Unconventional monetary policy and the stock market’s reaction to Federal Reserve policy actions

We examine the change in the effect of Federal Reserve’s policy actions on stock returns after the Fed started to use unconventional policy actions. We find that the response of stock returns to monetary policy actions are almost seven times higher after the federal funds rate hit the zero lower bound. We conduct additional analysis to examine the underlying causes of the increase in the impact of monetary policy actions of stock returns. We show that investors rebalance their portfolios towards equity after selling Treasury securities to the Federal Reserve during large scale asset purchases.     

The effect of investors’ confidence on monetary policy transmission mechanism: A Multivariate GARCH approach

This paper investigates the financial stability’s effect on the monetary policy transmission mechanisms. The correlations between investors’ confidence in the markets, money growth and economic growth are analyzed along with the correlations within their volatilities. Specifically, the heteroskedasticity of the errors is exploited in a Multivariate GARCH framework to obtain endogenously estimated measures of uncertainty. By a two-step estimator, the indirect interplay of money growth and financial markets is highlighted at different time horizons. The results contrast previous literature supportive of the “Great Moderation” as causing the recent financial crisis. Effectively, by accounting for the breaks in volatility series due to structural shifts in monetary policy, a low period of macroeconomic volatility is found not to drive directly low financial stability.     

The dynamics of US inflation: Can monetary policy explain the changes?

We investigate the relationship between monetary policy and inflation dynamics in the US using a medium scale structural model. The specification is estimated with Bayesian techniques and fits the data reasonably well. Policy shocks account for a part of the decline in inflation volatility; they have been less effective in triggering inflation responses over time and qualitatively account for the rise and fall in the level of inflation. A number of structural parameter variations contribute to these patterns.     

The evolution of U.S. monetary policy: 2000–2007

A vector autoregression with time-varying parameters is used to characterize changes in Federal Reserve policy that occurred from 2000 through 2007 and describe how they affected the performance of the U.S. economy. Declining coefficients in the model׳s estimated policy rule point to a shift in the Fed׳s emphasis away from stabilizing inflation over this period. More importantly, however, the Fed held the federal funds rate persistently below the values prescribed by this rule. Under this more discretionary policy, inflation overshot its target and the funds rate followed a path reminiscent of the “stop-go” pattern that characterized Fed behavior prior to 1979.     

The monetary policy strategy of the Bank of England in 2020–21: An assessment

Excessive money creation during the Covid pandemic has resulted in Britain's worst episode of inflation since 1990–91. The backdrop to this failure of monetary policy is the Bank of England's aggregate demand/aggregate supply framework together with the Monetary Policy Committee's neglect of broad money. An alternative way to operate monetary policy is urgently needed. A significantly improved monetary policy outcome could be achieved by shifting from trying to steer the economy using interest rates and quantitative easing or quantitative tightening to reliance on the relative stability of income velocity (the ratio of nominal GDP to broad money) as a means of managing aggregate demand.     

The puzzling effects of monetary policy in VARs: Invalid identification or missing information?

Standard vector autoregressions (VARs) often find puzzling effects of monetary policy shocks. Is this due to an invalid (recursive) identification scheme, or because the underlying small‐scale VAR neglects important information? I employ factor methods and external instruments to answer this question and provide evidence that the root cause is missing information. In particular, while a recursively identified dynamic factor model yields conventional monetary policy effects across the board, a small‐scale VAR identified via external instruments does not. Importantly, the discrepancy between both models largely disappears once the information set of the VAR is augmented via factors. This finding is comforting news for the recent monetary literature. Two leading empirical advances with different underlying assumptions—namely external instruments (applied to a factor‐augmented VAR) and dynamic factor models (identified recursively)—find very similar effects of monetary policy shocks, cross‐verifying each other.     

The effect of economic policy uncertainty on China’s housing market

This study examines the relationship between economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and housing price at the macro-level in China as a developing country. The empirical evidence indicates that EPU has a leading effect on China’s housing market. In general, the housing market is prosperous when economic policy is stable and there is a positive relationship between housing price variation and EPU, which means housing market risk grows under unstable economic policies in this developing economy. Moreover, economic policy variation affects low-amplitude changes in housing prices. A variation of policy uncertainty enhances the risk premium of the housing market. By contrast, the level of EPU influences high-amplitude changes in housing prices, which reflects the trend of EPU dominating China's housing market.     

The impact of the shutdown policy on the asymmetric interdependence structure and risk transmission of cryptocurrency and China’s financial market

By taking Bitcoin, Litecoin, and China’s gold and RMB/US dollar exchange rate market as research objects, this paper apply the MF-ADCCA and time-delayed DCCA methods to study the impact of China’s mainland shutdown of cryptocurrencies trading on the non-linear interdependent structure and risk transmission of cryptocurrencies and its financial market. Empirical results show that the cross-correlation between cryptocurrencies and China’s financial market has a long memory and asymmetric multifractal characteristics. After the shutdown, the long memory between cryptocurrencies and Chinese gold has weakened, and the long memory between cryptocurrencies and the RMB/US dollar exchange rate market was strengthened. China’s shutdown policy has a certain risk prevention effect. Specifically, after the implementation of the policy, the risk transmission of cryptocurrencies to China’s financial market has weakened, but the influence of China’s financial market has gradually strengthened.     

The effects of U.S. monetary policy on Colombia and Panama (2002–2007)

I study the economies of Colombia (floating exchange rate) and Panama (dollarized) to illustrate how the monetary policy of a large economy can export capital structure distortions to small open economies that follow different exchange rate regimes. The paper contributes to the literature on international business cycles in two ways. First, it adds to recent research that extends the Mises–Hayek business cycle theory to an international context. Second, most current research abstracts from effects on the production structures of emerging market economies when analyzing the transmission of monetary policy shocks. This paper seeks to fill this gap by studying structural effects of U.S. monetary policy on the economies of Colombia (floating exchange rate) and Panama (dollarized).     

Web-based recruiting’s impact on organizational image and familiarity: too much of a good thing?

Abstract

Little is known about the efficacy of many of the newer forms of online recruitment. Using a quasi-experimental design, we tested the impact of individual exposure to corporate recruitment websites and Facebook on perceptions of organizational familiarity and organizational image over time. Most interestingly, we found evidence of a curvilinear or non-linear relationship between frequency of exposure to organizational communications and perceptions of organizational familiarity across time. Implications of our findings for HR theory and practice are discussed.     

The impact of fertility policy on the actuarial balance of China’s urban employee basic medical insurance fund–The selective two-child policy vs. the universal two-child policy

This study aims to investigate the impact of the change in China’s fertility policy from its selective two-child policy to a universal two-child policy on the balance of its Urban Employee Basic Medical Insurance (UEBMI) fund. This study uses data obtained from the 2013 and 2015 China General Society Survey to estimate the Poisson model, and then adopts a bisexual Leslie matrix, estimated adjusted coefficients, and an actuarial model to forecast the current balance and accumulated balance of the UEBMI fund under each of the selective two-child and universal two-child policies up to the year 2060. The primary finding of this study is that this change in fertility policy results in the current balance of the UEBMI fund registering a lower deficit and eventually a surplus. Although this policy change cannot prevent the UEBMI from facing bankruptcy, the deficit in terms of the accumulated balance of the UEBMI fund will decline.     

The implementation of monetary policy in New Zealand: What factors affect the 90-day bank bill rate?

This paper discusses the implementation of monetary policy in New Zealand and its flow-on effects on the 90-day bank bill rate over the 1999–2005 period. The effects of external factors are considered as well. Our findings indicate that the maturity spectrum ratio exerted a positive effect on the 90-day bank bill rate while the allotment ratio did not. This interest rate had a tendency to revert to the level set by its Australian counterpart, though at a relatively slow speed. No such link exists between the NZ 90-day rate and the U.S. 90-day rate. Neither the maturity spectrum nor the allotment ratio contributed to the volatility of the most important short-term interest rate in New Zealand.     

The risk spillover between China’s economic policy uncertainty and commodity markets: Evidence from frequency spillover and quantile connectedness approaches

Based on the frequency spillover method extended by Baruník and Křehlík (2018), we explore the risk spillover relationship between China’s economic policy uncertainty (CNEPU) and commodity futures in different frequency domains with daily settlement price data of 14 commodity futures in China. The results show that the risk spillover relationship between CNEPU and the commodity market mainly occurs in the short term. Quantile connectedness results show that economic policy uncertainty, which mainly plays the role of risk transmitter, is more closely related to the commodity market during the market boom and recession. Soybeans, soybean meal, and corn have shown high investment value in the process of market recovery, which is exposed to less risk spillover from policy uncertainty. Finally, the economic crisis with different characteristics will have specific impacts on asymmetric risk spillovers based on certain impact mechanisms.     

The productivity and performance of Australia’s major banks since deregulation

The aim of this study is to present some measures of the performance of banks operating in Australia since the deregulation of the Australian financial system in early 1980s; including the periods of financial market instability (the early 1990s and mid to late 2000s). In undertaking this measurement two approaches will be used. The first simply applies standard financial indicators. The second approach applies data envelopment analysis (DEA), to determine Malmquist indices of the levels of and the changes in the efficiency and productivity of Australian banks. The empirical results demonstrate the effect of deregulation and periodic financial crisis’s on the performance of individual banks, and the major part of the Australian banking sector. Overall the productivity performance of the Australian banks tended to improve considerably in those periods of strongest economic growth (i.e. the mid 1980s and 2000s).     

Exchange rates and monetary fundamentals: what do we learn from long-horizon regressions?

The use of a new bootstrap method for small-sample inference in long-horizon regressions is illustrated by analysing the long-horizon predictability of four major exchange rates, and the findings are reconciled with those of an earlier study by Mark ( 1995 ). While there is some evidence of exchange rate predictability, contrary to earlier studies, no evidence is found of higher predictability at longer horizons. Additional evidence is presented that the linear VEC model framework underlying the empirical study is likely to be misspecified, and that the methodology for constructing bootstrap p-values for long-horizon regression tests may be fundamentally flawed. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Paramour’s Advantage: Sexual Favoritism and Permissibly Unfair Discrimination

Despite the prevalence of sexual favoritism in the workplace, there is much debate over whether this phenomenon rises to the level of prohibited discrimination and harassment. While the United States Supreme Court has not yet involved itself in adjudicating issues of sexual favoritism, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, however, has issued guidelines. The California Supreme Court recently addressed the “sexual favoritism as sexual harassment/discrimination” issue and, absent better guidance from the federal courts, the California decision provides interesting insights for the legal and business communities. This article explores key issues involving workplace romances, sexual favoritism, and Title VII’s prohibition of sexual harassment as an illegal form of discrimination based on sex. We use the recent California Supreme Court decision in Miller to illustrate the legal and managerial challenges facing policy makers and management practitioners. We conclude with a discussion of policy alternatives for creating a discrimination- and harassment-free workplace while effectively managing workplace romances and instances of sexual favoritism.

Formal sector job growth and women’s labor sector participation : The case of Mexico

This paper looks at the effects of demand and supply on the determinants of labor sector (school, home work, informal, and formal) participation between Torreon and Tijuana, Mexico for married and single women. Comparisons between the two cities are used to capture differences in labor demand. Torreon is a traditional city with an agri-industrial base and Tijuana is a border city with large export processing (maquiladora) and tourism sectors, both of which demand female labor. Factors influencing labor supply include both individual and household characteristics. Married women, given the strong cultural tradition of working in the home, do not significantly increase their paid labor participation with higher labor demand or changing characteristics of the household. Personal characteristics have the greatest impact on labor sector participation. Single women do, however, increase their formal sector participation with additional employment opportunities and respond to household needs by moving in and out of the paid labor market. Results indicate that increases in labor demand in Mexico from the NAFTA could expand formal sector labor force participation of single women.     

The impact of ultimate controller’s ownership on cash dividend policy based on a comparative analysis between owner-management and professional-management modes

This study uses Chinese listed firms to examine the relation between the ultimate controller’s ownership and cash dividends under different allocation modes of management rights. The empirical results show that under the professional-management mode, the ultimate controller’s ownership and dividend payments form an inverted U-shaped relation which results from the ultimate controller’s monitoring and collusion with the executive. Under the owner-management mode, the ultimate controller’s ownership and dividend payment levels assume a U-shaped relation which is attributed to its interest encroachment and convergence effect. The shape flip from professional-management to owner-management is the result of the changing opportunity cost of the controller’s dividend payments.     

Economic policy uncertainty and industry risk on China’s stock market

We propose a dynamic mixture Copula with time-varying weight, which is endowed with generalized autoregressive score dynamics. Based on this model, we portray the lower-tail dependence between the return of WIND first-level industry and CSI-300 index as a proxy variable for the industry risk in China’s stock market, and use the VAR-GARCH-in-mean model based on BEKK-GARCH to deconstruct the different impact of the economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on industry risk of the first and second moments in terms of four policy categories, namely fiscal policy, monetary policy, trade policy, and foreign exchange rate and capital account policy. The results are followed. Firstly, the risk of Consumer Discretionary is averagely the highest, while the risk of Utilities remains the lowest. Secondly, category-specific EPU has no significant mean spillover to the risk of overall industries, while the variance spillover is significant for all the cases. Thirdly, except for Real Estate, the GARCH-in-mean effect is not significant of EPU on industry risks. Further more, all those three kinds of impact show industrial heterogeneities. To avoid systemic risks, we advise that the issue of economic policy should be forward-looking, consistent, and targeted, especially for sensitive industries.