nep-cba New Economics Papers
on Central Banking
Issue of 2018‒07‒30
twenty-six papers chosen by
Sergey E. Pekarski
Higher School of Economics

  1. Monetary Policy and Macroprudential Policy: Different and Separate? By Svensson, Lars E O
  2. A risk-centric model of demand recessions and macroprudential policy By Ricardo Caballero; Alp Simsek
  3. The global factor in neutral policy rates: Some implications for exchange rates, monetary policy, and policy coordination By Richard Clarida
  4. Should Central Banks Prick Asset Price Bubbles? An Analysis Based on a Financial Accelerator Model with an Agent-Based Financial Market By Alexey Vasilenko
  5. Positive Trend Inflation and Determinacy in a Medium-Sized New Keynesian Model By Jonas E. Arias; Guido Ascari; Nicola Branzoli; Efrem Castelnuovo
  6. A new theory of optimal inflation By Reich, Jens
  7. Shadow Banks and the Risk-Taking Channel of Monetary Policy Transmission in the Euro Area By Arina Wischnewsky; Matthias Neuenkirch
  8. Monetary Policy Announcements and Market Interest Rates’ Response: Evidence from China By Sun, Rongrong
  9. Risk management-driven policy rate gap By Giovanni Caggiano; Efrem Castelnuovo; Gabriela Nodari
  10. Rules-Based Monetary Policy and the Threat of Indeterminacy when Trend Inflation is Low By Hashmat Khan; Louis Phaneuf; Jean Gardy Victor
  11. Monetary Policy, External Instruments and Heteroskedasticity By Maximilian Podstawski; Thore Schlaak; Malte Rieth
  12. Optimal Trend Inflation By Klaus Adam; Henning Weber
  13. Understanding International Long-Term Interest Rate Comovement By Chin, Michael; Graeve, Ferre De; Filippeli, Thomai; Theodoridis, Konstantinos
  14. Effects of Fixed Nominal Thresholds for Enhanced Supervision By David Hou; Missaka Warusawitharana
  15. The impact of monetary policy on household borrowing - a high-frequency IV identification By Sandström, Maria
  16. Modeling Your Stress Away By Friederike Niepmann; Viktors Stebunovs
  17. Assessing the Impact of Demand Shocks on the US Term Premium By Russell Barnett; Konrad Zmitrowicz
  18. Conditional exchange rate pass-through: evidence from Sweden By Corbo, Vesna; Di Casola, Paola
  19. Monetary policy and household inequality By Ampudia, Miguel; Georgarakos, Dimitris; Slacalek, Jiri; Tristiani, Oreste; Vermeulen, Philip; Violante, Giovanni L.
  20. The "uncovered inflation rate parity" condition in a monetary union By Nicola Acocella; Parolo Pasimeni
  21. Optimal Monetary Policy in the Presence of Food Price Subsidies By William Ginn; Marc Pourroy
  22. A shadow rate without a lower bound constraint By De Rezende, Rafael B.; Ristiniemi, Annukka
  23. Requiem for the Interest-Rate Controls in China By Sun, Rongrong
  24. Evergreening in the Euro Area: Facts and Explanation By Sven Steinkamp; Aaron Tornell; Frank Westermann
  25. Payments, credit and asset prices By Monika Piazzesi; Martin Schneider
  26. Can We Identify the Fed's Preferences? By Jean-Bernard Chatelain; Kirsten Ralf

  1. By: Svensson, Lars E O
    Abstract: The paper discusses how monetary and macroprudential policies can be distinguished, how appropriate goals for the two policies can be determined, whether the policies are best conducted separately or coordinately and by the same or different authorities, and how they can be coordinated when desired. The institutional frameworks in Canada, Sweden, and the UK are briefly compared. The Swedish example of monetary policy strongly "leaning against the wind" and the subsequent policy turnaround is summarized, as well as what estimates have been found of the costs and benefits of leaning against the wind.
    Keywords: Financial crises; Financial Stability; leaning against the wind
    JEL: E44 E52 E58 G01 G28
    Date: 2018–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13043&r=cba
  2. By: Ricardo Caballero; Alp Simsek
    Abstract: When investors are unwilling to hold the economy's risk, a decline in the interest rate increases the Sharpe ratio of the market and equilibrates the risk markets. If the interest rate is constrained from below, risk markets are instead equilibrated via a decline in asset prices. However, the latter drags down aggregate demand, which further drags prices down, and so on. If investors are pessimistic about the recovery, the economy becomes highly susceptible to downward spirals due to dynamic feedbacks between asset prices, aggregate demand, and potential growth. In this context, belief disagreements generate highly destabilizing speculation that motivates macroprudential policy.
    Keywords: risk gap, output gap, risk-premium shocks, aggregate demand, liquidity trap,"rstar", Sharpe ratio, monetary and macroprudential policy, heterogeneous beliefs, speculation, endogenous volatility
    JEL: E00 E12 E21 E22 E30 E40 G00 G01 G11
    Date: 2018–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bis:biswps:733&r=cba
  3. By: Richard Clarida
    Abstract: This paper highlights some of the theoretical and practical implications for monetary policy and exchange rates that derive specifically from the presence of a global general equilibrium factor embedded in neutral real policy rates in open economies. Using a standard two country DSGE model, we derive a structural decomposition in which the nominal exchange rate is a function of the expected present value of future neutral real interest rate differentials plus a business cycle factor and a PPP factor. Country specific "r*" shocks in general require optimal monetary policy to pass these through to the policy rate, but such shocks will also have exchange rate implications, with an expected decline in the path of the real neutral policy rate reflected in a depreciation of the nominal exchange rate. We document a novel empirical regularity between the equilibrium error in the VECM representation of the empirical Holston Laubach Williams (2017) four country r* model and the value of the nominal trade weighted dollar. In fact, the correlation between the dollar and the 12 quarter lag of the HLW equilibrium error is estimated to be 0.7. Global shocks to r* under optimal policy require no exchange rate adjustment because passing though r* shocks to policy rates 'does all the work' of maintaining global equilibrium. We also study a richer model with international spill overs so that in theory there can be gains to international policy cooperation. In this richer model we obtain a similar decomposition for the nominal exchange rate, but with the added feature that r* in each country is a function global productivity and business cycle factors even if these factors are themselves independent across countries. We argue that in practice, there could well be significant costs to central bank communication and credibility under a regime formal policy cooperation, but that gains to policy coordination could be substantial given that r*'s are unobserved but are correlated across countries.
    Keywords: monetary policy, policy coordination, exchange rates, r*
    JEL: E4 E5 F3 F31
    Date: 2018–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bis:biswps:732&r=cba
  4. By: Alexey Vasilenko (Bank of Russia, Russian Federation;National Research University Higher School of Economics, Laboratory for Macroeconomic Analysis; University of Toronto, Joseph L Rotman School of Management.)
    Abstract: This paper studies whether and how the central bank should prick asset price bubbles, if the effect of interest rate policy on bubbles can significantly vary across periods. For this purpose, I first construct a financial accelerator model with an agent-based financial market that can endogenously generate bubbles and account for their impact on the real sector of the economy. Then, I calculate the effect of different nonlinear interest rate rules for pricking asset price bubbles on social welfare and financial stability. The results demonstrate that pricking asset price bubbles can enhance social welfare and reduce the volatility of output and inflation, especially if asset price bubbles are caused by credit expansion. Pricking bubbles is also desirable when the central bank can additionally implement an effective communication policy to prick bubbles, for example, effective verbal interventions aimed at the expectations of agents in the financial market.
    Keywords: monetary policy, asset price bubble, New Keynesian macroeconomics, agent-based financial market.
    JEL: E44 E52 E58 G01 G02
    Date: 2018–06
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bkr:wpaper:wps35&r=cba
  5. By: Jonas E. Arias; Guido Ascari; Nicola Branzoli; Efrem Castelnuovo
    Abstract: This paper studies the challenge that increasing the inflation target poses to equilibrium determinacy in a medium-sized New Keynesian model without indexation fitted to the Great Moderation era. For moderate targets of the inflation rate, such as 2 or 4 percent, the probability of determinacy is near one conditional on the monetary policy rule of the estimated model. However, this probability drops significantly conditional on model-free estimates of the monetary policy rule based on real-time data. The difference is driven by the larger response of the federal funds rate to the output gap associated with the latter estimates.
    Keywords: trend inflation, determinacy, monetary policy
    JEL: E52 E30 C22
    Date: 2018
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7122&r=cba
  6. By: Reich, Jens
    Abstract: Central banks like the Bank of England or the Bundesbank have highlighted recently that the supply of currency is achieved not by means of printing and spending but by means of credit. This clarification raises further issues. This article addresses the issue of seigniorage and optimal inflation. So far approaches to seigniorage and optimal inflation are still based on the assumption of a currency which is printed and spend by a central authority. From this perspective central banks’ inflation targets and optimal inflation targets are at odds with those suggested by economic theory. The so-called Friedman-rule, the common core of optimal inflation theory, determines optimal inflation via the (opportunity) cost of producing currency. This basic approach is amended by “external effects”, e.g. the impact of monetary non-neutrality or wage rigidities and so on. However, even under consideration of external effects there remains a significant gap between actual inflation targets and optimal rates as suggested by theory. The supply by means of credit, however, involves “costs of production” which do not appear in Friedman’s case: losses from borrower defaults. Incorporating expected losses into economic theory contributes significantly in aligning central banks’ optima with economic theory and provides a new theory of seigniorage for a credit currency.
    Keywords: Optimal inflation, seigniorage, monetary policy, central banking.
    JEL: E31 E51 E52 E58
    Date: 2017–11–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:87188&r=cba
  7. By: Arina Wischnewsky; Matthias Neuenkirch
    Abstract: In this paper, we provide evidence for a risk-taking channel of monetary policy transmission in the euro area that works through an increase in shadow banks’ total asset growth and their risk assets ratio. Our dataset covers the period 2003Q1 - 2017Q3 and includes, in addition to the standard variables for real GDP growth, inflation, and the monetary policy stance, the aforementioned two indicators for the shadow banking sector. Based on vector autoregressive models for the euro area as a whole, we find for conventional monetary policy shocks that a portfolio reallocation effect towards riskier assets is more pronounced, whereas for unconventional monetary policy shocks we detect stronger evidence for a general expansion of assets. Country-specific estimations confirm these findings for most of the euro area countries, but also reveal some heterogeneity in the shadow banks’ reaction.
    Keywords: European Central Bank, macroprudential policy, monetary policy transmission, risk-taking channel, shadow banks, vector autoregression
    JEL: E44 E52 E58 G11 G23 G28
    Date: 2018
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7118&r=cba
  8. By: Sun, Rongrong
    Abstract: This paper uses the event study to estimate the impact of various monetary policy announcements on market interest rates in China over the 2002-2017 period. I find that financial markets understand the quantitative signals better: the market response to an announced adjustment of the regulated retail interest rate and the required reserve ratio is positive and significant at all maturities of bond rates, but smaller at the long end of the yield curve. However, the market barely responds to announced changes in the qualitative policy stance index, which contains limited vague information and is easily anticipated. Two newly introduced central bank lending rates do not appear to be sufficient to replace the retail interest rate and the reserve ratio in guiding market rates in the post-deregulation era. My results suggest that the PBC adopts a publicly announced short-term interest-rate operating target regime, similar to the Fed’s federal funds rate target.
    Keywords: announcement effect, event study, monetary policy, monetary transmission, China
    JEL: E52 E58
    Date: 2018–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:87703&r=cba
  9. By: Giovanni Caggiano; Efrem Castelnuovo; Gabriela Nodari
    Abstract: We employ real-time data available to the US monetary policy makers to estimate a Taylor rule augmented with a measure of financial uncertainty over the period 1969-2008. We find evidence in favor of a systematic response to financial uncertainty over and above that to expected inflation, output gap, and output growth. However, this evidence regards the Greenspan-Bernanke period only. Focusing on this period, the “risk-management” approach is found to be responsible for monetary policy easings for up to 75 basis points of the federal funds rate.
    Keywords: Risk management-driven policy rate gap, uncertainty, monetary policy, Taylor rules, real-time data.
    JEL: C2 E4 E5
    Date: 2018–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:een:camaaa:2018-34&r=cba
  10. By: Hashmat Khan (Department of Economics, Carleton University); Louis Phaneuf (Université du Québec à Montréal); Jean Gardy Victor (Inter-American Development Bank)
    Abstract: Low inflation is not perceived as a potential threat to determinacy and macroeconomic stability. Should the Fed return to a rules-based monetary policy, the prospect of indeterminacy would be particularly acute if the Fed adopted a mixed policy rule with the nominal interest rate responding to the output gap and output growth. This is true for a rate of inflation as low as that observed on average since the early 1990s. This finding contrasts sharply with the existing literature where the threat of indeterminacy was high before 1983 and almost nonexistent afterwards. Key to our result is a strong interaction between low trend inflation, sticky wages and technological trend growth. Accounting for a cost channel of monetary policy and a roundabout production process increases the threat of indeterminacy under low inflation. When removing the output gap or output growth from the mixed rule, we find that a rule responding to output growth sharply widens the scope for stability. By stark contrast, the results obtained under a rule reacting to the output gap only essentially mimic those with the mixed rule.
    Keywords: Low trend inflation; Taylor rule; Output gap; Output growth; Indeterminacy; Sticky wages; Trend growth; Working capital; Roundabout production.
    JEL: E31 E32 E37
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:car:carecp:18-08&r=cba
  11. By: Maximilian Podstawski; Thore Schlaak; Malte Rieth
    Abstract: We develop a vector autoregressive framework for combining the information in an external instrument with the information in the second moments of the data to identify latent monetary shocks in the United States. We show that the framework improves the identification of the structural model and allows testing the validity of instruments proposed in the literature. Using a valid instrument, we then document that surprise monetary contractions lead to a medium-sized significant decline in economic activity, that the contractionary effect is also present during the great moderation, and that the role of monetary shocks in driving real and financial fluctuations is small in low and big in high volatility regimes.
    Keywords: Monetary policy, structural vector autoregressions, identification with external instruments, heteroskedasticity, Markov switching
    JEL: E52 C32 E58 E32
    Date: 2018
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1749&r=cba
  12. By: Klaus Adam (University of Mannheim & CEPR (E-mail: adam@uni-mannheim.de)); Henning Weber (Deutsche Bundesbank (E-mail: henning.weber@bundesbank.de))
    Abstract: Sticky price models featuring heterogeneous firms and systematic firm-level productivity trends deliver radically different predictions for the optimal inflation rate than their popular homogenous- firm counterparts: (1) the optimal steady-state inflation rate generically differs from zero and (2) inflation optimally responds to productivity disturbances. We show this by aggregating a heterogenous- firm model with sticky prices in closed form. Using firm-level data from the U.S. Census Bureau, we estimate the historically optimal inflation path for the U.S. economy. In the year 1977, the optimal inflation rate stood at 1.5%, but subsequently declined to around 1.0% in the year 2015. Inflation rates up to twice these numbers can be rationalized if one considers product demand elasticities more in line with the trade literature or if one considers firms that (partially) index prices to lagged inflation rates.
    Keywords: optimal inflation rate, sticky prices, firm heterogeneity
    JEL: E52 E31 E32
    Date: 2018–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ime:imedps:18-e-07&r=cba
  13. By: Chin, Michael (Norges Bank Investment Management); Graeve, Ferre De (KU Leuven); Filippeli, Thomai (Queen Mary University); Theodoridis, Konstantinos (Cardiff Business School)
    Abstract: Long-term interest rates of small open economies correlate strongly with the US long-term rate. Can central banks in those countries decouple from the US? An estimated DSGE model for the UK (vis-`a-vis the US) establishes three structural empirical results. (1) Comovement arises due to nominal fluctuations, not through real rates or term premia. (2) The cause of comovement is the central bank of the small open economy accommodating foreign inflation trends, rather than systematically curbing them. (3) Small open economies may find themselves much more affected by changes in US inflation trends than the US itself.
    Keywords: DSGE Model, Small Open Economy, Yield Curve, Long-Term Interest Rates, Term Premia, Comovement
    JEL: E43 E44 F30 F44 G15
    Date: 2018–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdf:wpaper:2018/19&r=cba
  14. By: David Hou; Missaka Warusawitharana
    Abstract: Following the financial crisis, the passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act) and the implementation of Basel III significantly changed the regulatory landscape in the U.S. This note discusses how the use of such fixed nominal thresholds impacts the extent of enhanced prudential supervision. Section 1 presents the various thresholds that are in place as of May 15, 2018. Section 2 analyzes the effect of these thresholds on the number and total assets of the affected banks, and examines whether the thresholds have caused any bunching of banks. Section 3 discusses possible changes that may help address some of these effects.
    Date: 2018–07–19
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgfn:2018-07-19&r=cba
  15. By: Sandström, Maria (Financial Stability Department, Central Bank of Sweden)
    Abstract: This paper combines identication of monetary policy shocks from high-frequency financial market data with local projections IV to study the effects of monetary policy on household borrowing using Swedish data. The results are uncertain but indicate that the stock of household loans is 1.6 percent lower two years after a 1 percentage point shock to the repo rate. This is a relatively modest effect considering that the stock of household loans on average grew by 7.8 percent per year over this period.
    Keywords: Monetary policy; Household credit; High-frequency identification; External instrument; Local projections
    JEL: C26 E51 E52 G14
    Date: 2018–02–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:rbnkwp:0351&r=cba
  16. By: Friederike Niepmann; Viktors Stebunovs
    Abstract: We investigate systematic changes in banks' projected credit losses between the 2014 and 2016 EBA stress tests, employing methodology from Philippon et al. (2017). We find that projected credit losses were smoothed across the tests through systematic model adjustments. Those banks whose losses would have increased the most from 2014 to 2016 due to changes in the supervisory scenarios-keeping the models constant and controlling for changes in the riskiness of underlying portfolios-saw the largest decrease in losses due to model changes. Model changes were more pronounced for banks that rely more on the Internal Ratings-Based approach, and they explain the cross-section of market responses to the release of the 2016 results. Stock prices and CDS spreads increased more for banks with larger reductions in projected credit losses due to model changes, as investors apparently did not interpret lower loan losses as reflecting mainly a decrease in credit risk but, instead, as a sign of lower capital requirements going forward.
    Keywords: Stress tests ; Financial institutions ; Regulation ; Credit risk models
    JEL: G21 G28
    Date: 2018–07–19
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgif:1232&r=cba
  17. By: Russell Barnett; Konrad Zmitrowicz
    Abstract: During and after the Great Recession of 2008–09, conventional monetary policy in the United States and many other advanced economies was constrained by the effective lower bound (ELB) on nominal interest rates. Several central banks implemented large-scale asset purchase (LSAP) programs, more commonly known as quantitative easing or QE, to provide additional monetary stimulus. Gauging the effectiveness of LSAPs is important, since the ELB may be a constraint on conventional monetary policy more frequently in the future than it was in the past. In this paper we analyze two distinct periods where we observe exogenous demand shocks for 10-year US Treasury bonds to assess their impact on the term premium. Our results show that official sector demand factors, measured by purchases of securities by the foreign official sector and the Federal Reserve’s asset purchase program, are important drivers explaining movements in the term premium. They suggest that asset purchases (QE) can help provide additional monetary stimulus even once the policy rate has reached its ELB. Robustness tests also suggest that the estimated impact of official sector demand factors is the most robust driver of the term premium across alternative specifications, while the estimates on risk factors appear more sensitive to the choice of term premium specification. Based on external projections and authors’ assumptions, our results suggest that the US term premium will rise gradually from an average of about -20 basis points in the fourth quarter of 2016 to around +10, 32 and 60 basis points by the end of 2017, 2018 and 2019, respectively, before stabilizing around 100 basis points in the medium term.
    Keywords: Financial markets, Interest rates, Monetary policy framework, Monetary policy implementation, Transmission of monetary policy
    JEL: E E4 E43 E5 E52 E58 E6 E61 E65 G G1 G12
    Date: 2018
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bca:bocadp:18-7&r=cba
  18. By: Corbo, Vesna (Monetary Policy Department, Central Bank of Sweden); Di Casola, Paola (Monetary Policy Department, Central Bank of Sweden)
    Abstract: The pass-through from exchange rate changes to inflation differs depending on the underlying shock. This paper quantifies the conditional exchange rate pass-through (CERPT) to prices, i.e. the change in prices relative to that in the exchange rate following a certain exogenous shock, with a structural econometric approach using data for Sweden, a small economy that is very open to trade. We find that the pass-through to consumer prices following an exogenous exchange rate shock is rather small. Importantly, this shock is not the most important driver of exchange rate uctuations, unlike what standard structural macroeconomic models would indicate. For Sweden, the CERPT is negative not only for domestic but also for global demand shocks. The estimated combination of shocks with positive and negative CERPT implies that the average pass-through to consumer prices is roughly zero.
    Keywords: Exchange rate; pass-through; consumer prices; import prices; monetary policy; SVAR.
    JEL: E31 E52 F31 F41
    Date: 2018–03–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:rbnkwp:0352&r=cba
  19. By: Ampudia, Miguel; Georgarakos, Dimitris; Slacalek, Jiri; Tristiani, Oreste; Vermeulen, Philip; Violante, Giovanni L.
    Abstract: This paper considers how monetary policy produces heterogeneous effects on euro area households, depending on the composition of their income and on the components of their wealth. We first review the existing evidence on how monetary policy affects income and wealth inequality. We then illustrate quantitatively how various channels of transmission — net interest rate exposure, inter-temporal substitution and indirect income channels— affect individual euro area households. We find that the indirect income channel has an overwhelming importance, especially for households holding few or no liquid assets. The indirect income channel is therefore also a substantial driver of changes in consumption at the aggregate level. JEL Classification: D14, D31, E21, E52, E58
    Keywords: household heterogeneity, inequality, monetary policy, quantitative easing
    Date: 2018–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20182170&r=cba
  20. By: Nicola Acocella; Parolo Pasimeni
    Abstract: The uncovered interest rate parity condition lies at the heart of the "impossible trinity", stating that the three objectives of fixed exchange rates, free capital flows, and independent monetary policy cannot be pursued simultaneously. We argue that although monetary unification does indeed eliminate the tension between exchange rates and nominal interest rates, it does not solve the problem of the intrinsic instability of the system. By eliminating the intra-area exchange rates (with a single currency) and interest rate differentials (with a single common policy rate set by the common central bank), the problem of instability is simply transferred to inflation rate differentials, what we call the (impossibility of the) "uncovered inflation rate parity condition" in a monetary union. The analysis of the actual divergences and imbalances in the EMU, then, suggests that failure to respect the "uncovered inflation rate parity condition" in a monetary union may lead to increasing economic and political tensions. Thus we conclude with the application of the Rodrik's political trilemma to the EMU, which epitomises the existential challenges that the EU faces nowadays.
    Keywords: Monetary Union, interest rate, exchange rate, inflation differentials, political trilemma
    JEL: E42 F33 F41 F42
    Date: 2018
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imk:fmmpap:28-2018&r=cba
  21. By: William Ginn (FAU - Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg); Marc Pourroy (CRIEF - Centre de Recherche sur l'Intégration Economique et Financière - Université de Poitiers)
    Abstract: Food price subsidies are a prevalent means by which fiscal authorities may counteract food price volatility in middle-income countries (MIC). We develop a DSGE model for a MIC that captures this key channel of a policy induced price smoothing mechanism that is different to, yet in parallel with, the classic Calvo price stickiness approach, which can have consequential effects for monetary policy. We then use the model to address how the joint fiscal and monetary policy responds to an increase in inflation driven by a food price shock can affect welfare. We show that, in the presence of credit constrained households and households with a significant share of food expenditures , a coordinated reaction of fiscal and monetary policies via subsidized price targeting can improve aggregate welfare. Subsidies smooth prices and consumption, especially for credit constrained households, which can consequently result in an interest rate reaction less intensely with subsidized price targeting compared with headline price targeting.
    Keywords: Monetary Policy,Fiscal Policy,Food subsidies,DSGE Model,Subsidies,Commodities,Middle income countries
    Date: 2018–07–05
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-01830769&r=cba
  22. By: De Rezende, Rafael B. (Monetary Policy Department, Central Bank of Sweden); Ristiniemi, Annukka (Financial Stability Department, Central Bank of Sweden)
    Abstract: We propose a shadow rate that measures the expansionary (contractionary) interest rate effects of unconventional monetary policies that are present when the lower bound is not binding. Using daily yield curve data we estimate shadow rates for the US, Sweden, the euro-area and the UK, and find that they fall (rise) when market participants expect monetary policy to become more expansionary (contractionary), and price this information into the yield curve. This ability of the shadow rate to track the stance of monetary policy is identified on announcements of policy rate cuts (hikes), balance sheet expansions (contractions) and forward guidance, with shadow rates responding timely, and in line with government bond yields. We show two applications for our shadow rate. First, we decompose shadow rate responses to monetary policy announcements into conventional and unconventional monetary policy surprises, and assess the pass-through of each type of policy to exchange rates. We find that exchange rates respond more to conventional than to unconventional monetary policy. Lastly, a counterfactual experiment in a DSGE model suggests that inflation in Sweden would have been around 0.47 percentage points lower had the Riksbank not used unconventional monetary policy since February 2015.
    Keywords: unconventional monetary policy; monetary policy stance; term structure of interest rates; short-rate expectations; term premium
    JEL: E43 E44 E52 E58
    Date: 2018–06–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:rbnkwp:0355&r=cba
  23. By: Sun, Rongrong
    Abstract: This paper reviews the retail interest-rate-control deregulation in China over the 1993-2015 period and provides a preliminary assessment of the PBC's replacement monetary framework. I show that the interest-rate controls triggered the development of deposit substitutes that banks used to circumvent the restrictions, which in turn drove deposits out of commercial banks.This gave rise to concerns about deterioration of bank profits and build-up of financial frangibility, which have pushed up the PBC's deregulation acceleration over the post-2012 period. I quantify the distortionary effects of these controls: disintermediation, a rising shadow banking system and financial repression. Despite the official lift-off of the controls, the retail interest rates are still subject to the PBC’s window guidance and other pricing mechanism guidance. The interest-rate corridor does not function well in confining money market rates. This suggests that the PBC adopt a target money market rate system.
    Keywords: interest-rate control, deregulation, China, financial repression, interest-rate corridor
    JEL: E52 E58
    Date: 2018–06
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:87700&r=cba
  24. By: Sven Steinkamp (Osnabrueck University); Aaron Tornell (University of California, Los Angeles); Frank Westermann (Osnabrueck University)
    Abstract: Since the beginning of the financial crisis in 2007/8, new lending in the Euro-Area has slowed sharply and the old loans experienced “evergreening,” i.e. bad loans have been rolled over rather than being liquidated. Even though ameliorating evergreening is key to promote lending for new investment projects and growth, no systematic evergreening measures exist. In this paper, we propose a new cross-country evergreening index and develop a model to explain why evergreening may reflect the incentives of regulators to forebear. Our evergreening index is based on a survey we designed, and was administered by the ifo institute to about 1,000 experts in over 80 countries. We bring the model to the data using a heteroscedastic probit model and find that evergreening is higher in: (i) Euro-Area countries than in the rest of the world; (ii) in countries facing bank distress; and (iii) is highest in countries which experience banking distress and are members of the Euro Area. These results are consistent with our theoretical model.
    Keywords: Evergreening; Central bank credit; Survey data; Forbearance
    JEL: F33 F55 E58
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iee:wpaper:wp0113&r=cba
  25. By: Monika Piazzesi; Martin Schneider
    Abstract: This paper studies a modern monetary economy: trade in both goods and securities relies on money provided by intermediaries. While money is valued for its liquidity, its creation requires costly leverage. In ation, security prices and the transmission of monetary policy then depend on the institutional details of the payment system. The price of a security is higher if it helps back inside money, and lower if more inside money is used to trade it. In ation can be low in security market busts if bank portfolios suffer, but also in booms if trading absorbs more money. The government has multiple policy tools: in addition to the return on outside money, it affects the mix of securities used to back inside money.
    Keywords: payments, monetary policy, liquidity trap, liquidity, asset prices, collateral premium, leverage, leverage costs, convenience yield, banking, scarce reserves, abundant reserves
    JEL: E00 E13 E41 E42 E43 E44 E51 E52 E58 G1 G12 G21
    Date: 2018–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bis:biswps:734&r=cba
  26. By: Jean-Bernard Chatelain (PSE - Paris School of Economics, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Kirsten Ralf (Ecole Supérieure du Commerce Extérieur - ESCE - International business school)
    Abstract: Using US data, we estimate optimal policy with a probability below one that the Fed reneges on its commitment ("limited credibility") versus discretionary policy where the Fed reneges on its commitment at all periods with a probability equal to one ("zero credibility"). The transmission mechanism is the new-Keynesian Phillips curve with auto-correlated cost-push shock. It includes the labor cost channel or the working capital channel. Discretion with zero credibility of the Fed is rejected. The working capital channel fits the data before Volcker's mandate. The labor cost channel fits the data since Volcker's mandate.
    Keywords: Ramsey optimal policy,zero-credibility policy,Identification,Central bank preferences,New-Keynesian Phillips curve,Working capital channel
    Date: 2017–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01549908&r=cba

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