The Euro versus the U.S. dollar: an overview

The creation of the euro will prove to be a remarkable development in international relations and carries far-reaching implications for the international monetary system. The objectives of this paper are four-fold. The first objective is to provide a brief overview of previous monetary unions in Europe. It covers three surviving monetary unions and two that failed. The second objective is to provide a review of major developments leading to the creation of the euro. The third objective is to analyze the opportunities and threats associated with the euro. The fourth objective is to provide an overview of the on-going debate as to whether the euro will be a serious challenger to the U.S. dollar.     

Monetary policy in a Union of 27: Enlargement and reform options

It is to be expected that by early 2006 the European monetary union will be enlarged by up to 10 countries. This poses the question as to whether the current decision-making structure in the common central bank is adequate for such a large membership. Not only will such a large number of national representatives impair the efficiency of decision-making, but monetary policy will have to deal with a much more heterogenous group of members. The following article addresses the problem of enlargement and discusses reform options for the central bank.     

An appropriate international monetary order for developing countries?

The mounting balance of payments difficulties of most developing countries raise the question whether they are not aggravated by an international monetary system which is tailored to the requirements of industrialized countries and how the existing system could possibly be adapted to the needs of the developing countries. Dr. Ullrich is examining this question, using Black Africa as an example. The countries there are very similar in their historical and economic development and are all integrated in the western monetary system.     

Central Banks and Macroeconomic Ambidexterity

The financial crisis of 2008 led to questions of whether monetary policy alone was sufficient to stabilise the macroeconomy and the financial system. The result has been an emphasis on macroprudential financial regulation to act in tandem with monetary policy. This article describes the emergence of macroprudential policy, how historical financial crises might have been mitigated had it been in place, and its ambidexterity with monetary policy as twin instruments for macroeconomic stabilisation.     

东亚经济冲击对称性分析与东亚货币合作

经济冲击的对称性程度,是判断一组经济体是否可以进行货币合作的一个良好指标。本文在前人研究的基础上,对经济冲击的分解变量进行了重新选择,将东亚9个经济体的经济冲击分解为供给冲击、需求冲击和货币冲击。静态与动态实证结果都显示东亚目前的冲击对称性程度还不高。未来东亚货币合作的方向,除了在整体上继续推动东亚各经济体在各领域的合作外,重点是要推进大国之间的经济合作与协调。     

中国货币政策对银行风险承担行为的影响研究——基于异质性视角

国际金融危机的爆发引发了理论界对货币政策是否影响银行体系稳定更为广泛的关注。文章基于异质性视角构建动态面板数据模型对货币政策与银行风险承担行为之间的关系进行估计,研究结果表明：2003-2011年,货币政策变量对银行风险偏好的影响具有时滞性,贷款利率提高有助于抑制银行风险,货币供应量增加会刺激银行更加冒险;不同银行对货币政策冲击会做出异质反应,随着资本充足率的提高,货币政策对银行风险承担行为的影响效果减弱。因此,加强中国人民银行在宏观审慎监管中的主导作用、建立逆周期的货币政策和资本监管协调机制是后金融危机时代我国监管当局的重要议题。     

货币政策信贷传导渠道的理论评述

货币政策传导机制的关键及政策效果大小在于其传导渠道是否通畅。信贷渠道理论从信息不完全和不对称问题引发的信贷市场代理问题入手,强调银行等金融结构的信贷数额变动对货币政策传导的真实效应。信贷渠道的传导机制在我国表现抢眼,很多研究证实了目前我国货币政策传导中占据主体地位的依然是信贷传导机制。然而现有研究大多集中在实证层面,理论上鲜有建树,后期研究应着力于构建能够考察我国货币政策信贷传导机制的经济模型和动态效应,为货币政策决策提供实证参考。     

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.     

Exchange rates and fundamentals: evidence on the economic value of predictability

A major puzzle in international finance is the well-documented inability of models based on monetary fundamentals to produce better out-of-sample forecasts of the nominal exchange rate than a naive random walk. While this literature has generally employed statistical measures of forecast accuracy, we investigate whether there is any economic value to the predictive power of monetary fundamentals for the exchange rate. We find that, in the context of a simple asset allocation problem, the economic value of exchange rate forecasts from a fundamentals model can be greater than the economic value of random walk forecasts across a range of horizons.     

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.     

Policy Rules in the Economic and Monetary Union

This paper studies whether a monetary union can be managed solely by a rule-based approach. The Five Presidents’ Report of the European Union rejects this idea. It suggests a centralisation of powers. We analyse the philosophy of policy rules from the vantage point of the German economic school of thought. There is evidence that a monetary union consisting of sovereign states is well organised by rules, together with the principle of subsidiarity. The root cause of the euro crisis is rather the weak enforcement of rules, compounded by structural problems. Therefore, we suggest a genuine rule-based paradigm for a stable future of the Economic and Monetary Union.     

A Partially Hidden Markov Model of Customer Dynamics for CLV Measurement

Customer lifetime value (CLV) measurement is challenging as it requires forecasting customers' future purchases. Existing stochastic CLV models for this purpose generally make the following assumptions: 1) purchase behavior of customers can be described by purchase frequency and the average monetary value of transactions, 2) customers keep the same purchase behavior pattern over time, 3) purchase frequency and monetary value are independent, and 4) customers are active during a limited period of time after which they permanently defect. We develop a new stochastic model that relaxes these four assumptions. First, in addition to the number of transactions and its monetary values, we also model purchase incidence decisions (i.e. whether or not to purchase). Second, our partially hidden Markov truncated–NBD-GG (PHM/TNBD-GG) model allows dynamic purchase patterns, dependence between purchase frequency and monetary value, and customers to become active after a few periods of temporary inactivity. Validation of our model on two datasets demonstrates that if assumptions 1 to 4 of existing stochastic models are violated our model produces more accurate forecasts of future customer behavior.     

The monetary base or M1? results from a small macromodel

This article investigates the issue of whether M1 or the monetary base should be used as an intermediate target for monetary policy. Because the target variable should be reliably related to future economic activity, each aggregate is used in estimating a small macromodel which consists of a nominal GNP growth equation and an inflation specification. The empirical results indicate that M1 better explains GNP growth and inflation for the period 1960–1980. Forecast errors of GNP growth from 1970–1980 are reduced when M1 is used instead of the adjusted base, although there is little difference between inflation forecasts. Based on the evidence presented in this study, M1 is preferred as the intermediate target variable.     

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.     

Harnessing the creative potential of consumers: money,participation, and creativity in idea crowdsourcing

Given the growing importance of innovation and consumer engagement, many firms are strongly interested in finding ways to encourage their consumers to generate creative new product ideas for them in their crowdsourcing initiatives. To that end, managers often use monetary rewards—one of the most commonly used managerial tools to stimulate desired behaviors. A critical question in this respect is whether the use of monetary rewards is effective in stimulating creativity and, if so, how large those rewards should be. This study aims to answer these questions. The results of an experiment suggest that introducing monetary rewards does not contribute to the number of new product ideas generated by a single consumer or the novelty of his/her ideas, and when the reward is relatively small, it can even be harmful. Monetary rewards, however, are effective in encouraging widespread participation in crowdsourcing initiatives and improving the appropriateness of the new product ideas. As a whole, these findings take us a step further toward better understanding the motivational mechanisms of consumer creativity in new product ideation.     

房价上涨、通货膨胀与货币政策的选择

在房价上涨助推通货膨胀理论分析的基础上,采取VAR和条件均值模型对房价上涨是否助长了通货膨胀以及货币政策的切入时机进行实证分析。结果显示,房价上涨通过影响总需求对通货膨胀有正向推动作用,房价上涨超过5%的6个月后存款准备金率上调,超过10%的12个月后利率上调。对此,提出积极调控房价并适时调整货币政策的建议。     

货币政策对股票和债券市场流动性影响的差异性研究

以上交所上市的全部股票和银行间债券市场的国债为研究对象,运用Granger因果检验、脉冲响应函数以及方差分解等计量分析方法,分析货币政策对于中国股票市场和银行间债券市场流动性的影响及其差异性。研究发现:货币政策没有对两个市场的流动性产生持久性影响,冲击程度较低,对两个市场流动性影响的差异性较小。     

海湾六国经货联盟经济周期同步性分析

海湾六国计划在2010年建立单一货币联盟,而经济周期同步性是货币联盟稳定性的重要基础条件。本文从经济周期同步性角度考察海湾六国是否具备货币联盟稳定性的基础条件。本文通过建立多变量向量误差修正模型(VECM),并依据共同趋势和共同周期理论,对海湾六国的经济周期同步性进行了经验分析。分析结果表明:海湾六国不仅在长期内经济周期有共同的随机发展趋势;而且在短期内,经济周期是完全同步的。因此,海湾六国基本上满足货币联盟稳定性的基础条件。     

The ECB’s New Monetary Policy Strategy

The ECB updated its monetary policy strategy for the first time in 18 years in July 2021. Therein, the ECB announced that it is willing to accept a transitory period of moderate inflation overshoot in its efforts to push inflation upwards after a long period of undershooting its target. This study explores whether such an overshoot can be economically justified employing a simple Phillips curve model. The results point to the conclusion that the average inflation rate over the business cycle consolidated about one percentage point below the ECB’s target rate. A temporary asymmetry of the ECB’s monetary strategy seems therefore justified to realign inflation and inflation expectations with the target rate.

     

Does People's Bank of China communication matter? Evidence from stock market reaction

This paper tests whether the communication of the People's Bank of China affects market expectations and matters as a monetary policy tool. For that purpose, we first rely on a computational linguistic tool to measure the tone of PBC speeches and second, we use a high frequency methodology to estimate the effect of tone on stock price. Our results show that positive changes of the tone affect positively stock price in the Shanghai and the Shenzhen stocks markets. Additional extensions show that PBC communication still has a positive and significant impact on stock price even when controlling for all the monetary policy instruments implemented by the central bank, but that this impact is not persistent over time. One potential channel through which PBC tone affects stock prices is the risk-based channel of monetary policy.