REAL ESTATE AND THE GREAT CRISIS: LESSONS FOR MACROPRUDENTIAL POLICY

Credit conditions have caused real estate booms and busts, owing to an underpricing of credit risk aided by regulatory arbitrage and shadow financing. Across countries, real estate price and credit bubbles have reflected not only inelastic land supply and thin trading, but also the amplification of shocks via backward‐looking price expectations and financing based on distorted prices. Macroprudential lessons from the Great Crisis include preventing excess real estate financing and limiting the amplification and correlation of risks. Nonetheless, the costs and benefits of recent regulations require re‐evaluation amid an ongoing need to address correlated risks from shadow financing and securitization. (JEL G28, E3, R31, R33, R38)     

Realising Central Banks’ Climate Ambitions Through Financial Stability Mandates

This paper discusses how financial stability governance has evolved and how central banks and financial regulators are coping with the threats posed by climate uncertainty, providing an overview of G20 countries’ green central banking experiences in the past 20 years. The analysis shows that most central banks realise their climate ambitions through financial stability mandates, leaving the monetary stability mandate unaffected. Considering the debate on market neutrality, the concerns on the risk of overstretching the central banks’ mandate, violation of Tinbergen’s principle and threats posed to central banks’ independence, the provided evidence reveals a mismatch between the observed policy practice and its theoretical underpinnings. Drawing on these findings, we argue that effective green central banking governance should be based on a synthesis between monetary and macroprudential policymaking.