MONETARY AND FISCAL INTERACTIONS: SHORT‐RUN AND LONG‐RUN IMPLICATIONS

We model policy interactions in a growing economy. Unemployment can persist and matters for the real wage; conflicting claims underpin inflation outcomes; and aggregate demand determines capacity utilization and unemployment. Monetary policy is characterized by a Taylor rule. Fiscal policy is characterized by a marginal tendency to run deficits or surpluses. We address three questions: can monetary policy ensure macroeconomic stability in the absence of coordinated fiscal policy, can fiscal policy ensure macroeconomic stability when the monetary authority pegs the interest rate, and can policy authorities trade‐off some sustained inflation for a long‐run improvement in unemployment rates?     

The responses of U.S. multinational corporations to increased competition for international markets

Abstract

Extending the original Taylor rule and applying the VAR model, the author finds that the federal funds rate (FFR) responds positively to a shock to the output gap, the inflation gap, the long-term interest rate, or the lagged FFR, and it reacts negatively to a shock to the unemployment rate gap or the exchange rate. The response of FFR to stock prices is insignificant at the 5% level. The long-term rate can explain up to 41.3% or 46.1% of the variation in FFR, depending on the model considered. The exchange rate can explain up to 8.5% or 12.3% of the variance, depending on the model considered. The output gap can explain up to 26.6% of FFR variance. The unemployment rate gap can explain up to 26.8% of the variation in FFR. Because FFR responds to a shock to the output gap and the unemployment rate gap in a similar manner, both may be considered in conducting monetary policy. The more explanatory power of the long-term interest rate than the inflation gap may suggest that both need to be taken into consideration in the Taylor rule.     

利率对汇率变化反应了吗?——基于开放经济下泰勒规则的分位数回归

将基准利率区分为市场基准利率与法定基准利率,并对开放经济下的泰勒规则用分位数回归方法进行实证检验。研究结果表明:不同基准利率对预期通货膨胀率反应显著,且与封闭经济相反,表现为一种稳定的反馈机制,对预期人民币实际有效汇率变动的反应只在个别分位点显著而总体不显著;而对预期产出缺口的反应在两种基准利率下有所不同,在市场基准利率时不显著,在法定基准利率时显著。因此,市场基准利率主要根据预期通货膨胀率进行调整,而法定基准利率则根据预期通货膨胀率与预期产出缺口进行制定,这符合"保持货币币值稳定,并以此促进经济增长"的货币政策目标。     

MODELING STABILIZATION POLICIES IN A FINANCIALLY UNSTABLE ECONOMY

A non‐linear macrodynamic model is presented here to study possible stabilization policies in a financially unstable economy. Three policy rules will be considered, namely the interest rate rule (also called Taylor rule), the money supply rule and the fiscal policy rule. It will be shown that the interest rate rule can be used to stabilize a financially unstable economy on a ‘desired’ growth path. However, when the economy falls into a ‘liquidity trap’, the interest rate rule is ineffective, and therefore the fiscal policy rule should be employed. We also find a rule of money supply that can deal with the problem of government debt while the rest of the economy can still be stabilized on the ‘desired’ growth path.     

Level and growth policy rules and actual Fed policy since 1979

The good macroeconomic performance of the US economy since the early 1980s has sparked interest in determining how the Fed has conducted the monetary policy. One widely shared view is that actual policy has broadly been consistent empirically with Taylor-type policy rules in which the funds rate responds to actual or expected inflation and the level of the output gap. In particular, as shown in Mehra (2001), a policy rule in which the funds rate responds to expected inflation, the bond rate, and the level of the output gap predicts actual policy well. It is shown here that the growth version of this rule in which the funds rate responds to the growth rate of the output gap instead of its level predicts actual policy almost as well. Hence, uncertainty that exists in measuring the current level of the output gap may not have mattered much in the conduct of policy, in contrast to the view focused on level policy rules.     

Optimal monetary policy in a currency union with interest rate spreads

We introduce “financial imperfections” – asymmetric net wealth positions, incomplete risk-sharing, and interest rate spreads across member countries – in a prototypical two-country currency union model and study implications for monetary policy transmission mechanism and optimal policy. In addition to, and independent from, the standard transmission mechanism associated with nominal rigidities, financial imperfections introduce a wealth redistribution role for monetary policy. Moreover, the two mechanisms reinforce each other and amplify the effects of monetary policy. On the normative side, financial imperfections, via interactions with nominal rigidities, generate two novel policy trade-offs. First, the central bank needs to pay attention to distributional efficiency in addition to macroeconomic (and price level) stability, which implies that a strict inflation targeting policy of setting union-wide inflation to zero is never optimal. Second, the interactions lead to a trade-off in stabilizing relative consumption versus the relative price gap (the deviation of relative prices from their efficient level) across countries, which implies that the central bank allows for less flexibility in relative prices. Finally, we consider how the central bank should respond to a financial shock that causes an increase in the interest rate spread. Under optimal policy, the central bank strongly decreases the deposit rate, which reduces aggregate and distributional inefficiencies by mitigating the drop in output and inflation and the rise in relative consumption and prices. Such a policy response can be well approximated by a spread-adjusted Taylor rule as it helps the real interest rate track the efficient rate of interest.     

RE‐EXAMINING THE IMPLICATIONS OF THE NEW CONSENSUS: ENDOGENOUS MONEY AND TAYLOR RULES IN A SIMPLE NEOCLASSICAL MACRO MODEL

This paper re‐examines the impact of endogenous money in a neoclassical model with interest‐sensitive expenditures. It first outlines a benchmark model with exogenous money and the usual full employment and money growth‐determined inflation results. It then replaces exogenous money with endogenous money, which is shown to generate model indeterminacy. Two methods of resolving this indeterminacy are then explored: money illusion and a Taylor rule for monetary policy, a key feature of new consensus models. The paper concludes that endogenous money has negative implications for the behaviour and interpretation of neoclassical and new consensus models.     

Can monetary policy tame Harrodian instability?

The paper introduces monetary policy into the canonical Kaleckian growth model with a built‐in Harrodian instability. It abstains, however, from the simple and immediately stabilizing interest rate inverse IS curve. Instead, more indirect effects are examined, which realistically will take time to work out. In particular, (a) the trend rate of growth governing the investment decisions additionally responds to the difference between the profit rate and the real rate of interest; and (b) the real interest rate may enter dynamic adjustments of the price markup. The main finding is that the Harrodian forces could still be overcome and stability of the steady state position is re‐established provided that the profitability motive in (a) and the responsiveness in the Taylor policy rule are both sufficiently strong. By contrast, the indirect feedback effects produced by (b) broaden the scope for instability. In sum, monetary policy in this extended framework can favour stability but is not necessarily the stabilizing panacea that the New Consensus considers it to be.     

ASSET PRICES,OUTPUT AND MONETARY POLICY IN A SMALL OPEN ECONOMY

We formulate a macro‐model of a small open economy in order to investigate the relative performance of rules that respond to asset prices and those that do not. Our model consists of three asset prices: the stock price, the long‐term interest rate and the exchange rate. These asset prices interact with nominal wage and price Phillips curves, a law of motion for the labour share, a dynamic IS curve that describes output adjustment and a Taylor‐type interest rate policy rule. Estimations of the model show that policy rules that respond to asset price movements dominate rules that do not.     

Monetary policy and welfare in a small open economy

This paper analyzes optimal monetary policy in a small open economy featuring monopolistic competition and nominal rigidities. It shows that the utility-based loss function for this economy can be written as a quadratic expression of domestic inflation, output gap and real exchange rate. The presence of an internal monopolistic distortion and a terms of trade externality drives optimal policy away from domestic inflation targeting and affects the optimal level of exchange rate volatility. When domestic and foreign goods are close substitutes for each other, the optimal policy rule implies lower real exchange rate volatility than a domestic inflation targeting regime. The reverse is true when the elasticity of substitution between goods is low.     

Liability dollarization and the bank balance sheet channel

Emerging markets' financial institutions often face a mismatch in the currency denominations of their liabilities (foreign currency-denominated debt raised from foreign lenders) and their assets (domestic currency loans to domestic borrowers). We study the effect of this mismatch on monetary policy in a sticky-price, dynamic general-equilibrium small open economy model in which the country default-risk premium depends on domestic banks' balance sheets due to asymmetric information. A fixed exchange rate rule that stabilizes bank balance sheets offers greater stability than does an interest rate rule that targets inflation to offset the real effects of sticky-prices.     

开放条件下不同泰勒规则在中国的适用性研究

通过构建开放经济条件下同时存在后顾性变量和前瞻性变量的新凯恩斯主义DSGE模型,利用MATLAB随机数值模拟比较分析三种不同泰勒规则在中国的应用性问题。结果表明,总需求冲击加剧了产出的波动,而总供给冲击不利于通货膨胀的稳定。比较福利后,发现简单的名义利率泰勒规则比复杂的泰勒规则更加适合于中国目前的经济发展状况。央行在设定目标损失函数时,应该减少汇率的权重,而增加通货膨胀的权重,这有利于减少中国居民整体福利的损失。     

ARE LONG‐RUN PRICE STABILITY AND SHORT‐RUN OUTPUT STABILIZATION ALL THAT MONETARY POLICY CAN AIM FOR?

A central tenet of the so‐called new consensus view in macroeconomics is that there is no long‐run trade‐off between inflation and unemployment. The main policy implication of this principle is that all monetary policy can aim for is (modest) short‐run output stabilization and long‐run price stability, i.e. monetary policy is neutral with respect to output and employment in the long run. However, research on the different sources of path dependency in the economy suggests that persistent but nevertheless transitory changes in aggregate demand may have a permanent effect on output and employment. If this is the case, then, the way monetary policy is run does have long‐run effects on real variables. This paper provides an overview of this research and explores conceptually how monetary policy should be implemented once these long‐run effects are acknowledged.     

MONETARY POLICY RULES IN THE RUN‐UP TO THE EMU

We characterize central bank behavior in the euro area during the run‐up to the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) era by estimating Taylor rule‐type reaction functions at both the individual and aggregate level. We focus on whether national monetary policies during the run‐up to the EMU were responding to economic developments according to their own policy rules or to a broader, euro area‐wide, policy rule. To consider the last possibility we examine whether national monetary policies were responding to German interest rates. Finally, we compare the performance of the estimated with imposed policy rules.     

Fiscal and Monetary Policy Rules in an Unstable Economy

This paper examines the implications of different monetary and fiscal policy rules in an economy characterized by Harrodian instability. We show that (1) a monetary rule along Taylor lines can be stabilizing for low debt ratios but becomes de‐stabilizing if the debt ratio exceeds a certain threshold, (2) a ‘Keynesian’ fiscal policy rule can stabilize the economy at full employment, (3) a fiscal ‘austerity’ rule that links fiscal parameters to deviations from a target debt ratio fails to adjust the ‘warranted’ to the ‘natural’ growth rate and destabilizes the warranted path and (4) instability may arise from a combination of fiscal and monetary policy rules which separately would stabilize the system.     

我国货币中性的实证研究

国际金融危机爆发以来,降低利率、增加流通中货币成了各国政府解决金融危机的共同做法,货币对于经济的积极作用再次引起人们的关注。过于宽松的货币政策能持续多久,会不会造成严重的通货膨胀,进而破坏经济的健康发展,也同样引起人们的关注。本文对我国1978-2009年的流通中货币、利率、物价指数对GDP的影响进行了实证研究,结果表明流通中货币不是实际GDP增长的格兰杰原因,货币是中性的;GDP的实际增长率是实际利率的格兰杰原因,名义利率和GDP没有因果关系;GDP和物价指数没有格兰杰因果关系,通货膨胀不能促进经济的增长。     

THE DIAMOND OF MACROECONOMIC EQUILIBRIA AND NON‐INFLATIONARY EXPANSION

This paper combines the microeconomic foundations of earlier models of a range of equilibrium rates of employment to generate a model with a diamond of equilibria. Analysis of the diamond model shows that for a depressed economy an expansionary aggregate demand policy can, without violating rational expectations of inflation, generate a central proposition of Keynesian economics—a non‐inflationary expansion (NIE), that is a permanent increase in employment without increasing inflation. The microeconomic foundations of the model draw on ideas of customer markets, reference dependence and loss aversion. It is also shown that the possibility of achieving an NIE is enhanced if a macro price policy, such as incomes policy or inflation targeting, accompanies the expansion in aggregate demand.     

Is the US Dollar a Suitable Anchor for the Newly Proposed GCC Currency?

Responses of inflation and non‐oil output growth from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries to monetary policy shocks from the United States (US) were estimated to determine whether there is evidence to support the US dollar as the anchor for the proposed unified currency. A structural vector autoregression identified with short‐run restrictions was employed for each country with Fed funds rate as the US monetary policy instrument, non‐oil output growth and inflation. The main results suggest that for inflation, the GCC countries show synchronised responses to monetary policy shocks from the US which are similar to inflation in the US, and for non‐oil output growth, there is no clear indication that US monetary policy can be as effective for the GCC countries as it is domestically. Consequently, importing US monetary policy via a dollar peg may guarantee only stable inflation for the GCC countries – not necessarily stable non‐oil output growth. If the non‐oil output response is made conscientiously – and there are concerns over the dollar’s ability to perform its role as a store of value – a basket peg with both the US dollar and the euro may be a sound alternative as confirmed by the variance decomposition analysis of our augmented SVAR with a proxy for the European short‐term interest rate.     

Animal Spirits and the Business Cycle: Empirical Evidence from Moment Matching

In this article, we empirically examine a hybrid New‐Keynesian model with heterogeneous bounded rational agents who may adopt an optimistic or pessimistic attitude—so called animal spirits—toward future movements of the output and inflation gap. The model is estimated via the simulated method of moments using Euro Area data from 1975Q1 to 2009Q4. In addition, we compare its empirical performance to the standard model with rational expectations. Our empirical results show that the model‐generated auto‐ and cross‐covariances of the output, inflation and nominal interest rate gap can provide a good approximation of the empirical second moments.     

How is the Taylor Rule Distributed under Endogenous Monetary Regimes?

This paper estimates Taylor rules at various points (quantiles) on the conditional interest‐rate distribution for endogenously identified monetary regimes. I find that the Taylor principle upholds only for the upper tails of the interest‐rate distribution in monetary Hawkish regimes, but not in monetary interim and Dovish regimes. Moreover, the results show that the Federal Reserve responds more aggressively to inflation at upper tails than at lower tails in both monetary Dovish and Hawkish regimes, implying its significant inflation‐avoidance preference. Finally, the Federal Reserve appears to respond to inflation more aggressively during Hawkish regimes than during Dovish regimes across quantiles.