On the determination of real interest rates in Europe

In this paper a loanable funds model is estimated over the period 1959–1990 for the determination of after-tax expected real interest rates using aggregated data for four European countries under the assumption that high capital mobility in Europe implies a common capital market. It is concluded that real interest rates in the European Community were mainly driven by movements in temporary income, expected inflation, lagged investment, money growth, and the oil price. Moreover, our aggregate, model appears to be reasonably stable. Finally, individual country rates are shown to depend on the European rate as well as some country-specific variables, suggesting a limited degree of isolation from international financial markets for the countries concerned.At the time of writing the author was still affiliated with the Department of Economics at the University of Groningen. Hence, any views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of De Nederlandsche Bank. This paper benefitted very much from stimulating comments made by Willem Buiter, Kanhaya Gupta, Jakob de Haan, Flip de Kam, Kees Koedijk, and an anonymous referee. The author would like to thank Jan-Egbert Sturm for technical assistence. Of course, the usual disclaimer applies.     

Asian real interest rates, nonlinear dynamics, and international parity

This study tests for nonlinearities in the real interest differentials of four South East Asian economies with respect to Japan and the United States. The logistic and exponential smooth transition regression models are applied to monthly data over the sample period 1977M1–2000M3. There is evidence of nonlinearities in Asian real interest differentials where nonlinearities are often captured by the logistic smooth transition autoregressive (STAR) model. The extent of nonlinearities varies across the sample with the Singapore–Japan and Thailand–Japan differentials exhibiting the sharpest transition from one regime to another. Large shocks to real interest parity (RIP) are more likely to lead to the reestablishment of parity at a faster rate than small shocks. Modeling the nonlinear stochastic dynamics of RIP can thus be useful for policymaking purposes in recovering information on monetary and financial crises.     

On real interest rate persistence: the role of breaks

The role of structural breaks in long spans of ex-post real interest rates for 10 industrialized countries is studied. First, the persistence of the real interest is assessed with newly proposed low-frequency tests of Müller and Watson (2008). Second, the test of Leybourne et al. (2007) for a change in persistence of a time series is applied to the real interest rate. The results show that real interest rates over the full sample period do not fit a covariance-stationary or unit-root model, nor a fractionally integrated, near-unit-root or local-level model. Instead, the persistence of real rates changes over time and there are periods when the real rate is covariance-stationary and other periods when it follows a unit-root process.     

Testing the null hypothesis of no regime switching with an application to GDP growth rates

This paper presents tests for the null hypothesis of no regime switching in Hamilton’s (Econometrica 57:357–384, 1989) regime switching model. The test procedures exploit similarities between regime switching models, autoregressions with measurement errors, and finite mixture models. The proposed tests are computationally simple and, contrary to likelihood based tests, have a standard distribution under the null. When the methodology is applied to US GDP growth rates, no strong evidence of regime switching is found. I thank Don Andrews, Peter Phillips, Yuichi Kitamura, Anat Bracha, Patrik Guggenberger, Orit Whiteman and three anonymous referees for useful comments and suggestions.     

Modelling time series properties of Australian lending interest rates

The purpose of this paper is to examine the time series properties of Australian residential mortgage interest rates, and in doing so, establish whether or not selected home loan rates （product-level monthly home loan interest rates for CBA） exhibit the expected cyclical and seasonal variations and whether seasonality, if present, is stochastic or deterministic. In particular, due to a well established presence of cyclicality in financial markets＇ interest rates and strong correlation between financial markets＇ interest rates and home loan interest rates, the paper presumes that cyclicality is also to be found in home loan interest rates. Furthermore, the paper tests the hypothesis that home loan interest rates, for selected products, exhibit the three identified （＂Spring＂, ＂Autumn＂ and ＂The end of the Financial Year＂） season-related interest rate reductions. The paper uses a structural time series modelling approach and product-level home loan interest rates data from one of the biggest banks in Australia, Commonwealth Bank of Australia （CBA）. As expected, the results overall confirm the existence of cyclicality in home loan interest rates. With respect to the seasonality of home loan interest rate, although most of the analysed variables show the presence of statistically significant seasonal factors, the majority of the statistically significant seasonal factors observed cannot be attributed to any of the three considered seasonal effects.     

Parity reversion in the Asian real exchange rates: new evidence from the local-persistent model

This article investigates the time-series properties of 13 Asian real exchange rates (RERs) vis-à-vis the US dollar. The half-life point estimates drawn from the local-persistent model are all less than 2 years, with a finite upper bound. There is no evidence to indicate that the Asian financial crisis has altered the speed of the purchasing power parity (PPP) adjustments. We find that the persistence of RERs over the last three decades remains unchanged in majority of the cases. Given the fairly rapid speed of adjustments and their corresponding confidence intervals, we conclude that the PPP puzzle does not exist in these countries.     

The spectral representation of Markov switching ARMA models

In this paper we propose a method to derive the spectral density function of Markov switching ARMA models. We apply the Riesz-Fischer theorem which defines the spectral representation as the Fourier transform of the autocovariance functions.     

Monetary policy and long-term US interest rates

This paper assesses the effect of federal funds rate innovations on longer-term US nominal interest rates across different periods. The evidence suggests that these responses change with changes in the monetary policy regime. Time periods considered are pre- and post-1979 and different Federal Reserve Chairman’s tenure. The response of longer-term interest rates to federal funds rate innovations are shown to be smaller and less persistent in the post-1979 period when the Federal Reserve placed more emphasis on inflation.     

Budget deficits and interest rates: a fresh perspective

We extend the literature on budget deficits and interest rates in three ways: we examine both advanced and emerging economies and for the first time a large emerging market panel; explore interactions to explain some of the heterogeneity in the literature; and apply system Generalized Method of Moments (GMM). There is overall a highly significant positive effect of budget deficits on interest rates, but the effect depends on interaction terms and is only significant under one of the several conditions: deficits are high, mostly domestically financed, or interact with high domestic debt; financial openness is low; interest rates are liberalized; or financial depth is low.     

Linear and nonlinear Granger-causality between short-term and long-term interest rates during business cycles

This paper is about the causal relationship between short-term and long-term interest rates in the US and Canada. To that end, we apply a linear Granger causality test introduced by Toda and Yamamoto (1995 Toda, H. Y., and T. Yamamoto. 1995. “Statistical Inference in Vector Autoregressions with Possibly Integrated Processes.” Journal of Econometrics 66 (1–2): 225–250. doi:10.1016/0304-4076(94)01616-8.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and the nonlinear Granger causality test of Diks and Panchenko (2006 Diks, C., and V. Panchenko. 2006. “A New Statistic and Practical Guidelines for Nonparametric Granger Causality Testing.” Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control 30 (9–10): 1647–1669. doi:10.1016/j.jedc.2005.08.008.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). By combining linear causality effects with the nonlinear ones, it is seen that the most common Granger causality direction between short-term and long-term interest rates is a bidirectional one. We also find that nonlinear Granger causality can be found where no linear causality had been uncovered. Moreover, our findings show that during recent business cycles, the federal funds rate (in the US) and the overnight rate (in Canada) still Granger-cause long-term interest rates significantly.     

Comparisons of robust tests for shifts in trend with an application to trend deviations of real exchange rates in the long run

We study the finite sample properties of tests for structural changes in the trend function of a time series that do not require knowledge of the degree of persistence in the noise component. The tests of interest are the quasi-Feasible Generalized Least Squares (FGLS) procedure by Perron and Yabu (2009b Perron, P and Yabu, T. 2009b. Testing for shifts in trend with an integrated or stationary noise component. Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, 27: 369–96. [Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and the weighted average of the regression t-statistics by Harvey et al. (2009 Harvey, DI, Leybourne, SJ and Taylor, AMR. 2009. Simple, robust, and powerful tests of the breaking trend hypothesis. Econometric Theory, 25: 995–1029. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), both of which have the same limit distribution whether the noise component is stationary or has a unit-root. We analyse the finite sample size and power properties of these tests under a variety of Data-Generating Processes (DGPs). The results show that the Perron–Yabu test has greater power overall. With respect to the size, the Harvey–Leybourne–Taylor test exhibits larger size distortions unless a moving-average component is present. Using the Perron and Yabu procedure to test for structural changes in the trend function of long-run real exchange rates with respect to the US dollar indicates that for 17 out of 19 countries, the series have experienced a shift in trend since the late nineteenth century.     

Does purchasing power parity hold sometimes? Regime switching in real exchange rates

Standard unit root tests are not very powerful in drawing conclusions regarding the validity of Purchasing Power Parity (PPP). Rather than asking whether PPP holds throughout the whole sample period, we examine, in this study, if PPP holds sometimes by employing Hamilton-type (1989) Markov regime switching models. When at least one of multiple regimes is stationary, PPP holds locally within the regime. There are indeed various reasons that we should expect that the persistence of real exchange rates changes over time. Employing five real exchange rates spanning more than 100 years, we find herein strong evidence that the strength of PPP varies during the sample periods and that there exist stationary regimes in which PPP holds. Throughout the article, we also make comparisons to previous Markov regime switching estimation results by Kanas (2006) on the same data series. The new Markov switching model selection criterion of Smith et al. (2006), which is devised especially for discriminating Markov regime switching models, unambiguously indicates a preference for the Hamilton-type Markov regime switching model employed in this study. We also find that the evidence for PPP is not much different across different nominal exchange rate arrangements.     

Interest Rate Volatility Regimes in Selected Asian Countries: A Univariate Markov Switching Analysis

Business cycle dynamics are determined by relatively large volatilities in output,consumption,and investment,which leads to cyclical fluctuations in interest rates.Using the Markov switching model,we model the nominal interest rate movements to explain the volatility regime shifts in a set of selected emerging Asian economies.The estimated results provide significant evidence of regime-dependent means,variances,and probabilities in both stable and volatile regimes in selected countries,confirming the existence of two distinct regimes in nominal interest rate movements.In addition,the smoothed probability results of switching autoregressive model show that the model is capable of capturing the two regimes for the corresponding nominal interest rate behaviors.Besides,the results reveal that the stables regimes have higher durations than the volatile regimes.This study also shows the advantage of Markov switching models over conventional regression models,allowing the identification of different regimes for the cyclical behavior of interest rates.     

The behaviour of expected short-term real interest rates in the UK

The existence of persistent technical inefficiency offers the opportunity for a ‘free lunch’ not typically implied by the neoclassical theory of the firm. When external effects are related to the use of particular inputs, reduction of persistent technically inefficient levels of input use represents a means of reducing external impacts. An important example is found in agriculture where substantial environmental impacts are generated by particular inputs. Within this context, this paper considers the usefulness of data envelopment analysis (DEA) for estimation of potential input reductions and assessment of potential reductions of environmental impacts of agricultural inputs. An application for French cereal production provides estimates that indicate that substantial potential exists for reduction of input use and environmental impacts.     

Tradeoffs between costly capacity investment and risk of regime shift

There is mounting evidence that increasing natural resource exploitation (e.g., fossil fuel extraction and consumption) could trigger irreversible dramatic ecological events like global warming. While capacity investment costs and the possibility to produce at full capacity are two factors that critically affect the exploitation rate, little is known about their effect on management. I generalize standard models of pollution control under the threat of dramatic regime shifts to investigate how optimal management changes with both factors. My analysis reveals that accounting for such factors gives rise to investment and emissions policies that challenge conventional wisdom. For instance, I find that under reasonable conditions, an exogenous threat of a doomsday event induces a cautious management strategy. Using parameters estimated from climatic data, my analysis shows that raising the discount rate can induce lower emissions, highlighting the complex interplay between the threat and both factors.     

Optimal investment strategies in an international economy with stochastic interest rates

We investigate how investors should optimally choose to invest in a dynamically complete international market. We find closed-form solutions for the optimal investment strategy and for the wealth loss an investor suffers from not investing internationally. Theoretically, we show that the gain from international investment is due to the speculative investment only, and why it is important for an investor from a large economy to invest in a small economy. In a numerical example we compare the wealth losses investors from Denmark and the U.S. suffer due to home bias.     

Demographics and real interest rates: Inspecting the mechanism

The demographic transition can affect the equilibrium real interest rate through three channels. An increase in longevity—or expectations thereof—puts downward pressure on the real interest rate, as agents build up their savings in anticipation of a longer retirement period. A reduction in the population growth rate has two counteracting effects. On the one hand, capital per-worker rises, thus inducing lower real interest rates through a reduction in the marginal product of capital. On the other hand, the decline in population growth eventually leads to a higher dependency ratio (the fraction of retirees to workers). Because retirees save less than workers, this compositional effect lowers the aggregate savings rate and pushes real rates up. We calibrate a tractable life-cycle model to capture salient features of the demographic transition in developed economies, and find that its overall effect is a reduction of the equilibrium interest rate by at least one and a half percentage points between 1990 and 2014. Demographic trends have important implications for the conduct of monetary policy, especially in light of the zero lower bound on nominal interest rates. Other policies can offset the negative effects of the demographic transition on real rates with different degrees of success.     

Instability tests in cointegration relationships. An application to the term structure of interest rates

This paper tries to review, from a practitioner's point of view, the recent strand of literature on cointegration tests allowing for structural changes or parameter instability. Thus, we apply several tests using as an example the expectations model of the term structure of interest rates. The results are consistent with the existence of cointegration between the long and the short run Spanish interest rates, with a vector (1,−1), as predicted by the theory. However, there is also evidence of structural instability, mainly at the beginning of 1994, that can be attributed to the financial changes that occurred in Spain as a result of its external commitments in the process of the European Monetary Union.     

中国真实利率的平稳性和区制性:基于马尔科夫区制转换模型

通过引入三种均值方差都可能不同的区制,并基于改进的马尔科夫区制转换模型对1989年2月至2010年4月中国真实利率演变的考察,结果表明不同阶段的真实利率的确存在不同的均值和方差;考虑到区制转换特征之后,真实利率大体平稳,有均值回复趋势。而以往的应用中,忽略了这种区制转换特征可能导致对真实利率预测值的系统性偏差。     

The impact of setting negative policy rates on banking flows and exchange rates

In the aftermath of the great contraction of 2008, policymakers were faced with the Zero Lower Bound (ZLB) on nominal interest rates. Central banks implemented several unconventional monetary policies to overcome the ZLB, including setting negative nominal interest rates. This paper explores possible unintended effects of setting negative policy rates. Using Danish data, I assess the impact of paying a negative interest rate on reserves. Results suggest that going into negative territory has a particular impact, distinct from that of simply lowering interest rates: it leads to higher banking outflows and depreciation of the currency. Due to the reluctance of commercial banks to pass on negative rates to their depositors (retail deposits can easily be switched into cash), paying a negative (vs. positive) interest rate on reserves creates a disconnection between the assets and liabilities of commercial banks' balance sheets. Commercial banks can avoid this disconnection by holding external assets or assets in foreign currencies. This incentive to increase banking outflows appears to explain the particular impact of going into negative territory.