Money stock revisions and unanticipated money growth

An important ‘empirical regularity’ is the strong positive effect of money shocks on output and employment. One strand of business cycle theory relates this finding to temporary confusions between absolute and relative price changes. These models predict positive output effects of unperceived monetary movements, but the quantitative importance of unperceived shifts in nominal aggregates is subject to question. Another strand of theory, based on long-term nominal contracts and analogous price-setting institutions, generates output effects from unanticipated, but not necessarily contemporaneously unperceived, money shocks. However, the real effects of unpredicted, but contemporaneously understood, monetary changes are not obviously consistent with efficient institutional arrangements. The present paper provides some empirical evidence on the two types of theories by analyzing the output effects associated with revisions in the money stock data, where the revisions are interpreted as components of unperceived monetary movements. The revisions turn out to have no significant explanatory power for output. Previous findings that innovations from an estimated money growth equation have a significant output effect remain intact when the revisions are included as separate explanatory variables. Overall, the study provides a small amount of evidence against the special role of unperceived, as opposed to unanticipated, money movements as a determinant of business fluctuations.     

A quarterly model of unanticipated monetary growth,output and the price level in the U.K. 1963–1978

This paper develops and estimates using quarterly data from 1963 to 1978 a three-equation model of the U.K. economy, in which output is affected only by unanticipated monetary growth whereas the price level is influenced by both anticipated and unanticipated changes in the money supply. Expectations of monetary growth are assumed to be Muth-rational. The model was estimated using efficient procedures and tests of the over-identifying restrictions were favourable to the model specification. In particular, anticipated monetary growth was found to have no significant effect on output.     

The Effects of Monetary Policy “News” and “Surprises”

There is substantial agreement in the monetary policy literature over the effects of exogenous monetary policy shocks. The shocks that are investigated, however, almost exclusively represent unanticipated changes in policy, which surprise the private sector and which are typically found to have a delayed and sluggish effect on output. In this paper, we estimate a New Keynesian model that incorporates news about future policies to try to disentangle the anticipated and unanticipated components of policy shocks. The paper shows that the conventional estimates confound two distinct effects on output: an effect due to unanticipated or “surprise” shocks, which is smaller and more short‐lived than the response usually obtained in the literature, and a large, delayed, and persistent effect due to anticipated policy shocks or “news.” News shocks play a larger role in influencing the business cycle than unanticipated policy shocks, although the overall fraction of economic fluctuations that can be attributed to monetary policy remains limited.     

Money and stock prices: Market efficiency and the lag in effect of monetary policy

This paper examines stock market efficiency with respect to money supply data by testing (1) regression models of stock returns on monetary variables and (2) trading rules based on money supply data. The evidence indicates no meaningful lag in the effect of monetary policy on the stock market and that no profitable security trading rules using past values of the money supply exist. Therefore this evidence is consistent with the efficient market model. Current security returns incorporate all information contained in past money supply data and, in addition, appear to anticipate future changes in the money supply. A number of previous studies have concluded that lags exist and can be used in profitable trading rules. Analysis of these studies demonstrates that for a variety of reasons the evidence in these past studies does not sustain such conclusions.     

A note on the neutrality of temporary monetary disturbances

In the rational expectations analysis of Lucas and Barro, the quantity of money is subject to random shocks that are specified to be unanticipated and permanent in character. The present note provides some simple examples of alternative money supply specifications that lead to non-neutrality of perceived temporary monetary growth through the channel of expected inflation. Subsequently, the discussion demonstrates that this non-neutrality is not robust to an alternative specification of private monetary behavior, the permanent balance model. The key difference is that the initial model involves commodity supply and demand which depend on current real balances while in the subsequent model these depend on permanent balances. Some final remarks are directed to the idea that the distinction between current and permanent balances in this simple model could be linked to alternative roles of money in more detailed, optimizing analyses.     

居民风险偏好与中国货币政策的宏观经济效应——基于DSGE模型的数量分析

当前,我国宏观经济形势复杂多变,货币政策实施效果的影响因素随之呈现多样化特征。在此背景下,本文试图以风险偏好为研究视角,对我国居民风险偏好水平变动与货币政策宏观经济效应之间的关系进行分析。本文以标准新凯恩斯模型为基础,构造符合我国宏观经济现实特征的DSGE(动态随机一般均衡)模型,并对转型时期的最优混合型货币政策规则进行研究;为进一步强调货币在中国宏观经济波动中所扮演的重要角色,模型中引入消费和实际货币余额不可分的跨期效用函数形式。研究结果表明:(1)包含名义货币增长的混合型泰勒规则拟合我国转型时期的货币政策规则效果最佳,因此货币供应量仍是重要的政策工具;(2)与可分性模型相比,不可分模型拟合我国宏观经济现实特征的效果更优。在不可分效用函数下,与货币供应量相关的实际货币余额将影响经济的产出缺口和通货膨胀,使得居民风险偏好成为决定货币政策效果的重要因素。具体而言,当居民风险偏好水平上升时,货币政策对我国宏观经济波动的影响随之增强。因此,在选择货币政策实施时点上,应充分考虑市场中的风险偏好情况,从而更好地发挥货币政策调控宏观经济的职能。     

居民风险偏好与中国货币政策的宏观经济效应——基于DSGE模型的数量分析

当前,我国宏观经济形势复杂多变,货币政策实施效果的影响因素随之呈现多样化特征。在此背景下,本文试图以风险偏好为研究视角,对我国居民风险偏好水平变动与货币政策宏观经济效应之间的关系进行分析。本文以标准新凯恩斯模型为基础,构造符合我国宏观经济现实特征的DSGE(动态随机一般均衡)模型,并对转型时期的最优混合型货币政策规则进行研究;为进一步强调货币在中国宏观经济波动中所扮演的重要角色,模型中引入消费和实际货币余额不可分的跨期效用函数形式。研究结果表明:(1)包含名义货币增长的混合型泰勒规则拟合我国转型时期的货币政策规则效果最佳,因此货币供应量仍是重要的政策工具;(2)与可分性模型相比,不可分模型拟合我国宏观经济现实特征的效果更优。在不可分效用函数下,与货币供应量相关的实际货币余额将影响经济的产出缺口和通货膨胀,使得居民风险偏好成为决定货币政策效果的重要因素。具体而言,当居民风险偏好水平上升时,货币政策对我国宏观经济波动的影响随之增强。因此,在选择货币政策实施时点上,应充分考虑市场中的风险偏好情况,从而更好地发挥货币政策调控宏观经济的职能。     

Money and inflation in the euro area: A case for monetary indicators?

This paper examines inflation indicators for the euro area by studying the relationship between inflation, output, money and interest rates, using data spanning 1980–2001. The central finding is that both the output gap and the real money gap (the difference between the real money stock and the long-run equilibrium real money stock) contain considerable information regarding future inflation. In contrast, the Eurosystem's money-growth indicator (the difference between nominal money growth and a reference value), the prominent “first pillar” in its monetary strategy, contains little information about future inflation, and no information beyond that contained in the output and real money gaps. The predictive performance of the output gap has improved compared to that in a previous version of this paper, most likely because of better estimation methods.     

The response of real wages to unanticipated money growth

This paper investigates the response of real wages to unanticipated money growth in the light of equilibrium theories of the business cycle. These theories, in their main different versions, do not deliver a common and unambiguous hypothesis on this issue. While some models implu a countercyclical real wage response during monetary cycles, others yield the opposite result of a procyclical real wage. Econometric analysis of annual and quarterly U.S. data, reported in the paper, indicates that there is a weak negative real wage response to an unanticipated increase in money growth.     

Wealth effects of open market operations and optimal monetary policy

Equilibrium models of the business cycle such as those developed by Lucas (1973) and Barro (1976), Barro (1980) are often used to analyze the effects of monetary disturbances on the economy. These models typically view monetary injections as arising through lump-sum transfer payments that are independent of an agent's holdings of money. This paper examines the effects caused by misperceptions about money for the more realistic case when money is injected through open market operations. The major result is that unperceived open market operations have a negative wealth effect.     

The information content of the exchange rate and the stability of real output under alternative exchange-rate regimes

When the exchange rate is flexible, and thus responds to market forces, it provides agents with useful information, while when it is fixed (by a feedback rule) it does not. The implications of this asymmetry for the stability of real output under the two regimes is discussed. It is shown that whenever shocks are predominantly of one variety, or when domestic monetary shocks accompanied by one real shock, a flexible exchange rate does a better job of stabilizing real output than does a fixed exchange rate. These results undermine arguments favoring fixed exchange rates because they ‘discipline’ monetary policy. In addition, it is demonstrated that managed floating rules and exchange rate feedback rules are irrelevant for the distribution of real output.     

外汇市场压力下中国货币政策效果的实证分析

对中国外汇市场压力(Exchange Market Pressure,EMP)、国内货币供给、利率、经济增长之间的相互关系进行分析表明:为应对外汇占款增加而导致的通货膨胀压力,货币当局的货币政策是紧缩性的。但是,紧缩性的货币政策又会引起EMP增大。因此,紧缩的货币政策对通货膨胀的抑制效果只能是短期性的。此外,货币供给对经济增长有显著影响,利率变化对经济增长及资金流动的信号作用已经比较明显。在美国金融危机的背景下,国内通货膨胀压力的基本消除为解决中国长期以来面临的货币政策困境提供了契机。     

Money Creation: Tax or Public Liquidity?

I revisit the example of non‐neutral anticipated monetary expansions used in Lucas (1995) Nobel Prize Lecture, within a broader definition of monetary policy tools, such as paying a nominal return on money or using open market operations, to show that money expansions increase output by reallocating consumption across heterogenous individuals and time periods. This result survives with noninterest‐bearing cash when the latter does not generate relevant distortions.     

Inventories,rational expectations,and the business cycle

The simplest macroeconomic models in which markets clear instantaneously, and expectations are rational preclude the existence of ‘business cycles’, that is, of serially correlated deviations of output from trend. This paper studies one of several mechanisms that can be used to make these so-called ‘new-classical’ models produce business cycles; the mechanism is the gradual adjustment of inventory stocks. Two macroeconomic models of inventory holdings are formulated. Both imply, first, that current output should be a decreasing function of the stock of inventories and, second, that inventories, once perturbed from equilibrium levels, should adjust only gradually. These two features are then embedded into an otherwise standard macroeconomic model in which markets clear instantaneously and expectations are rational. Two principal conclusions are reached. First, disturbances such as unanticipated changes in money will set in motion serially correlated deviations of output from trend. Second, if desired inventories are sensitive to the real interest rate, then even fully anticipated changes in money can affect real variables.     

数量规则还是利率规则？——我国转型时期量价混合型货币规则的理论基础

本文对我国货币政策转型时期兼顾数量和价格的货币政策调控实践进行了深入的分析。在货币数量论和货币效用模型的基础上,从理论上阐明了货币数量规则与利率价格规则的等价关系,并构建了符合中国货币政策实践的数量与价格混合型货币政策规则。这对于更好地理解我国货币政策转型时期的量价混合型货币政策操作具有重要的理论和现实意义。相关推论表明,正是由于数量和价格混合型货币规则,在利率低于均衡水平的情形下,中国的货币增速并未引发恶性通胀;修正的物价稳定泰勒原理表明,利率调整幅度小于通胀变化仍能够实现物价稳定。对中国的经验分析支持了理论和推论结果。在利率市场化基本完成和流动性格局逆转的当下,货币政策价格调控方式转型的必要性和迫切性日益上升,转型的条件日趋成熟。     

U.S. domestic money, inflation and output

Recent empirical research documents that the strong short-term relationship between U.S. monetary aggregates on one side and inflation and real output on the other has mostly disappeared since the early 1980s. Using the direct estimate of flows of U.S. dollars abroad we find that domestic money (currency corrected for the foreign holdings of dollars) contains valuable information about future movements of U.S. inflation and real output. Statistical evidence suggests that the Friedman-Schwartz stylized facts can be reestablished once the focus of analysis is back on the correct measure of domestic monetary aggregates.     

Unanticipated money,output, and prices in the small economy

Recent studies of the relationship between unanticipated monetary disturbances and the level of output and prices have focussed on the implications of monetary policy for the large, essentially closed, economy. This paper investigates the determination of output, the price level, and the money stock of a small open economy. In particular, primary interest is in delineating the channels of home and foreign monetary influence, and in discriminating between the effects of home-generated and foreign-generated unanticipated monetary disturbances under the alternative regimes of a fixed, managed, and flexible exchange rate.     

Long- and short-term interest rates in a risky world

The paper develops and tests a general equilibrium model in which variability, or risk, affects the choice of portfolios. Our measures of variability include only the variability of unanticipated growth in monetary and non-monetary aggregates, and our tests use data ending with the change in Federal Reserve procedures in October 1979. We find that increased variability of unanticipated money growth raises demands for debt and money, and reduces the demand for real capital. Interest rates on both short- and long-term debt rise by a risk premium. We estimate the size of the risk premium before and after the October 1979 change, and we show that the change in Federal Reserve procedures moved the economy to a less efficient point.     

数量规则还是利率规则？——我国转型时期量价混合型货币规则的理论基础

本文对我国货币政策转型时期兼顾数量和价格的货币政策调控实践进行了深入的分析。在货币数量论和货币效用模型的基础上,从理论上阐明了货币数量规则与利率价格规则的等价关系,并构建了符合中国货币政策实践的数量与价格混合型货币政策规则。这对于更好地理解我国货币政策转型时期的量价混合型货币政策操作具有重要的理论和现实意义。相关推论表明,正是由于数量和价格混合型货币规则,在利率低于均衡水平的情形下,中国的货币增速并未引发恶性通胀;修正的物价稳定泰勒原理表明,利率调整幅度小于通胀变化仍能够实现物价稳定。对中国的经验分析支持了理论和推论结果。在利率市场化基本完成和流动性格局逆转的当下,货币政策价格调控方式转型的必要性和迫切性日益上升,转型的条件日趋成熟。     

Unemployment and monetary policy under rational expectations: Some Canadian evidence

The policy implications of combining rational expectations with the natural rate of unemployment hypothesis are reviewed. A monetary policy feedback rule is estimated on Canadian data for the period 1927–1972. The residuals from the regression serve as the unanticipated components of monetary policy while predicted values serve as expected monetary growth. An unemployment equation is then developed in which the unemployment rate is allowed to be influenced by expected and unexpected monetary policy and fiscal and foreign spending. The evidence confirms the hypothesis that it is unanticipated monetary policy that affects unemployment and that anticipated monetary growth plays no significant role.