Revisiting the shocking aspects of Asian monetary unification

There is renewed interest in monetary cooperation in Asia. To the extent that such cooperation evolves to include discussions about co-ordination of exchange rate policies it is important to evaluate the desirability of such co-ordination. Such an evaluation involves in part an assessment of the cross-country correlation of macro-economic shocks, a criterion used in the past to assess the desirability of monetary unification. In revisiting this question this paper not only updates previous studies, but it makes two significant methodological contributions to the literature based on estimates of vector autoregression (VAR) models. Our empirical specification allows for the possibility that aggregate demand and aggregate supply shocks are contemporaneously correlated within each economy, on the one hand, and takes explicit account of third-country common influences on each economy, on the other. Our results show that previous findings in the literature do not always hold up when our modelling methodology is applied to the data. With respect to the implications for monetary unification our results do not clearly identify a group of countries for which shocks are unambiguously highly correlated and which therefore would be able to perform well with a common monetary policy. The correlation structure differs between aggregate demand shocks and aggregate supply shocks.     

On the choice of an anchor for the GCC currency: does the symmetry of shocks extend to both the oil and the non-oil sectors?

This paper assesses the costs of forming a monetary union among the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries by looking at economic linkages within the GCC, and between the GCC and the potential anchors (the US, and major European countries such as France, Germany and Italy) for their proposed new currency. We investigate the importance of the US dollar compared to the Euro by focusing on aggregate demand (AD) and aggregate supply (AS) shock symmetry across these countries. We differentiated between oil and non-oil sector by estimating structural vector autoregression (SVAR) models with a combination of variables: oil output, non-oil output, total output, nominal/real price of oil and overall price level. One set of models was identified with the long-run restrictions of Blanchard and Quah (Am Econ Rev 79(4):655–673, 1989), whereas the set that assesses the robustness of the findings was estimated with the short-run restrictions of Sims (Eur Econ Rev 36(5):975–1000, 1992). We find overwhelming support for AD shock symmetry across the GCC countries and between the GCC and the US, but none for the major European countries with the GCC. Non-oil AS shocks are mostly asymmetric, but oil AS shocks are mostly symmetric when the real price of oil is included. This agrees with the view that GCC countries are subjected to common oil shocks. It also suggests that previous VAR models estimated to pass judgment on the feasibility of monetary union across GCC countries may have suffered from problems of mis-specification if the real price of oil was not considered. We surmise that the US dollar is a better anchor candidate for anchoring the new GCC currency than the Euro, since US monetary policy can at least help smooth demand shocks in these countries.     

SHOULD THE SOUTHEAST ASIAN COUNTRIES FORM A CURRENCY UNION?

This paper examines some of the factors related to the formation of a currency union in Southeast Asia. The main part of the paper presents the results of our examination of the correlation of shocks for the Southeast Asian countries using a structural vector autoregression. The shocks are identified using restrictions on the long‐run coefficient matrix as suggested by Blanchard and Quah (1989). The correlations of shocks for the EU and NAFTA countries are used for comparison. The Southeast Asian countries are shown to have more strongly correlated shocks than the EU countries. Compared with the NAFTA countries, external shocks are more closely correlated for the ASEAN countries, but the supply and demand shocks are less correlated. Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia, in particular, exhibit a high degree of correlation of shocks. Other criteria for monetary union, such as intra‐regional trade, openness of the economy, and similarity of monetary policy are also examined.     

DYNAMIC EFFECTS OF MONETARY POLICY SHOCKS IN MALAWI

This paper sets out to investigate the process through which monetary policy affects economic activity in Malawi. Using innovation accounting in a structural vector autoregressive model, it is established that monetary authorities in Malawi employ hybrid operating procedures and pursue both price stability and high growth and employment objectives. Two operating targets of monetary policy are identified, viz., bank rate and reserve money, and it is demonstrated that the former is a more effective measure of monetary policy than the latter. The study also illustrates that bank lending, exchange rates and aggregate money supply contain important additional information in the transmission process of monetary policy shocks in Malawi. Furthermore, it is shown that the floatation of the Malawi Kwacha in February 1994 had considerable effects on the country's monetary transmission process. In the post‐1994 period, the role of exchange rates became more conspicuous than before although its impact was weakened, and the importance of aggregate money supply and bank lending in transmitting monetary policy impulses was enhanced. Overall, the monetary transmission process evolved from a weak, blurred process to a somewhat strong, less ambiguous mechanism.     

Decomposing the U.S. Great Depression: How important were loan supply shocks?

We measure the contributions of loan supply shocks and other macroeconomic shocks to U.S. output dynamics during the Great Depression. Using structural vector autoregressions, we impose sign restrictions to identify shocks. We find that loan supply shocks contributed negatively to output growth between 1931 and 1933, at the same time as the U.S. experienced several waves of banking crises. Thus, our results support the view that disruptions in credit availability contributed to the depth and length of the Great Depression. We also find that adverse aggregate demand and monetary policy shocks were important factors in the downturn.     

Inflation under the Bretton Woods system: The spillover effects of U.S. expansionary policies

This paper examines the transmission effects of U.S. expansionary policies on inflation in the G7 countries under the latter years of the Bretton Woods system. Using quarterly data and structural vector autoregressions, this paper investigates the extent of inflation variability due to U.S. aggregate supply and aggregate demand impulses in major industrial countries. Empirical results show that a sizable proportion of inflation variability in these countries can be attributed to U.S. shocks. A brief discussion follows concerning the breakdown of Bretton Woods and implications for the design and functioning of international monetary arrangements.     

Delegation and Fiscal Policy in the Open Economy: More Bad News for Rogoff's Delegation Game

This article studies the open-economy Rogoff delegation game, taking into account both intra-country and intercountry interactions between fiscal authorities and central banks. With representative bankers, the Nash equilibrium of fiscal and monetary authorities independently responding to supply-side shocks sees insufficient monetary adjustment and an imbalance towards fiscal stabilization if shocks are sufficiently symmetric; the opposite occurs if shocks are sufficiently asymmetric. Appointing conservative bankers shifts the fiscal–monetary balance away from monetary towards fiscal policy. Unilateral delegation benefits that country; but when all countries independently delegate, the outcome is only favorable if shocks are sufficiently asymmetric.     

Sources of Real Exchange Rate Volatility in Africa: The Case of ECOWAS*

Abstract: This study examines the impact of (real) demand shocks, (aggregate) supply shocks, and monetary shocks on real exchange rates in 13 West African countries. We observe that the real demand shocks explain most of the fluctuations in real exchange rates in all these countries. Accordingly, policymakers should adopt a careful demand management strategy by controlling government expenditure and taxes.     

Is the proposed East African Monetary Union an optimal currency area? a structural vector autoregression analysis

This paper empirically assesses the suitability of the East African (EA) countries for a regional monetary union by testing for symmetry of the underlying structural shocks. The results indicate that supply and demand shocks are generally asymmetric, which does not lend strong support for forming a currency union in the EA region at the moment. However, the speed and magnitude of adjustment to shocks is similar across the countries. Therefore, further integration of the economies might lead to more favorable conditions for a monetary union. Although evidence in favor of linking an EA currency to an external anchor is weak, such support seems to favor the Euro.     

Transmission of China's Shocks to the BRIS Countries

This paper investigates the effects of China on the BRIS countries, namely Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa. We identify Chinese supply and demand shocks and assess their transmission to BRIS in a structural dynamic factor model framework estimated over the period 1995Q2‐2009Q4. The findings show that Chinese supply shocks are more important than its demand shocks. Supply shocks produce positive and significant output responses in all BRIS countries. And while these supply shocks have a permanent impact on the BRIS countries, the effects of demand shocks are short‐lived. Both supply and demand shocks are transmitted through trade rather than financial linkages. However, the responses of the BRIS countries are heterogeneous and therefore require country‐specific policy responses.     

“大水漫灌”还是“精准滴灌”:基于时-频域动态视角下房价调控机制研究

基于时-频域动态视角采用小波分析模型,文章结合高频序列和低频数据在同一框架内研究总量货币政策、结构性信贷政策和房价波动三者之间不同时期的动态影响关系,并进一步甄别供需调控对房价的异质性影响。实证发现,作为房价调控的手段,结构性信贷要优于总量货币政策,而结构性信贷的影响机制是,中期时供给端调控存在非对称性,长期和超长期需求端优于供给端调控,这表明需求结构性信贷政策+总量货币政策工具的调控效果更佳。因此,应用价值体现在遏制房价的过程中,政府应该让"大水漫灌"式的总量货币政策用于"事前预防",而让"精准滴灌"式的结构性信贷政策用于"事后控制",在不同的时-频域中以前者为辅后者为主交替或协调使用,以此防止房地产市场泡沫累积而爆发风险。     

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.     

Historical Decomposition of Aggregate Demand and Supply Shocks in a Small Macro Model

We estimate and analyze the impact of multiple aggregate demand and aggregate supply shocks in a small macroeconomic model of the economy. The analysis serves two purposes. First, we assess the relative importance of the various shocks in explaining the path of output over the past three decades. Second, we conduct counterfactual policy experiments which show the effects of alternative policies on key macro variables. We find that using the monetary policy tool (reserves or the base) such that constant money growth occurs would have produced superior economic results.     

The dynamics of aggregate demand and supply shocks in ASEAN countries

This paper revisits the issue of identification of aggregate demand and supply shocks in ASEAN countries using an alternative identification scheme where the aggregate demand and supply shocks are allowed to be correlated. Applying the technique of Cover, Enders, and Hueng (2006) within a bivariate Structural VAR model, this paper shows that aggregate demand and supply shocks are interrelated (positively) in ASEAN countries. Unlike most of the previous studies, it is found that changes in the output level are mainly driven by aggregate demand shocks, whereas supply shocks play the dominant role in affecting inflation in ASEAN countries. The correlation of the shocks across the countries is found to be quite small, suggesting that ASEAN is still not set to form a common currency union.     

Sectoral Effects of Monetary Policy: Evidence from Malaysia

The present paper analyzes the effects of monetary policy shocks on aggregate and eight sectoral outputs for Malaysia using vector autoregressive models. In line with many existing studies on Malaysia, the results are supportive of the real effects of monetary policy shocks. More importantly, we find evidence suggesting sector-specific responses to innovations in monetary policy. In response to positive interest rate shocks, we note that the manufacturing, construction, finance, insurance, real estate and business services sectors seem to decline more than aggregate production. By contrast, we observe the relative insensitivities of agriculture, forestry and fishing, mining and quarrying, electricity, gas and water to interest rate changes. The results, therefore, seem to confirm potential disparities in the effect of monetary policy on real sectoral activities.     

Deep habits and the dynamic effects of monetary policy shocks

We introduce deep habits into a sticky-price sticky-wage economy and examine the resulting models ability to account for the impact of monetary policy shocks. The deep habits mechanism gives rise to countercyclical markup movements even when prices are flexible and interacts with nominal rigidities in interesting ways. Key parameters are estimated using a limited information approach. The deep habits model can account very precisely for the persistent impact of monetary policy shocks on aggregate consumption and for both the price puzzle and inflation persistence. A key insight is that the deep habits mechanism and nominal rigidities are complementary: the deep habits model can account for the dynamic effects of monetary policy shock at low to moderate levels of nominal rigidities. The results are shown to be stable over time and not caused by monetary policy changes.     

Inflation Uncertainty and Monetary Policy in China

This paper uses a stochastic volatility model structural break tests with unknown point, and a counterfactual simulation method to discuss the significant decline in inflation uncertainty in China over 1978-2009. We attempt to quantify the contributions of better monetary policy and smaller structural shocks （including demand, supply and policy impacts） on the reduced inflation uncertainty. Empirical results in the present paper suggest that improved monetary policy accounts for only a small fraction of the reduction in inflation uncertainty from the pre-1997 period to the post-1997 period in China. The bulk of the significant moderation in inflation uncertainty arises from smaller shocks. This finding indicates that the quiescence of inflation in China over the past decade could well be followed by a return to a more turbulent inflation era. Therefore, the use of preemptive monetary policy to anchor inflationary expectations and keep moderate inflation uncertainty is warranted.     

Monetary policy responses of Asian countries to spillovers from US monetary policy

Regional integration in Asia has been considerably enhanced over the past 20 years or so. Whether integration helps Asian countries reduce their vulnerability to external shocks or is a channel for spreading external shocks remains an open question. This paper assesses the spillovers from US monetary policy shocks to Asian countries while taking into account country‐specific characteristics in explaining differences in timing and magnitude of responses across Asian countries. The results indicate that policy interest rates in Asian countries generally respond to innovations in the Fed rate in the same direction, but typically with a lag of one quarter. However, the size of the responses varies across Asian countries with respect to country‐specific characteristics. These results suggest that an independent monetary policy may not be feasible for an Asian developing country that adopts a pegged rate regime while being extensively integrated into the world economy. However, the hypothesis of the impossible trinity may not be relevant in the case of China.     

Labour Market Asymmetries in a Monetary Union

This paper takes a first step in analysing how a monetary union performs in the presence of labour market asymmetries. Differences in wage flexibility, market power and country sizes are allowed for in a setting with both country-specific and aggregate shocks. The implications of asymmetries for both the overall performance of the monetary union and the country-specific situation are analysed. It is shown that asymmetries are not only critical for country-specific performance but also for the overall performance of the monetary union. A striking finding is that aggregate output volatility is not strictly increasing in nominal rigidities but hump-shaped. Moreover, a disproportionate share of the consequences of wage inflexibility may fall on small countries. In the case of country-specific shocks, a country unambiguously benefits in terms of macroeconomic stability by becoming more flexible, while this is not necessarily the case for aggregate shocks. There may thus be a tension between the degree of flexibility considered optimal at the country level and at the aggregate level within the monetary union.     

The case for price level or inflation targeting—What happened to monetary policy effectiveness during the Japanese disinflation?

This paper examines whether price level or inflation targeting would have been appropriate policy choices for Japan during its disinflation and deflation period. We employ Markov switching and structural vector autoregressions, together with structural IS equations, to investigate monetary policy effectiveness during the Japanese disinflation. We find evidence of regime switching in the mid-1990s in a model including the nominal policy interest rate. When monetary policy shocks are identified by using the McCallum rule for monetary base, a monetary expansion is found to have a statistically significant impact on prices. Moreover, a lower real ex ante interest rate can still stimulate the economy despite the zero lower bound on nominal interest rates.