Rational Inattention in Uncertain Business Cycles

The paper proposes endogenous information choice as a channel through which uncertainty affects price dynamics. I consider a rational inattention model with volatility uncertainty and endogenous information processing capability. According to the model, firms' learning and optimal attention exhibits inertia and asymmetry in response to volatility changes. Firms choose to process more information when uncertainty rises, especially about aggregate conditions, and their pricing behavior changes accordingly. Using a Markov‐switching factor‐augmented vector autoregression (MS‐FAVAR), the paper also documents a significant positive correlation between volatility and firms' responsiveness to macro‐ and microlevel shocks, consistent with model predictions.     

政策不确定性的宏观经济后果

本文采取贝克的政策不确定性指数,运用FAVAR方法分析政策不确定性冲击对中国宏观经济的影响。经验结果发现,政策不确定性冲击对GDP、投资、消费、出口和价格变动会带来负向影响,导致实际有效汇率贬值,促使股票价格和房地产价格下跌。同时发现,政策不确定性作用于宏观经济的主要机制为预期渠道。该结论表明,政府应当尽量保持宏观经济政策的稳定性和持续性,并加强引导公众合理预期。     

Nontraded food commodity spatial price transmission: evidence from the Niger millet market

Using an Augmented Factor Vector Autoregressive (FAVAR) Model, this study analyzes spatial millet prices transmission in Niger. Our results did not find condition for millet markets integration existence. However, the Granger causality tests and impulse response functions from the estimated short‐term dynamic as FAVAR model revealed the existence of leading markets whose millet prices affect a maximum number of other regional millet prices, while some regions seem to be isolated from trade or information flows. Furthermore, the significance of a shock depends also on the characteristics of the region where it originates in terms of millet demand or supply, indicating that the region to target and where the price shock originated matter for the policies’ success.     

Monetary policy and systemic risk-taking in the euro area banking sector

Available empirical evidence on the significance of the (micro) risk-taking channel of monetary policy is not enough to indicate a threat to financial stability. Evidence of risk-taking with systemic risk implications is necessary. Statistical measures that capture systemic risk in all its forms within a structural factor-augmented vector autoregressive model suggest that conventional and unconventional monetary policies have resulted in systemic risk-taking in the euro area banking sector. Systemic risk has taken the form of an increase in the banking sector’s vulnerability via contagion and interconnectedness. Banks’ balance sheets, however, do not account for the full transmission from (micro) risk taking to systemic risk-taking. The main policy implication is that a persistently accommodative monetary policy may drive a monetary authority with a price stability mandate to consider a possible trade-off with financial stability. At a minimum, coordination between monetary and macro-prudential policies requires serious consideration.     

The cross-country impact of ECB policies: Asymmetries in – Asymmetries out?

Since its inception, the adequacy of the Eurozone to be an Optimal Currency Area has been questioned, and, along with it, the homogeneous transmission and impact of the monetary impulses across the member countries. We provide a comprehensive assessment of the transmission mechanism’s functioning, its symmetry, impact on target variables, and evolution, addressing all the questions which have remained unanswered in the previous literature, while adding evidence on the impact of non-standard policy measures. We do so by adopting a Bayesian Time-Varying Parameters FAVAR model that fixes the flaws present in past research. The empirical analysis shows that the occurrence of the two crises significantly altered policy transmission, with both the interest rate and credit channel being consistently affected. It also shows that while they provided effective stimuli to the economies, the unconventional measures implemented were not able to fix those asymmetries. Policy-wise, our findings suggest that authorities must push towards consistent innovation on the fiscal side, while gaining more confidence with regards to the new monetary toolkit.     

ASSESSING MONETARY POLICY IN SOUTH AFRICA IN A DATA‐RICH ENVIRONMENT

This paper examines the efficacy of monetary policy in the South African economy using a data‐rich framework. We use the Factor‐Augmented Vector Autoregressive (FAVAR) methodology, which contains 110 monthly variables for the period 1985:02‐2007:11. The results, based on impulse‐response functions, provide no evidence of the price puzzle observed in traditional Structural Vector Autoregressive analysis and confirm that monetary policy in South Africa is effective in stabilising prices. Unlike the traditional vector autoregressive approach, the FAVAR methodology allows further analysis of a large number of variables. Variables from real and financial variables react negatively to a contractionary monetary policy shock. Finally, we find evidence of the importance of a confidence channel transmission following a monetary policy shock.     

Potential Contagion Effects on OECD Countries: A FAVAR Model under Bayesian Framework

This paper studies whether and how US shocks impact the OECD countries in the case of a simulated crisis. Using Bayesian estimation methods we extract constrained factors (global, country and variable type specific) from a sample of 153 economic and financial OECD variables from 1980–2008. These factors are the transmission channels through which national shocks spread to other countries, as in a pandemic. The Bayesian interpretable factors are used to estimate FAVAR models. Our main findings suggest that differences exist in the contagion effects. This implies that no generalizations can be made for OECD countries even of equal economic size and in the same geographic region. In addition, our results show that a large portion of the variance of domestic economic variables is explained by global factors; and that the interest rate shock appears to play an important role in the spillover mechanism from the United States to the rest of the world. More precisely, Australia, the United Kingdom and Scandinavian countries appear to be most sensitive to the US shocks.     

美联储紧缩性货币政策冲击对中国金融市场的影响及应对——资产价格视角的零利率下限时期与常态化时期比较

在新发展格局下,金融市场的高质量发展不能忽视外部因素的影响。美联储的货币政策调整会对中国金融市场产生怎样的影响,现有文献的研究还不够充分全面,尤其缺乏对于零利率下限时期与常态化时期的比较分析。本文认为,美联储实施紧缩性货币政策将缩小中美两国利差,促使中国的资本外流加剧,并导致实际利率水平和企业融资成本增加,进而带来资产价格下跌,对中国金融市场产生负面影响。2008年全球金融危机以及2020年新冠疫情之后,美联储不断下调联邦基金利率,使其面临零利率下限约束,此时实施紧缩性货币政策对中国金融市场的影响可能会与常态化时期有所区别。基于2002年1月至2021年7月中国宏观经济和金融98个变量的月度数据,采用Wu-Xia联邦基金影子利率（Wu-Xia Shadow Federal Funds Rate）来度量零利率下限时期的美联储货币政策立场,运用因子扩张型向量自回归模型（FAVAR）从资产价格角度分析美联储紧缩性货币政策冲击对中国金融市场的影响,结果显示：总体上看,美联储紧缩性货币政策冲击会通过利率渠道对中国资产价格产生负面影响,且该负面影响具有时滞性;人民币汇率调整具有补偿效应,即可以通过人民币贬值减轻资本外流的压力,进而削弱美联储紧缩性货币政策冲击对中国资产价格的负面影响;在零利率下限时期,美联储紧缩性货币政策冲击对中国资产价格的负面影响比常态化时期更为显著。相比现有文献,本文主要进行了如下改进和拓展：一是采用Wu-Xia联邦基金影子利率度量零利率下限时期美联储的货币政策立场,避免因采用联邦基金利率而低估其负面影响;二是运用FAVAR模型缓解VAR模型及TVP-VAR模型的遗漏变量偏误问题,并为识别结构冲击提供足够丰富的信息;三是对零利率下限时期与常态化时期进行比较分析,有利于更好地把握美联储货币政策冲击对中国金融市场的时变影响。为更好地应对美联储紧缩性货币政策冲击对中国金融市场和宏观经济造成的负面影响,需要深入分析和把握美联储货币政策动向发生改变的原因和本质,在坚持货币政策“以我为主”的同时,密切关注和警惕美联储紧缩性货币政策冲击可能产生的负面影响,并不断深化人民币汇率改革,保证人民币汇率弹性适度和调整空间充足。     

Macroeconomic Factors and Microlevel Bank Behavior

We analyze the link between banks and the macroeconomy using a model that extends a macroeconomic VAR for the U.S. with a set of factors summarizing conditions in about 1,500 commercial banks. We investigate how macroeconomic shocks are transmitted to individual banks and obtain the following main findings. Backward‐looking risk of a representative bank declines, and bank lending increases following expansionary shocks. Forward‐looking risk increases following an expansionary monetary policy shock. There is, however, substantial heterogeneity in the transmission of macroeconomic shocks, which is due to bank size, capitalization, liquidity, risk, and the exposure to real estate and consumer loans.     

A Reexamination of Real Stock Returns,Real Interest Rates,Real Activity,and Inflation: Evidence from a Large Data Set

Using the informational sufficiency procedure from Forni and Gambetti (2014) along with data from McCracken and Ng (2014), we update the results of Lee (1992) and find that his vector autoregression (VAR) is informationally deficient. To correct this problem, we estimate a factor augmented VAR (FAVAR) and analyze the differences once informational deficiency is corrected with an emphasis on the relationship between real stock returns and inflation. In particular, we examine Modigliani and Cohn's (1979) inflation illusion hypothesis, Fama's (1983) proxy hypothesis, and the “anticipated policy hypothesis.”