Reconsidering the role of money for output, prices and interest rates

New Keynesian models of monetary policy downplay the role of monetary aggregates, in the sense that the level of output, prices, and interest rates can be determined without knowledge of the quantity of money. This paper evaluates the empirical validity of this prediction by studying the effects of shocks to monetary aggregates using a vector autoregression (VAR). Shocks to monetary aggregates are identified by the restrictions suggested by New Keynesian monetary models. Contrary to the theoretical predictions, shocks to broad monetary aggregates have substantial and persistent effects on output, prices and interest rates.     

On money and output: Is money redundant?

There is an emerging consensus that money can be largely ignored in making monetary policy decisions. Rudebusch and Svensson [1999, Policy Rules and Inflation Targeting. In Taylor, J.B. (Ed.), Monetary Policy Rules. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 203-246; 2002, Eurosystem Monetary Targeting: Lessons from US Data. European Economic Review 46, 417-442] provide some empirical support for this view. We reconsider the role of money and find that money is not redundant. More specifically, there is a significant statistical relationship between lagged values of money and the output gap, even when lagged values of real interest rates and lagged values of the output gap are accounted for. We also find that inside and outside money provide significant information in predicting movements in the output gap.     

Price,output, and exchange rate movements in the open economy

Since the advent of managed floating it has come to be accepted as a stylized fact that short-run deviations from purchasing power parity are both substantial and persistent. Two explanations of these deviations have been advanced in the literature. One emphasizes the role of changes in non-traded goods prices while the other views deviations from purchasing power parity as being due to sticky goods prices and slow adjustment of goods markets. This paper presents yet a third possible explanation of deviations from purchasing power parity — they may be necessary in order to facilitate the relative price changes that are required to maintain equilibrium in the face of unanticipated shocks. In addition, the issue of exchange rate overshooting is addressed. Whereas the sticky price models view exchange rate overshooting and exchange rate volatility as symptoms of some fundamental disequilibrium, the perspective taken here is that these events are, in principle, compatible with a world in which all markets clear continuously.     

Asset prices and liquidity in an exchange economy

An asset-pricing model is developed, in which financial assets are valued for their liquidity—the extent to which they are useful in facilitating exchange—as well as for being claims to streams of consumption goods. The theory is used to study the implications of this liquidity channel for average asset returns, the equity-premium puzzle and the risk-free rate puzzle.     

Price setting, price dispersion, and the value of money: or, the law of two prices

We study models combining search, money, price posting, and preference shocks. We show how these features interact to influence the price level and price dispersion. First, price-posting equilibria exist with valued fiat currency. Second, although both are possible, price dispersion is more common than a single price. Third, we prove that generically there cannot be more than two prices. We provide intuition for this law of two prices, show it also holds in some nonmonetary search models, and discuss variations of the assumptions under which it may not hold.     

货币与现代市场经济

市场机制是有效率资源配置机制,我国要发挥市场在资源配置中的基础性作用,就必须充分发挥货币的作用。一是从政策上保持稳健的取向;二是建立商业银行的激励机制;三是要发挥直接融资优势,活跃金融市场。这是我们面向现代市场经济的重要选择。     

A continuous time equilibrium model of forward prices and futures prices in a multigood economy

This paper is a theoretical investigation of equilibrium forward and futures prices. We construct a rational expectations model in continuous time of a multigood, identical consumer economy with constant stochastic returns to scale production. Using this model we find three main results. First, we find formulas for equilibrium forward, futures, discount bond, commodity bond and commodity option prices. Second, we show that a futures price is actually a forward price for the delivery of a random number of units of a good; the random number is the return earned from continuous reinvestment in instantaneously riskless bonds until maturity of the futures contract. Third, we find and interpret conditions under which normal backwardation or contango is found in forward or futures prices; these conditions reflect the usefulness of forward and futures contracts as consumption hedges.     

The transactions demand for money in a two-currency economy

In this paper the model of the transactions demand for money of Baumol (1952) is extended to an economy where transactions are conducted in two currencies. The currency substitution hypothesis - that the domestic demand for domestic money depends on the expected rate of depreciation, as well as the domestic rate of interest and level of income - is derived from the model. In addition, several new insights into the implications of currency substitution are provided.     

An empirical inquiry into the short-run dynamics of output,prices and exchange market pressure

In this paper we develop a short-run disequilibrium model for the interaction of output, prices and exchange-market pressure. In this model we consider the trade-off between movements in exchange rates and movements in international reserves and we also incorporate and test purchasing power parity as a long-run hypothesis. The specification adopted preserves the properties of the monetary approach to exchange rates and the balance of payments in the long run. The theoretical model is applied to the small open economy of Greece for the period 1975–1981.     

Public sector layoffs, severance pay, and inflation in the small open economy

Because severance pay is worth 2–5 years of wages in many LDCs, public sector layoffs increase the fiscal deficit in the short run. Nevertheless, generous severance pay is not as serious a macroeconomic problem as generally thought. In the case where the fiscal deficit is financed by printing money, inflation is continuously lower under plausible conditions. When the government can borrow in world capital markets and layoffs reduce the present-value wage bill, there exists a sequence of bond sales and subsequent redemptions that guarantees continuously lower inflation. This result does not hold, however, if the reform lacks credibility.     

Heterogeneous expectations and the demand for money and financial assets in an exchange economy

An unresolved problem is to explain adequately the role of money as an alternative to barter in a dynamic exchange economy. In particular, liquidity preference explanations fail to motivate, or to identify explicitly the productive ‘services’ of money. In this paper, information about exchange opportunities is assumed to be imperfect and unevenly distributed. Money is shown to have ‘peculiar’ properties which make it an asset of wide-spread social value. Thus, this paper blends the imperfect information approach of Brunner and Meltzer (1972) with the explicit analysis of liquidity preference of Tobin (1958).     

The demand for money in the Italian economy: 1867–1965

This paper conducts an empirical analysis of the demand for money in Italy using data for the period 1867–1965. It finds that during this time this demand was a stable function of two key variables: permanent income and the rate of interest.     

对货币供应，产出缺口在通胀传导中机制的研究

随着经济全球化和金融市场日益发达,通胀的形成和传导机制发生了较大变化,即使存在较大产出缺口,宽松货币政策引发的通胀预期还是会推升上游初级产品价格,并迅速向下游传导。但该文认为,总需求仍是影响通货膨胀的重要因素。一方面,货币乘数顺周期内生,风险溢价逆周期内生,总需求低迷会抑制货币扩张的程度;另一方面,货币对需求的刺激程度也具有顺周期特性,总需求低迷时,即使成功扩张了货币,其对总需求的刺激作用也打了折扣;不仅如此,通胀预期虽然会推高国际大宗商品价格和资产价格,但只要货币政策保持稳定,这两种价格能否持续上涨终究还是取决于总需求。     

Anticipated foreign military threat, arms accumulation, and the current account in a small open economy

This paper examines the effects of an anticipated foreign military threat on consumption, the home weapons stock, and net foreign asset position in a small open economy. If the utility function is separable between butter and guns, the economy decreases both butter and guns when the news arrives, accumulates foreign assets prior to the foreign threat realization, and increases guns as the foreign threat realizes. If the utility function is nonseparable between butter and guns, the economy may have two dynamic responses. The first is similar to the separable case, except that consumption exhibits a discrete jump when the foreign threat realizes. The second is that the economy increases both butter and guns on impact, decumulates foreign assets prior to the foreign threat implementation, but either increases or decreases guns as the foreign threat realizes.     

Credit crunch in a small open economy

We construct an open-economy DSGE model with a banking sector to analyze the impact of the recent credit crunch on a small open economy. In our model the banking sector operates under monopolistic competition, collects deposits and grants collateralized loans. Collateral effects amplify monetary policy actions, interest rate stickiness dampens the transmission of interest rates, and financial shocks generate non-negligible real and nominal effects. As an application we estimate the model for Poland-a typical small open economy. According to the results, financial shocks had a substantial, though not overwhelming, impact on the Polish economy during the 2008/09 crisis, lowering GDP by approximately 1.5 percent.     

Lasse Heje Pedersen: Efficiently inefficient: how smart money invests and market prices are determined

Financial Markets and Portfolio Management -     

The spirit of capitalism, asset pricing and growth in a small open economy

Conventional models of economic behavior have failed to account for a number of observed empirical regularities in macroeconomics and international economics. This may be due to preference specifications in conventional models. In this paper, we consider preferences with the “spirit of capitalism” (the desire to accumulate wealth as a way of acquiring status). We analyze a number of potential effects of international catching-up and the spirit of capitalism on savings, growth, portfolio allocation and asset pricing. Moreover, we obtain a multi-factor Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM). Our results show that status concerns have non-trivial effects on savings, growth, portfolio allocation, asset prices and the foreign exchange risk premium.     

Deficits,money and inflation

This paper examines the interrelationships between monetary and fiscal policy. Specifically, it seeks to determine whether Government budget deficits influence monetary growth. Using a money supply model originally developed by Barro, we find that deficits have had a significant impact on the growth of the U.S. money supply throughout most of the period since 1961. Such a relationship need not always hold. It depends on whether government deficits place upward pressure on interest rates and whether the central bank monetizes the debt in an effort to stabilize interest rates.