of aggregate consumer loans (ACL) to interest rate changes, further disaggregation is made in efforts to arrive at more detailed findings. In particular, the ACL data are categorized into loans for purchase of residential property, loans for personal uses, loans for credit cards, loans for purchase of consumer durables, loans for purchase of passenger cars and loans for purchase of securities. Through this disaggregation, the study shows the relative sensitivity of the various types of consumer loans to interest rate shocks.     

Foreign exchange and monetary policy in Mexico

The liberalization and reform of the Mexican economy has been headline material for several years. As Agustin Carstens explains in his article, one of the single most important factors in this turnaround has been sound fiscal policies and the recent moves to make the central bank independent. The foreign exchange rate policies and anti-inflation monetary policies have been the backbone of Banco de Mexico's efforts. These efforts, and their attendant effect upon Mexican financial markets serve as an illustration of current reform movements.     

基于货币政策非对称效应的我国宽松货币政策退出研究

货币政策效应是非对称的,经济过热时的紧缩作用大于经济萧条阶段的刺激作用,因此货币政策的操作也是非对称的.本文认为在世界经济还存在不确定性的情况下,基于货币政策的非对称效应,我国当前在退出宽松货币政策时应保持谨慎.     

Emerging market corporate bond yields and monetary policy

I examine spillover of monetary policy on corporate bond yields. Emerging market corporate bond yields are positively associated with the federal funds rate. However, this positive relation is transmitted through the domestic policy rate. If domestic policy rates are held constant, the spillover of US monetary policy on corporate bond yields diminishes. This suggests that domestic policymakers face a tradeoff: if they leave their policy rate unchanged when the Fed hikes, this may have benign consequences for corporate bond yields. However, a higher US policy rate may lead to exchange rate depreciation for emerging market currencies and thus elevated debt burdens for their US dollar debtors. Alternatively, if the Fed hikes and policymakers follow suit, funding conditions for corporates worsen through higher yields.     

Monetary policy surprises and interest rates under China's evolving monetary policy framework

China's monetary policy framework has evolved considerably in the past two decades, increasingly moving from using quantity-based instruments and targets to using price-based instruments and targets. This paper assesses the effectiveness of monetary policy in China by examining the influence of monetary policy on market interest rates using an event-study approach. We find that the effectiveness of price-based instruments in impacting market interest rates increases over time, and that price-based instruments are as effective as quantity instruments during the period since the completion of interest rates liberalization. Furthermore, central bank communications, an increasingly important aspect of monetary policy, affect medium- and long-term market interest rates. Our findings are robust to the use of an alternative measure of monetary policy surprise and an alternative estimation method.     

Global monetary policy under a dollar standard

This paper derives an optimal monetary policy in a world with a dollar standard, defined as an environment in which all traded goods prices are set in US dollars, so that exchange rate pass-through into the US price level is zero. We show that the US is essentially indifferent to exchange rate volatility, while the rest of the world places a high weight on exchange rate volatility. In a Nash equilibrium of the monetary policy game, US preferences dominate; the equilibrium is identical to one where the US alone chooses world monetary policy. Despite this, we find surprisingly that the US loses from the dollar's role as an international currency, since the absence of exchange rate pass-through leads to inefficient expenditure allocations within the US. Finally, we derive the conditions for a dollar standard to exist.     

Maintaining monetary policy top priority in Shanghai

The Shanghai headquarters of the central bank said it will stick to its relatively easy monetary policy in the second half to consolidate local economic growth on July 30.     

Coalition formation in international monetary policy games

This paper analyses coalition formation in monetary policy coordination games between n countries. We show that some but not all countries may join if the decision to be a member of the coalition is incentive-compatible for the individual country. Positive spillovers of the coalition formation process and the resulting free-rider problem limit the stable coalition size: since the coalition members are bound by the union’s discipline, an outsider can successfully export inflation without fearing that the insiders will try to do the same. These ‘gains from staying out’ arise even in the case of symmetric shocks.     

Optimal monetary policy in a currency area

This paper investigates how monetary policy should be conducted in a two-region general equilibrium model with monopolistic competition and price stickiness. This framework delivers a simple welfare criterion based on the utility of the consumers that can be used to evaluate monetary policy in a currency area. If the two regions share the same degree of nominal rigidity, the terms of trade are completely insulated from monetary policy and the optimal outcome is obtained by targeting a weighted average of the regional inflation rates. These weights coincide with the economic sizes of the region. If the degrees of rigidity are different, the optimal plan implies a high degree of inertia in the inflation rate. But an inflation targeting policy in which higher weight is given to the inflation in the region with higher degree of nominal rigidity is nearly optimal.     

Opportunistic monetary policy: An alternative rationalization

This paper offers an alternative rationalization for opportunistic behaviour, i.e., a gradual disinflation strategy where policymakers react asymmetrically to supply shocks, opting to disinflate only in recessionary period. Specifically, we show that adaptive expectations combined with asymmetry in the Phillips curve of a specific sort together provide an optimizing justification for opportunism. However, the empirical basis for these conditions to be satisfied in the current low-inflation context of most OECD countries remains however to be established.