Macroeconomic effects of uncertainty shocks: Evidence from Korea

This paper proposes a new measure of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) for Korea by fine-tuning the keywords and exploiting information drawn from a wide variety of local newspapers. The uniqueness of our new EPU index lies mainly in the fact that it uses a set of keywords that correspond much more closely to actual language use and better reflect the economic environment of Korea, which is classified as a small open economy. After shocks to EPU being identified, we employ these shocks to estimate the impulse responses using local projections. Unlike the existing measure, our results show that shocks to EPU lead to a significant decline in macroeconomic aggregates such as output, consumption, investment, and employment. Thus our results suggest a refinement of the EPU index in general for other countries accordingly. We also develop policy-specific uncertainty indices and show that they capture important historical events related to the corresponding policies, such as monetary and fiscal measures.     

The macroeconomic effects of monetary policy: Evidence from Japan

This study examines the macroeconomic effects of monetary policy in Japan. We apply the new identification strategy proposed by Bu et al. (2021) to the Japanese case and estimate monetary policy shocks that bridge periods of conventional and unconventional monetary policymaking. We show the macroeconomic effects of monetary policy; a contractionary monetary policy shock significantly decreases output and inflation rates even under the effective lower bound. However, because the shorter-term and longer-term nominal interest rates are already close to zero, the magnitude of monetary policy shocks on the macroeconomic variables is modest.     

Expansionary monetary policy and credit allocation: Evidence from China

We identify the impact of expansionary monetary policy in China during the 2008–2009 global financial crisis on the credit and investment allocation among firms. We obtain robust evidence that expansionary monetary policy led to the misallocation of bank credit to less productive firms after controlling for confounding factors. However, we find that investment increased more for more productive firms. Additional analyses show that this occurred partly because more productive firms hoarded cash before the crisis, and partly because less productive firms invested more in financial assets.     

Deep habits and the dynamic effects of monetary policy shocks

We introduce deep habits into a sticky-price sticky-wage economy and examine the resulting models ability to account for the impact of monetary policy shocks. The deep habits mechanism gives rise to countercyclical markup movements even when prices are flexible and interacts with nominal rigidities in interesting ways. Key parameters are estimated using a limited information approach. The deep habits model can account very precisely for the persistent impact of monetary policy shocks on aggregate consumption and for both the price puzzle and inflation persistence. A key insight is that the deep habits mechanism and nominal rigidities are complementary: the deep habits model can account for the dynamic effects of monetary policy shock at low to moderate levels of nominal rigidities. The results are shown to be stable over time and not caused by monetary policy changes.     

The effectiveness of monetary policy in China: Evidence from a Qual VAR

Analyzing monetary policy in China is not straightforward because the People's Bank of China (PBoC) implements policy by using more than one instrument. In this paper we use a Qual VAR, a conventional VAR system augmented with binary policy announcements, to extract a latent indicator of tightening and easing pressure, respectively, for China. The model acknowledges that policy announcements are endogenous and summarizes policy by a single indicator. The Qual VAR allows us to study the impact of monetary policy in terms of unexpected changes in these latent variables, which we identify using sign restrictions. We show that the transmission of monetary policy impulses to the rest of the economy is similar to the transmission process in advanced economies in terms of both output growth and inflation despite a very different monetary policy framework. We find that bank loans are not sensitive to policy changes, which implies that window guidance is still a necessary policy tool. We also find that the impact of monetary policy shocks is asymmetric in terms of asset prices, that is, the asset price reactions differ in their sensitivity to tightening shocks and easing shocks, respectively. In particular, an easing of monetary conditions boosts stock prices while a tightening shock leaves stock prices unaffected. This shows that monetary policy is not a suitable tool to stabilize asset prices, which raises implications for financial stability and macroprudential policy.     

Energy price shocks,monetary policy and China's economic fluctuations

This paper develops a New Keynesian dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model with energy factors to study various channels through which China's economic fluctuations are linked to energy price shocks and to search for the optimal monetary policy to cope with energy price shocks. We conclude that there are channels through which changes in energy prices will have the following cause–effect relationships. First, a rise in energy price as a negative technology shock will raise the costs of providing capital services per unit of capital, thereby reducing output. Second, a rising energy price distorts the intertemporal choices of households and firms, creating downward pressure on the expected future return on capital. Third, an energy price shock places upward pressure on the marginal costs associated with an increase in inflation. Numerical simulation results show that a positive energy price shock has a positive effect on energy technology improvements. In addition, the effects of energy price shocks can be mitigated by nominal rigidities, and interest rate rules will determine the magnitude of those effects. Using the efficient frontier method, we also show that optimal monetary policy in China should help control energy price volatility.     

The transmission mechanism of monetary policy in Japan: Evidence from banks' balance sheets

We examine how banks' responses to monetary policy vary according to their balance sheet using Japanese bank data from 1975 to 1999. We find that the effect of monetary policy on lending is stronger for banks that are smaller, less liquid, and more abundant with capital. The effects of bank balance sheet on monetary transmission are different by bank types, policy stances and borrowers' industries. Our results imply that a lending channel of monetary transmission exists, that the effect of expansionary monetary policy is attenuated if banks' capital is scarce, and that the effect of monetary policy on the allocation of funds depends on banks' balance sheets. J. Japanese Int. Economies 20 (3) (2006) 380–405.     

The time-frequency analysis of conventional and unconventional monetary policy: Evidence from Japan

The effects of monetary policy on the aggregate economy is an important issue that has been addressed mainly in the time domain, and relatively little is known about how monetary policy affects the macroeconomy in the time-frequency space. With a continuous wavelet multiple coherency and partial coherency approach, this paper contributes to the literature by characterizing the macroeconomic effects of monetary policy across frequencies and over time using a monthly dataset from Japan, which is in the vanguard in the practice of unconventional monetary policy. The empirical results show that: First, interest rate changes could be largely captured by inflation fluctuations across frequencies before 1999 but only at low frequencies after 1999. Second, movements of M1 could well reflect the variations of industrial production at the scale of 2–4 years before 1999, but this relationship was reversed at the same scale after 1999. Third, changes in M2 could roughly mirror the fluctuations of inflation at the scale of 3–4 years between 1966 and 1969, and this relationship was reversed at the scale of 1–3 years between 2003 and 2007. This study indicates that in Japan conventional and unconventional monetary policy generate heterogeneous effects on the aggregate economy and the level of heterogeneity partially depends on the chosen instrument.     

Measuring monetary policy with empirically grounded restrictions: An application to Thailand

This paper studies the effect of monetary policy in Thailand based on structural vector autoregression (SVAR) model. Unlike all existing studies, this paper (i) properly controls for external factors, (ii) uses the identifying restrictions which are specified and justified from empirical evidence and (iii) studies the immediate as well as the short term effect of monetary policy. I find that several important stylized facts on the transmission mechanism of monetary policy need to be revised.     

Macroeconomic stabilization through monetary and fiscal policy coordination: Implications for European Monetary Union

In a two-country model, we consider the implications of monetary and fiscal policy coordination for macroeconomic stabilization. We show that the optimal regime is one of monetary and fiscal policy coordination under flexible exchange rates. In the context of the European Community, this suggests that the desire to fix exchange rates may not be costless. In addition, we show that fiscal coordination requires a relatively high degree of flexibility in fiscal policy. This result suggests that limits on the flexibility of fiscal policies, as suggested in the Delors Report, may hinder macroeconomic stabilization.     

The recent failure of U.S. monetary policy

Summary The very slow growth of the broad money supply has been a primary source of U.S. economic weakness in 1990 through 1992. The velocity link between M2 and the subsequent level of nominal GDP has not declined. But changes in bank reserves brought about by open market operations have had much less effect onM2 than the Fed anticipated for two reasons: (1) reserve requirements now apply to only a small fraction of totalM2; and (2) the new bank capital requirements limit some banks ability to lend. The Federal Reserve failed to appreciate the importance of these conditions and misjudged the strength of the monetary policy stimulus that it was providing.Professor of Economics, Harvard University, and President of the National Bureau of Economic Research.Sixth Tinbergen Lecture delivered on October 2, 1992, in The Hague for the Royal Netherlands Economic Association.     

Effectiveness and commitment to inflation targeting policy: Evidence from Indonesia and Thailand

The chief objective of our paper is to highlight basic features of the Information Technology (IT) policies adopted by Indonesia and Thailand, and to evaluate the commitment of the monetary authorities and the overall performances of the IT regime. The results demonstrate that the IT regime in these two economies has had some success, but not during the immediate aftermath of the Lehman Brothers’ collapse in the last quarter of 2008. Furthermore, the implementation IT policy in these economies has largely been “flexible” during the stable period, seeking the balance between narrowing the output gap, managing exchange rate volatility, and anchoring inflationary pressure. However during the turbulent period, there had been a heightened focus on anchoring inflationary expectations.     

Endogenous monetary policy shifts and the term structure: Evidence from Japanese government bond yields

I construct a no-arbitrage term structure model with endogenous regime shifts and apply it to Japanese government bond (JGB) yields. This model subjects the short-term interest rate to monetary regime shifts, specifically a zero interest rate policy (ZIRP) and normal regimes, which depend on macroeconomic variables. The estimates show that under the ZIRP regime, the effect of deflation (inflation) on lowering (raising) bond yields amplifies on the long end of yield curves, compared with a case with positive interest rates under the normal regime. On the other hand, output gaps’ ability to raise bond yields weakens for all maturities.     

External shocks and stabilization policy in a small open economy: The Australian experience

Zusammenfassung Externe Schocks und Stabilisierungspolitik in einer kleinen offenen Volkswirtschaft: Die Erfahrung Australiens. — Wir untersuchen die übertragung des international verursachten monet?ren Zyklus, von wirtschaftspolitischen Reaktionen und anderen Rückkoppelungs-Mechanismen. Ver?nderungen der Terms of Trade und die Entdeckung von Rohstoffvorkommen stellen reale Linkages her. Versp?tete Aufwertung (1972) führte zu einem überm?\igen Anwachsen der Geldmenge, wobei deren Neutralisierung die Inflation und das au\enwirtschaftliche Ungleichgewicht zwar verz?gerte, aber schlie\lich sogar verst?rkte. Die Kombination von Aufwertung, Zollsenkungen, Preissteigerungen, Lohndruck und ver?nderten komparativen Vorteilen trug zum Entstehen von Inflation, Arbeitslosigkeit und Zahlungsbilanzdefiziten bei. Die Abwertungen von 1974 und 1976 und ein Regierungswechsel im Jahre 1976 führten den politisch-?konomischen Zyklus fort. Zum Schlu\ interpretieren wir die Ereignisse unter Verwendung gew?hnlicher Au\enhandelsmodelle, die durch Berücksichtigung der Wertpapierm?rkte erg?nzt werden.

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Résumé Les chocs externes et la politique de stabilisation dans une petite économie ouverte: l’expérience australienne. — Nous analysons la transmission du cycle monétaire résultant international, les réponses de politique, et les autres mécanismes de réaction. Les changes en termes d’échange et les découvertes des minéraux introduisent des connexions réelles. La revalorisation tardive (1972) permettait une croissance monétaire excessive dont sa stérilisation en effet retardait l’inflation et le déséquilibre externe, mais les intensifiait définitivement. La combinaison de la revalorisation, des réductions tarifaires, de l’inflation, du pressage de salaire, et d’avantage comparatif qui changeait, tous ces facteurs contribuaient à l’inflation subséquente, au ch?mage et aux déficits externes. La dévalorisation en 1974 et 1976 et une change du gouvernement en 1976 continuaient le cycle politiqueéconomique. Finalement nous interprétons des événements qui utilisent des modèles conventionnels de commerce extérieurs augmentés par des considérations de marché d’actif.

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Resumen Impulsos externos y política de estabilización en una economía abierta peque?a. La experiencia australiana. — Se analiza la transmisión de los ciclos monetarios de origen internacional, respuestas de política y otros mecanismos de ?feedback?. Cambios en los términos del intercambio y descubrimientos de yacimientos mineros introducen vinculaciones verdaderas. Una revaluacíon tardía (1972) permitió un crecimiento monetario excesivo con una estirilización retrasada, agravando por último la inflación y el desequilibrio externo. La combinación de revaluación, rebaja de aranceles, inflación, presión de salarios y ventajas comparativas cambiantes ha contribuido a una inflación persistente, desempleo y deficits externos. Devaluaciones en los a?os 1974 y 1976 y un cambio de gobierno en 1976 continuaron el ciclo politico/económico. Finalmente, interpretamos sucesos usando modelos de intercambio convencional ampliados por consideraciones de mercado de activos.

     

The impact of technology identification policy on firm innovation: Evidence from China

Using firm-level data of companies listed on China's A-share market from 2006 to 2017, this research applies a difference-in-differences (DID) empirical method to test whether the state policy in China used for identifying firms as being “high-tech” enhances their innovative capabilities. This paper presents three main findings. First, multiple robustness tests confirm that the state technology identification policy does improve the total number of patent applications as well as the number of patent invention applications. Second, government subsidy is an important channel through which this policy affects a firm's innovation capabilities. Third, this policy has a more prominent and positive influence on the innovation capabilities of firms located in regions where there exist a higher rate of taxation in addition and relatively more developed products and factor markets. Fourth, we conduct a flexible back-of-the-envelope cost-benefit analysis to demonstrate that the high-tech firm identification policy does improve the overall level of social welfare. The empirical results of this paper have far-reaching implications for China's innovation policies.     

Macroeconomic implications of population aging: Evidence from Japan

Population aging is an important feature of Japan’s economy, which since 2006 has become a super-aged society. Changes in the age distribution of the population have important macroeconomic implications. Using annual data for 1960–2015, this study tests whether population age shares have long run influences on domestic saving, domestic investment, real GDP, inflation, the fiscal balance, and the current account balance. Cointegration is found between each macroeconomic variable and the demographic variables, which is a key finding of the analysis. The main empirical findings from the long-run cointegrating equations are that the effects of demographic change on the macroeconomic variables are statistically significant and quite strong. Alternative variants of the United Nation’s population projections provide further evidence of the importance of the demographic changes for Japan’s macroeconomic future. This study finds that future trends of key macroeconomic variables are not monotonic, but rather that long swings in the demographic factors produce a mixture of moderate growth periods and episodes of GDP stagnation.     

Transparency in monetary policy

The paper examines different aspects of transparency. Transparency serves democratic accountability by promoting public control. Specifically, the degree of transparency conditions inflation expectations, hence the central bank's scope for stabilization. Recent studies have put doubt on the notion that complete transparency is socially desirable. Here it is pointed out that the conclusion critically depends on an asymmetric modelling of stochastic preferences. The paper also reviews the pros and cons of revealing individual voting. A conclusion is that secrecy is to be prefered in monetary unions in order to shield governors from pressure by home governments. Presidential Address presented at the Fifty-Third International Atlantic Economic Conference, March 13–17, 2002, Paris, France.     

中国经济增长中财政与货币政策效应的比较分析

1990年代末，中国政府为推动经济持续、健康发展，制订并实施了积极的财政政策和稳健的货币政策。哪项政策对经济增长的拉动作用更大？笔者运用计量经济模型进行实证分析，从理论和实践两个层面论证得出近年来财政政策的效应更大。     

Macroeconomic effects of financial stress and the role of monetary policy: a VAR analysis for the euro area

This paper analyses an otherwise standard macro-financial VAR model for the euro area that includes - apart from conventional measures of output, inflation and monetary policy - a composite indicator of systemic financial stress, namely the CISS index, and total assets of the ECB balance sheet capturing the stance of unconventional monetary policy. I find that the CISS contributes significantly to the dynamics of the macroeconomy and exerts a strong influence on monetary policy when looking at both policy rates and the ECB balance sheet. The significance of the CISS appears robust to the inclusion of a broad set of real and financial control variables. Based on tests of direct versus indirect (Granger-)causality patterns proposed in Hsiao (1982), I also find that unlike unconventional policy as measured by ECB balance sheet growth, the policy rate does not seem to react directly to variations in financial stress but rather indirectly through the impact of financial stress on macroeconomic conditions. These different patterns of reaction are broadly consistent with the ECB’s “separation principle”. The estimated effects of the ECB’s standard and non-standard policy measures on inflation and economic growth are moderate, although an easier stance in both policy tools helps calm down financial stress.