Measuring monetary policy and its impact on the bond market of an emerging economy

In view of multiple instruments used by many central banks in emerging market economies (EMEs), we derive a composite measure of monetary policy for India and assess its impact on the yield curve. Our results show that while monetary policy has the dominant impact among macroeconomic variables on the entire term structure, it is particularly strong at the shorter end and on credit spreads. Shifts in the level of the government yield curve and credit spreads also lead to changes in monetary policy. In terms of robustness, our measure performs better than a narrative-based measure of monetary policy available in the literature.     

收益率曲线控制的历史演进、理论基础及影响

近期收益率曲线控制问题引起业界广泛关注.为此,全面回顾了收益率曲线控制的历史,并阐述了收益率曲线控制的思想渊源、存在的争议及传导机制,以构建收益率曲线控制的理论基础.收益率曲线控制影响经济增长的传导机制可能有信号效应、组合再平衡效应、流量效应、财富效应.我国未来如果广泛实施收益率曲线控制可能会产生以下影响:一是促进经济复苏,二是资产价格大幅上涨,三是金融风险加大,四是宏观杠杆率大幅上升,五是损害央行信誉.     

Monetary Policy Uncertainty and the Response of the Yield Curve to Policy Shocks

This paper studies the nonlinear response of the term structure of interest rates to monetary policy shocks and presents a new stylized fact. We show that uncertainty about monetary policy changes the way the term structure responds to monetary policy. A policy tightening leads to a significantly smaller increase in long-term bond yields if policy uncertainty is high at the time of the shock. We also look at the decomposition of bond yields into expectations about future policy and the term premium. The weaker response of yields is driven by the fall in term premia, which fall more strongly if uncertainty about policy is high. Conditional on a monetary policy shock, higher uncertainty about monetary policy tends to make securities with longer maturities relatively more attractive to investors. As a consequence, investors demand even lower term premia. These findings are robust to the measurement of monetary policy uncertainty, the definition of the monetary policy shock, and to changing the model specification.     

2010年下半年货币市场展望与商业银行操作策略

本文回顾了2007—2009年货币市场的各利率期限品种和交易期限结构的主要变化情况,探讨变化的宏微观因素。在对2010年宏观经济走势、货币政策预期等进行深入分析的基础上,展望了未来货币市场的流动性和利率走势,并探讨了商业银行在货币市场的主要操作策略。     

Does the Exchange Rate Respond to Monetary Policy in Mexico? Solving an Exchange Rate Puzzle in Emerging Markets

This paper argues that the null or weak response of emerging market currencies to domestic monetary policy documented in the literature is the result of wide event windows. An event study with intraday data for Mexico shows that an unanticipated tightening appreciates the currency and flattens the yield curve, consistent with the evidence for advanced economies. With daily event windows, however, only the yield curve responds to monetary policy. Noise in daily exchange rate returns explains the lack of response of the currency. Such noise gives rise to a bias that declines after controlling for potential omitted variables.     

Greenspan's Conundrum and the Fed's Ability to Affect Long‐Term Yields

In February 2005 Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan noticed that the 10‐year Treasury yields failed to increase despite a 150‐basis‐point increase in the federal funds rate and called it a “conundrum.” This paper investigates the historical relationship between the 10‐year Treasury yield and the federal funds rate and finds that the relationship changed dramatically in the late 1980s, well in advance of Greenspan's observation. The paper evaluates three competing hypotheses for the change. The evidence from a variety of sources supports the conclusion that the most plausible explanation is that the change occurred because the FOMC began using the federal funds rate as a policy instrument.     

Modelling the term structure of interest rates in a small emerging market economy

This paper investigates the term structure of interest rates in a small emerging market economy – the Dominican Republic. The modelling finds a significant dynamic link amongst the day-to-day interbank interest rate and a representative banking system interest rate. But the interbank rate's forecasting power breaks down in the aftermath of the 2003 banking crisis. This episode illustrates how the monetary authorities' credibility with the public and market expectations affect the term structure's reliability.     

Oman's monetary policy transmission process under the fixed peg: some empirical puzzles

This paper highlights that an open economy, like Oman, could often enjoy partial monetary policy independence despite operating with a fixed peg, which may appear as a clear violation of the ‘macroeconomic trilemma'. While explaining the country-specific factors that create the scope for partial monetary policy independence, the paper underscores that for meaningful use of this partial monetary policy independence to attain domestic goals of inflation and output, the transmission mechanism of monetary policy must work effectively. Empirical analyses presented in this paper for Oman, however, suggest the presence of not only the ‘interest rate puzzle’ but also the ‘IS puzzle’ and the ‘Phillips curve puzzle’, which together signal the presence of significant transmission weaknesses. The paper, thus, concludes that costs stemming from loss of any monetary policy independence because of the fixed peg may not be very significant for Oman, and hence, any alternative exchange rate regime cannot be viewed as appropriate just on the grounds that an alternative regime could deliver greater monetary policy independence.     

Unconventional monetary policy and stock repurchases: Firm-level evidence from a comparison between the United States and Japan

This paper is the first comparative study examining the determinants of stock repurchases during the period of unconventional monetary policy. By constructing a vast firm-level dataset of the U.S. and Japan and conducting multivariate Tobit and probit analyses, this paper presents evidence that during the period of unconventional monetary policy, in both the U.S. and Japan, firms with more free cash flow and lower borrowing costs are more likely to repurchase stock, firms with higher financial leverage are more likely to abstain from stock repurchases, and firms coordinate dividends and stock repurchases to please shareholders. I also find striking contrasts between the results of U.S. and Japanese firms, and show the importance of financial structure in explaining the contrasting results. From a micro perspective, this paper provides new insight and evidence to support the view that financial structure should be thought of as an important factor determining the effects of unconventional monetary policy.     

Changes in the Federal Reserve Communication Strategy: A Structural Investigation

This paper structurally investigates the changes in the Fed's communication strategy since the mid‐1990s through the lens of anticipated and unanticipated disturbances to a Taylor rule. The anticipated disturbances are identified using Treasury bond yield data in estimating a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model with a term structure of interest rates. Our estimation results show that the Fed's decisions were unanticipated for market participants until 1999, but thereafter a larger portion of its future policy actions tended to be communicated in advance. We also find that the relative contribution of the anticipated monetary policy disturbances to macroeconomic fluctuations became larger after 1999. The bond yield data is indispensable to these results, since it contains crucial information on an expected future path of the federal funds rate.     

货币政策不确定性、风险承担与银行信贷期限

基于中国商业银行的微观数据,构建面板回归模型,考察货币政策不确定性对银行信贷期限的影响及其作用机制。研究发现：货币政策不确定性对银行信贷期限具有缩减效应。货币政策不确定性加大了银行风险承担,促使银行更倾向于短期信贷配置决策而引致信贷期限缩减效应,“货币政策不确定性—风险承担—银行信贷期限”的传导渠道有效。此外,宏观审慎政策、跨境资本流动及银行家乐观度均能够负向调节货币政策不确定性引发的信贷期限缩减效应。基于此,为防控以信贷期限为特征的时间维度的银行业系统性风险,应建立及完善货币政策与宏观审慎政策相互协作调控的双支柱政策框架,并优化跨境资本开放时序以及构建基于货币政策感受指数的银行家乐观度监测机制。     

中央银行：选择什么目标，需要什么工具

本文围绕中央银行的多重货币政策目标和多种货币政策工具的选择问题,重点对中央银行是否应当直接以经济活动作为货币政策目标、兼顾金融稳定、关注汇率以及如何应对名义利率下限等四个问题展开讨论。