Constructing the Monetary Conditions Index for China

How can we fit different monetary transmission channels together to understand the effect of China’s monetary policy? This paper focuses on China’s monetary conditions and aggregate demand in terms of the monetary conditions index (MCI), which has been widely used as an important indicator for central banks, financial institutions, and scholars. To construct an MCI in the context of China over 1987Q1–2010Q2, we consider three channels through which monetary conditions might influence aggregate demand: the primary lending rate, the real effective exchange rate, and the bank credit. The weights of the component variables are obtained by estimating both the IS equation and the vector autoregressive model (VAR), which yield somewhat similar results. Further empirical tests show that the MCIs we derived contain useful information about future output growth and inflation in China over the short and medium term. From a historical perspective, the MCI we derived is more informative than individual monetary variables for the understanding of the development of China’s monetary conditions between 1987 and 2010.     

中国名义货币状况指数的构建

构建和监测货币状况指数是将汇率纳入货币政策框架中的一种可行方式.文章在系统分析汇率和货币供应量等变量对国内消费者价格水平的价格传递链条的基础上,运用VAR方法来构建了2005年7月人民币汇率制度改革以来的中国名义货币状况指数.研究表明,M1和名义有效汇率在名义MCI中的权重之比为1:1.17,在此基础上构建的名义MCI与消费价格指数走势是高度吻合的.从货币政策立场指示器和对通货膨胀进行监测的角度看,我国央行应关注并定期发布货币状况指数.     

基于最优货币状况指数的政策评估：方法与应用

最优货币状况指数是以最优货币政策下所选择的各政策工具的实施力度之比作为相应权重而构建的货币状况指数。基于这个定义，本文构建了最优货币状况指数，分析了它在货币政策评估上的应用，得出几点主要结论：首先，不同于一般货币状况指数，最优货币状况指数除受原指数中相关参数的组合影响外，还受政策目标变量实际值与目标值偏离额的影响。其次，最优货币状况指数可以作为衡量货币政策实施效果的判断标准。再次，汇率和信贷政策与通货膨胀的关系及其在政策目标中的相对干预力度决定了名义或实际货币状况指数权重下货币政策的实施效果。     

基于VAR的中国货币形势指数实证分析

本文根据1996～2007年我国短期实际利率、实际有效汇率和真实国内生产总值季度数据构建了我国近年来的货币形势指数,并运用VAR模型实证分析了我国货币形势指数比率。结果表明,汇率对产出变动的影响较大,而利率没有发挥应有的作用。因此,在当前我国宏观经济内外失衡的环境下,应以货币形势指数作为货币政策操作的参考指标,加快利率市场化进程,增强人民币汇率制度的灵活性。     

金融业混业经营的条件与时机选择

金融业混业经营是指银行、证券公司、保险公司等机构的业务相互渗透交叉,跨业经营,不局限于自身分营业务的范围。随着我国加入WTO,如何应对入世后的国际金融业竞争成了经济学界关注的热点,而其中的焦点是我国的金融业混业经营存在的问题。     

我国货币政策实施条件变化及应对策略

新常态下,货币政策实施条件发生显著变化:经济增长率下降的同时,就业压力趋缓;国际收支顺差收窄,外汇占款下降;货币供给同通货膨胀和经济增长的联系显著弱化。传统货币政策在稳增长、调结构过程中表现捉襟见肘,而持续的工具创新为新常态下非常规货币政策实施创造了有利条件。应进一步疏通利率传导渠道,强化政策利率变动对融资成本的影响;拓宽基础货币投放渠道,以货币精准投放替代全面宽松;善用"窗口指导",完善公开市场操作常态化机制,提升货币政策实施透明度。     

货币市场与货币政策

一国货币市场的建设不能仅仅依赖一、二个子市场,而应该货币市场建成一个子市场多元化的体系,各个子市场之间相互关联、形成统一体。只有这样,中央银行才能在货币上配套利用不同的信用工具实现货币市场的功能,贯彻货币政策的宗旨,体现货币政策的取向。本将在研究货币市场发展的基础上,分析货币市场与货币政策之间的关系。     

开放条件下我国货币政策非对称性效应的形成机理及实证检验

笔者采用协整检验、格兰杰因果检验和OLS回归法对我国货币政策在开放条件下的非对称性进行了实证检验。结论表明,我国货币供给的正负向冲击对产出具有显著非对称性,但在经济开放条件下这种非对称性会减缓。针对研究结论,笔者提出减缓货币政策非对称性的建议,这对完善我国宏观经济调控机制和提高货币政策的有效性,有重要的理论和实践意义。     

Alternative Monetary Targets,Instruments and Future Monetary Policy Frameworks

ABSTRACT

This article expands on the debate of whether merely controlling inflation can be considered a good outcome in terms of monetary policy, discussing proposals for adopting alternative monetary targets (e.g., price level, nominal GDP), alternative instruments (e.g., monetary finance, central bank digital currencies), for enlarging central banks' mandates (e.g., incorporating employment, wages, inequality, environmental objectives) and for the design of future monetary policy frameworks.

We argue that in the coming years, central banks should not simply maintain their pre-2008 standards by de-implementing unconventional monetary policies. Instead, they must take advantage of their past and recent experiences in order to improve, under an evolutionary perspective, future monetary policy and financial stability frameworks. Based on this, measures implemented since the 2008 crisis would have three possible treatments in new frameworks: i) be discarded, due to their predominantly adverse effects; ii) not be regularly implemented, but be used as backstop mechanisms if needed; iii) be incorporated as regular measures of monetary policy/financial stability frameworks. Accordingly, monetary and financial stability authorities will increasingly need to evolve and engage in a continuously adaptive and innovative process in order to face challenges posed by financial markets that are becoming more dynamic, innovative, complex, interconnected and globalised.     

Monetary policy implementation and transmission in the European Monetary Union

I discuss possible problems engendered by loss of national monetary policies, and study them from three empirical perspectives. First, are business cycles sufficiently synchronized across EMU member countries? The evidence suggests that economic activity in those countries has become increasingly correlated in the 1990s, and that policy co–ordination has played a role in generating that outcome. Second, are there asymmetries in the mechanisms through which policy affects economic activity? The paper documents that policy transmission was indeed heterogeneous in the member countries, and that structural and financial factors were sensibly related to cross–country differences in the response of output to a monetary policy shock. Third, how is policy implemented in an environment of diverse business cycle fundamentals and transmission mechanisms? Estimation of monetary policy reaction functions finds that the European Central Bank is closer to an aggregate of the central banks in Germany, France, and Italy than to the Bundesbank alone.     

Optimal Monetary Policy

Optimal monetary policy maximizes the welfare of a representative agent, given frictions in the economic environment. Constructing a model with two sets of frictions—costly price adjustment by imperfectly competitive firms and costly exchange of wealth for goods—we find optimal monetary policy is governed by two familiar principles. First, the average level of the nominal interest rate should be sufficiently low, as suggested by Milton Friedman, that there should be deflation on average. Yet, the Keynesian frictions imply that the optimal nominal interest rate is positive. Second, as various shocks occur to the real and monetary sectors, the price level should be largely stabilized, as suggested by Irving Fisher, albeit around a deflationary trend path. Since expected inflation is roughly constant through time, the nominal interest rate must therefore vary with the Fisherian determinants of the real interest rate. Although the monetary authority has substantial leverage over real activity in our model economy, it chooses real allocations that closely resemble those which would occur if prices were flexible. In our benchmark model, there is some tendency for the monetary authority to smooth nominal and real interest rates.     

Federal Monetary Policy

What is the optimal institutional structure for a federal central bank? The framework developed in this paper is used to analyze under what conditions an individual region will prefer a monetary union to be organized according to regional or common influences and how a combination of both can be rationalized. The implications of an enlargement of a monetary union for changes in its institutional setup are also derived.