Understanding the deviation of Australian policy rate from the Taylor rule

This investigation aims to explain and quantify the deviations of the Australian policy rate (set by Reserve Bank of Australia) from the Taylor Rule. A three-step econometric procedure designed to reflect the data-rich environment in which central banks operate is proposed using information for 229 macroeconomic series. This procedure can be applied to data for any economy with inflation targeting monetary rule. Our application with Australian data shows that approximately 65% of Australia’s policy rate deviation from the Taylor Rule can be explained systematically, with international factors and a domestic factor accounting for 41.9% and 22.5%, respectively, of the total variation in deviation from the rule.     

Monetary and fiscal policy interactions in a post Keynesian open-economy model

Using a post Keynesian model, this study aims to analyze the stabilizing role of fiscal and monetary policies in an open economy with a managed exchange rate regime. The real exchange rate is modeled as an endogenous variable and inflation explained using the conflicting claims approach. The dynamic properties of macroeconomic equilibrium are evaluated in different regimes of fiscal and monetary policies. The main result of this study suggests that the preferred policy regime is the one in which economic authorities are complementary and fiscal policy plays an explicitly active role. In this regime, the fiscal policy must commit to the target for the rate of capacity utilization and the monetary authority must commit to the inflation target.     

Monetary Policy and Exchange Rate Interactions in a Small Open Economy

The transmission mechanisms of monetary policy in a small open economy like Norway are analysed through structural VARs, with special emphasis on the interdependence between monetary policy and exchange rate movements. By imposing a long‐run neutrality restriction on the real exchange rate, thereby allowing the interest rate and the exchange rate to react simultaneously to news, I find considerable interdependence between monetary policy and the exchange rate. In particular, following a contractionary monetary policy shock, the real exchange rate immediately appreciates, after which it gradually depreciates back to the baseline. The results are found to be consistent with findings from an “event study”.     

Financial stress,economic activity and monetary policy in the ASEAN-5 economies

This article uses a structural vector autoregression approach to analyse the impact of financial stress on the economy and the relationship between monetary policy and financial stress in the ASEAN-5 economies (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand). We find that an increase in financial stress leads to tighter credit conditions and lower economic activity in all five countries. The estimated impact on the real economy displays an initial rapid decline followed by a gradual dissipation. In Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand, the central banks tend to reduce policy interest rates (IRs) when financial stress increases, although there is substantial cross-country variation in the magnitude and time dynamics. The lower policy IRs are found to have little significant effects in lowering financial stress, but are still effective in stimulating economic activity through other channels. These findings imply that easing monetary policy is likely necessary but insufficient to address growth slowdowns associated with financial stress. Monetary easing should instead be complemented with other policy measures which are targeted at restoring financial stress to normal levels.     

The effects of monetary policy using structural factor analysis

The traditional Vector Autoregression (VAR) method is widely used to trace out the effects of monetary policy innovations on the economy. However, this method suffers from the curse of dimensionality, so that in practice VARs are estimated on a limited number of variables, leading to a potential missing information problem. In this article we use the method of structural factor analysis to evaluate the effects of monetary policy on key macroeconomic variables in a data rich environment. This methodology allows us to extract information on monetary policy and its impact on the economy from a much larger data set than is possible with the traditional VAR method. We propose two structural factor models. One is the Structural Factor Augmented Vector Autoregressive (SFAVAR) model and the other is the Structural Factor Vector Autoregressive (SFVAR) model. Compared to the traditional VAR, both models incorporate information from hundreds of data series, series that can be and are monitored by the central bank in setting policy. Moreover, the factors used are structurally meaningful, a feature that adds to the understanding of the ‘black box’ of the monetary transmission mechanism. Both models generate qualitatively reasonable impulse response functions. For the SFVAR model, both the price puzzle and the liquidity puzzle are eliminated.     

我国财政货币政策作用关系实证研究--基于VAR模型的检验分析

文章通过构建一个真实GDP增长率、财政赤字占GDP比重、货币供给M2增长率、零售物价指数变化率等4个变量的VAR模型,对我国财政政策与货币政策相互作用的关系及其动态性进行了实证分析,通过模型设定、格兰杰因果关系检验、脉冲响应函数分析和预测方差分解,发现在我国不存在简单的财政货币政策的互补或替代关系,而是存在一种非对称性的关系,即扩张的货币政策伴随着收缩或稳健的财政政策,而扩张的财政政策导致被动扩张的货币政策,表现形式取决于具体宏观经济环境和经济冲击形式。同时,文章也得到其他一些结论,并认为,要增强政策的效率,必须强化央行的独立性,在现阶段需要严格控制赤字财政政策,以减少其对经济增长和经济波动的影响。     

Structural VAR models for Malaysian monetary policy analysis during the pre- and post-1997 Asian crisis periods

This article conducts an in-depth investigation into building a Structural Vector Autoregression (SVAR) model and analysing the Malaysian monetary policy. Considerable attention is paid to: (i) the selection of foreign, policy and target variables; (ii) establish identifying restrictions and improve the estimates of impulse response functions; (iii) assess the importance of intermediate channels in transmitting monetary policy mechanism; and (iv) the way in which the 1997 Asian financial crisis affected the working of monetary policy. Malaysia is an interesting small open economy to study because, following this crisis, the government imposed capital and exchange rate control measures. The overall results suggest that the crisis and the subsequent major shift in the exchange rate regime have significantly affected the Malaysian ‘Black Box’. In the pre-crisis period, domestic variables appear to be more vulnerable to foreign monetary shocks. Further, the exchange rate played a significant role in transmitting the interest rate shocks, whereas credit and asset prices helped to propagate the money shock. In the post-crisis period however, asset prices play a more domineering role in intensifying the effects of both interest rate and money shocks on output, and the economy was insulated from foreign shocks.     

Monetary policy on interest rates: a retrospective analysis since Thornton

Abstract

In response to the affirmation by certain authors and critics of a recent return to an interest-rate policy that, in their opinion, resembles a throwback to the nineteenth century theory of monetary policy on interest rates, I pose the question of the difficulties of interest-rate policy in a retrospective analysis beginning with the current that founded the short-term interest rate policy within classical analysis and by focusing my discussion on several key authors (Thornton, Banking School, Bagehot, Wicksell, Keynes, contemporary authors such as Woodford). To this end, I study the importance that the interbank money market plays for these authors, which determines the target rate for the central bank.     

The Effects of Monetary Policy Shocks in Bangladesh: A Bayesian Structural VAR Approach

This paper develops a Bayesian structural VAR model for Bangladesh in a small-open-economy context in order to estimate the effects of monetary policy shocks on various macroeconomic variables. To increase the precision of the model identification, we allow the macroeconomic variables of the model to interact simultaneously with each other. This paper finds that the liquidity effect and the exchange-rate effect of the monetary policy shock are realized immediately, while industrial production responds with a lag of over half a year, and the inflation rate responds with a lag of more than one year. I also find that monetary policy shocks are not the dominant source of industrial production fluctuations in Bangladesh.     

Monetary policy rules and directions of causality: A test for the euro area

Abstract

Using a VAR model in first differences with quarterly data for the euro zone, the study aims to ascertain whether decisions on monetary policy can be interpreted in terms of a “monetary policy rule” with specific reference to the so-called nominal GDP targeting rule (Hall and Mankiw, 1994 Granger, C.W.J. “Investigating Causal Relations by Econometric Models and Cross-Spectral Methods.” Econometrica, 1969, 37 (3), 424–438.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; McCallum, 1988 McCallum, B. “Nominal GDP Targeting”, Shadow Open Market Committee, October 21, 2011. [Google Scholar]; Woodford, 2012 Taylor, J.B., Williams, J.C. “Simple and Robust Rules for Monetary Policy”, NBER Working Paper No. 15908, April, 2010. [Google Scholar]). The results obtained indicate a causal relation proceeding from deviation between the growth rates of nominal gross domestic product (GDP) and target GDP to variation in the three-month market interest rate. The same analyses do not, however, appear to confirm the existence of a significant inverse causal relation from variation in the market interest rate to deviation between the nominal and target GDP growth rates. Similar results were obtained on replacing the market interest rate with the European Central Bank refinancing interest rate. This confirmation of only one of the two directions of causality does not support an interpretation of monetary policy based on the nominal GDP targeting rule and gives rise to doubt in more general terms as to the applicability of the Taylor rule and all the conventional rules of monetary policy to the case in question. The results appear instead to be more in line with other possible approaches, such as those based on post Keynesian analyses of monetary theory and policy and more specifically the so-called solvency rule (Brancaccio and Fontana, 2013 ———. Macroeconomics, 2nd ed., Pearson Education Company, ch. 30. [Google Scholar], 2015 Brancaccio, E. The Central Banker as “Regulator” of Conflict. In G. Fontana and M. Setterfield (eds.), Macroeconomic Theory and Macroeconomic Pedagogy. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009, 295–308.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). These lines of research challenge the simplistic argument that the scope of monetary policy consists in the stabilization of inflation, real GDP, or nominal income around a “natural equilibrium” level. Rather, they suggest that central banks actually follow a more complex purpose, which is the political regulation of the financial system with particular reference to the relations between creditors and debtors and the related solvency of economic units.     

Monetary policy synchronization in the ASEAN-5 region: an exchange rate perspective

In light of the long-standing vision of economic and monetary integration in the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) region and the importance of coordinating monetary policies to achieve it, the objective of this article is to assess the monetary policy synchronization among the founding members of the ASEAN, that is, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Due to the importance of exchange rate movements to monetary policies, we approach this issue from a currency exchange rate perspective. Specifically, multivariate trend–cycle decomposition is employed to investigate common trends and common cycles among the exchange rates of these countries during the period 1976–2012. Our analysis reveals that the real exchange rates of Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand share common cycles in the short term and have common trends in the long term, but the Indonesian currency does not share these relationships. Thus, our results augur well for the synchronization of monetary policies among Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. In contrast, the relatively turbulent dynamics of the Indonesian rupiah evident in frequent bouts of stark depreciation separated by periods of steady depreciation over the past three decades raise questions regarding the readiness of Indonesia for participating in a monetary alliance with the ASEAN-4 nations.     

固定汇率体系下的货币政策:对未来中国货币政策的探讨

Using a macro dynamic model that is specified for the current Chinese economy, we investigate the monetary policy in China under the assumption that the capital market was “open” under WTO frame-work while the exchange rate was fixed. Our purpose here is to find whether it is possible for China in this case to keep the effective monetary policy for stabilizing the domestic economy. For this, we suggest some institutional arrangements (or restrictions). Given these institutional restrictions, we find that not only the monetary policy can still be effective but also the fixed exchange regime will strengthen the macroeconomic stability shared by both the domestic economy and the economy of its trade partners. The dynamic analysis of the model further shows that the under-valued RMB is necessary for the target exchange rate to be sustainable. Finally, due to the import pattern of the current Chinese economy, RMB appreciation will not help to resolve the trade deficit problem in the Western economy with respect to China.      

Monetary policy in a dual currency environment

We develop a small open economy general equilibrium model with sticky prices and partial dollarization – a situation where both domestic and foreign currencies coexist. We derive a tractable representation of the model in terms of domestic inflation and the output gap in which a trade-off, which depends on the degree of dollarization, arises endogenously due to the presence of foreign interest rate shocks. We use this framework to show analytically how higher degrees of dollarization induce larger volatilities of the output gap and inflation, thus hampering a central bank’s effectiveness to stabilize the economy. Our impulse response functions show that the transmission of such shocks has a positive (negative) effect on inflation and negative (positive) effect on the output gap when money aggregates and consumption are complements (substitutes).     

开放经济下货币政策国际传导机制分析

对在开放经济条件下,以货币供应量、利率、汇率为载体进行的货币政策的国际传导机制进行了深入剖析。认为货币政策在国际间的传导方式是公开的,其对他国货币政策的影响是间接的、双向的。这就要求货币当局在制定和实施货币政策时必须考虑国际经济因素的影响,也促使各国在货币政策上进行协调与合作,以尽可能地保证一国货币政策目标的实现和共同福利的最大化。     

中国货币政策工具的协调性分析及对策

运用向量自回归(VAR)模型和Johansan协整检验,对中国货币政策工具之间协调性进行分析,结果表明:货币政策工具的各项指标之间存在不同程度的依存关系,而央行贷款利率始终能有效地抑制外汇占款,因此应加强货币政策工具的配合使用及合理控制外汇占款.     

Monetary policy, macroeconomic adjustment and currency speculation under floating exchange rates: the case of Bulgaria

This paper deals with the Bulgarian experience with exchange rate policy and the related macroeconomic adjustment in the transition period. It is argued that in the context of the Bulgarian macroeconomic environment, the exchange rate regime and the exchange rate policy (or the lack of such) did play a crucial role in determining the patterns of macroeconomic adjustment in this period. A simple general equilibrium model is suggested that provides some insights into the stylized performance of an economy under certain assumptions, similar to those characterizing the transitional state of the Bulgarian economy. Finally, some aspects of Bulgarian macroeconomic performance in recent years are analysed on the basis of the available empirical information and using the framework of the theoretical model. The paper concludes with the policy lessons of this experience.     

Monetary policy under a multiple-tool environment

Since the 2008 global financial crisis, central banks have been using a new set of policy tools in addition to conventional tools (such as short-term interest rates) to conduct monetary policy. This paper employs a methodology that captures 25 of these tools with a limited number of factors for Turkey. Due to a set of factors such as the high volatility of inflation, market-friendly financial architecture and its size, Turkey provides a unique environment to capture these factors and their effects on economic performance. The three factors identified here can be categorized as interest rate, central bank foreign exchange position and liquidity. The empirical evidence reveals that these three factors affect all the economic-state variables considered in the paper in different directions and magnitudes.     

Monetary policy in the UK

The authors argue that the institutional dimension of the Bankof England monetary policy and the role the UK HM Treasury assumesin this framework are both firmly based on the New Consensusin Macroeconomics (NCM). This is also the theoretical frameworkupon which the inflation targeting element of monetary policyis firmly based. This paper discusses these aspects of UK monetarypolicy, and then assesses the policy that has been pursued since1997 (with some reference made to the period between 1992 and1997 when a version of the framework was introduced). The strategyhas been successful in terms of keeping UK inflation rates withinthe targets set by HM Treasury. However, a number of problematicissues are highlighted and discussed.     

我国货币政策对股票市场影响的实证研究

对货币政策与股票市场关系的文献进行了回顾,然后运用2009～2012年的时间序列数据,实证研究货币供应量和利率对股票价格的影响,结果表明：我国的货币政策对股票市场存在影响,而货币供应量的增加会使股价上涨,利率的上升会使股价下跌。根据实证结果,提出相应的对策建议。     

Assessing the price and output effects of monetary policy in Vietnam: evidence from a VAR analysis

Using monthly data, we perform a vector-autoregressive analysis to measure the effects of monetary policy on the Vietnamese economy. We concentrate our attention on the period following the introduction of the Law on Central Bank in January 1998 (which brought the national monetary policy and its objectives in line with international practices). Contrary to previous studies on Vietnam, we find evidence suggesting that monetary policy (through the manipulation of interest rates) is an effective policy tool in stabilizing prices. However, credit growth tends to induce inflationary pressures. In addition, we find that an expansion of broad money supply leads to an increase in industrial production.