OPTIMAL MONETARY POLICY AND FINANCIAL STABILITY IN A NON‐RICARDIAN ECONOMY

I present a model with discontinuous asset‐market participation (DAMP), where all agents are non‐Ricardian, and where heterogeneity among market participants implies financial‐wealth effects on aggregate consumption. The implied welfare criterion shows that financial stability arises as an additional and independent target, besides inflation and output stability. Evaluation of optimal policy under discretion and commitment reveals that price stability may no longer be optimal, even absent inefficient supply shocks: some fluctuations in output and inflation may be optimal as long as they reduce financial instability. Ignoring the heterogeneity among market participants may lead monetary policy to induce substantially higher welfare losses.     

通胀预期与央行货币政策有效性

不同通胀预期状态下货币政策有效性有何差异？本文试图采用Logistic平滑转换结构向量自回归模型来回答上述问题。我们以央行未来物价预期指数来度量通胀预期,基本结论如下:(1)短期来看,在低通胀预期状态下,货币政策对促进经济增长和增加就业相对更有效;(2)而对于通货膨胀影响方面,在高通胀预期状态下,货币政策对物价的冲击相对更快显现出来,而在低通胀预期状态时,货币冲击对物价水平的影响存在通货膨胀惊吓现象,即初期表现为低通胀,甚至通货紧缩,然后显现正向效应,在大约11期之后正向效应达到最大,且对物价影响力度往往大于高通胀预期状态下的货币政策冲击效应。     

房价波动、货币政策与中国社会福利损失

本文建立并采用贝叶斯方法估计了一个包含普通消费品部门与房地产部门的多部门NKMP-DSGE模型,运用脉冲响应函数与贝叶斯冲击分解研究了外生冲击对于产出、通胀以及房价膨胀的影响。研究表明,宽松的货币政策在推动我国房价上涨中扮演了主要作用。基于Woodford^[1]的方法,本文通过政策试验分析了不同政策机制的社会福利损失,结果发现同时对房地产供给以及房价做出反应的政策机制具有相对较小的社会福利损失,因此在房地产市场调控中同时增加房地产供给和抑制房价过快上涨可能具有更好的效果。最后,基于我国现实数据,本文估算了通胀与房价膨胀背景下中国真实的社会福利损失,估算的结果对于进一步考察通胀与房价膨胀背景下中国最优货币政策具有重要的现实意义。     

货币政策非对称性与惰性区域的识别和检验

在对货币当局政策偏好分析的基础上,构建更为一般的货币政策反应模型,用于识别名义利率对通胀缺口和产出缺口的非线性和非对称调整特征以及货币政策对通货膨胀和产出变化的惰性属性。采用7天期银行间同业拆借加权平均利率作为名义利率的代理变量,对上述货币政策反应模型进行广义矩估计,并对参数进行约束检验。研究结果表明,中国货币政策对通货膨胀的调整存在明显的惰性区域,即当通货膨胀率在目标通货膨胀率的较小范围内波动时,利率并未针对通货膨胀与目标通货膨胀率的偏离做出调整,而当通货膨胀率与目标通货膨胀率的偏离(即通胀缺口)超过惰性区域时,货币当局开始针对通胀缺口调整利率,并且随着通胀缺口的增大,利率对通货膨胀的反应越来越强烈,存在明显的非线性调整特征。     

The Optimal Degree of Discretion in Monetary Policy

How much discretion should the monetary authority have in setting its policy? This question is analyzed in an economy with an agreed‐upon social welfare function that depends on the economy's randomly fluctuating state. The monetary authority has private information about that state. Well designed rules trade off society's desire to give the monetary authority discretion to react to its private information against society's need to prevent that authority from giving in to the temptation to stimulate the economy with unexpected inflation, the time inconsistency problem. Although this dynamic mechanism design problem seems complex, its solution is simple: legislate an inflation cap. The optimal degree of monetary policy discretion turns out to shrink as the severity of the time inconsistency problem increases relative to the importance of private information. In an economy with a severe time inconsistency problem and unimportant private information, the optimal degree of discretion is none.     

UNINSURED COUNTERCYCLICAL RISK: AN AGGREGATION RESULT AND APPLICATION TO OPTIMAL MONETARY POLICY

We consider an incomplete markets economy with capital accumulation and endogenous labor supply. Individuals face countercyclical idiosyncratic labor and asset risk. We derive conditions under which the aggregate allocations and price system can be found by solving a representative agent problem. This result is applied to analyze the properties of an optimal monetary policy in a New Keynesian economy with uninsured countercyclical individual risk. The optimal monetary policy that emerges from our incomplete markets economy is the same as the optimal monetary policy in a representative agent model with preference shocks. When price rigidity is the only friction the optimal monetary policy calls for stabilizing the inflation rate at zero.     

Long‐Term Debt and Optimal Policy in the Fiscal Theory of the Price Level

The fiscal theory says that the price level is determined by the ratio of nominal debt to the present value of real primary surpluses. I analyze long‐term debt and optimal policy in the fiscal theory. I find that the maturity structure of the debt matters. For example, it determines whether news of future deficits implies current inflation or future inflation. When long‐term debt is present, the government can trade current inflation for future inflation by debt operations; this tradeoff is not present if the government rolls over short‐term debt. The maturity structure of outstanding debt acts as a “budget constraint” determining which periods' price levels the government can affect by debt variation alone. In addition, debt policy—the expected pattern of future state‐contingent debt sales, repurchases and redemptions—matters crucially for the effects of a debt operation. I solve for optimal debt policies to minimize the variance of inflation. I find cases in which long‐term debt helps to stabilize inflation. I also find that the optimal policy produces time series that are similar to U.S. surplus and debt time series. To understand the data, I must assume that debt policy offsets the inflationary impact of cyclical surplus shocks, rather than causing price level disturbances by policy‐induced shocks. Shifting the objective from price level variance to inflation variance, the optimal policy produces much less volatile inflation at the cost of a unit root in the price level; this is consistent with the stabilization of U.S. inflation after the gold standard was abandoned.     

Money in Search Equilibrium,in Competitive Equilibrium,and in Competitive Search Equilibrium

We compare three market structures for monetary economies: bargaining (search equilibrium); price taking (competitive equilibrium); and price posting (competitive search equilibrium). We also extend work on the microfoundations of money by allowing a general matching technology and entry. We study how equilibrium and the effects of policy depend on market structure. Under bargaining, trade and entry are both inefficient, and inflation implies first‐order welfare losses. Under price taking, the Friedman rule solves the first inefficiency but not the second, and inflation may actually improve welfare. Under posting, the Friedman rule yields the first best, and inflation implies second‐order welfare losses.     

开放经济中的货币政策

本文在融入垄断竞争和名义刚性的两国动态一般均衡模型中,分析了定价方式和国际货币政策设计问题。在允许部分厂商采用不同于Calvo交错价格调整的后顾性定价法则的情况下,可以推导出关于短期产出缺口和通货膨胀之间的新的均衡关系,于是在开放经济的条件下就可以得到类似泰勒法则的最优利率政策。此时,最优利率的设定不仅受到国内通货膨胀、产出缺口的影响,而且还和国外产出波动的情况相关。最后,我们以中美两国的实际数据为样本对理论结论进行了实证检验。     

EXCHANGE RATE POLICY AND ENDOGENOUS PRICE FLEXIBILITY

Most theoretical analysis of flexible versus fixed exchange rates takes the degree of nominal rigidity to be independent of the exchange rate regime choice itself; however, informal policy discussion often suggests that a credible exchange rate peg may increase internal price flexi‐bility. This paper explores the relationship between exchange rate policy and price flexibility, in a model where price flexibility itself is an endogenous choice of profit‐maximizing firms. A fixed exchange rate can affect the optimal degree of price flexibility by altering the volatility of nominal demand facing price‐setting firms. We find that a unilateral peg, such as a currency board, adopted by a single country, will increase internal price flexibility, perhaps by a large amount. On the other hand, when an exchange rate peg is supported by bilateral participation of all monetary authorities such as in a monetary union, price flexibility may actually be less than under freely floating exchange rates. Quantitatively, we find that the endogenous increase in price flexibility following a unilateral peg might be large enough that output volatility is no greater than it would be under a floating exchange rate regime. (JEL: F0, F4)     

WHY ARE THE 2000s SO DIFFERENT FROM THE 1970s? A STRUCTURAL INTERPRETATION OF CHANGES IN THE MACROECONOMIC EFFECTS OF OIL PRICES

In the 1970s, large increases in the price of oil were associated with sharp decreases in output and large increases in inflation. In the 2000s, even larger increases in the price of oil were associated with much milder movements in output and inflation. Using a structural VAR approach, Blanchard and Gali (in J. Gali and M. Gertler (eds.) 2009, International Dimensions of Monetary Policy, University of Chicago Press, pp. 373–428) argued that this reflected a change in the causal relation from the price of oil to output and inflation. They then argued that this change could be due to a combination of three factors: a smaller share of oil in production and consumption, lower real wage rigidity, and better monetary policy. Their argument, based on simulations of a simple new‐Keynesian model, was informal. Our purpose in this paper is to take the next step, and to estimate the explanatory power and contribution of each of these factors. To do so, we use a minimum distance estimator that minimizes, over the set of structural parameters and for each of two samples (pre‐ and post‐1984), the distance between the empirical SVAR‐based impulse response functions and those implied by a new‐Keynesian model. Our empirical results point to an important role for all three factors.     

Environmental Taxes and the Choice of Green Technology

We study several important aspects of using environmental taxes to motivate the choice of innovative and “green" emissions‐reducing technologies as well as the role of fixed cost subsidies and consumer rebates in this process. In our model, a profit‐maximizing monopolistic firm facing price‐dependent demand selects emissions control technology, production quantity, and price in response to the tax, subsidy, and rebate levels set by the regulator. The available technologies vary in environmental efficiency as well as in the fixed and variable costs. Both the optimal policy for the firm and the social‐welfare maximizing policy for the regulator are analyzed. We find that the firm's reaction to an increase in taxes may be non‐monotone: while an initial increase in taxes may motivate a switch to a greener technology, further tax increases may motivate a reverse switch. For the regulator, we compare the social welfare achievable in the centralized system (which serves as an upper bound) to the highest level achievable under different classes of environmental policies. If the regulator is limited to a tax‐only policy, then when the regulator is moderately concerned with environmental impacts, the tax level that maximizes social welfare simultaneously motivates the choice of clean technology and closes the gap to the upper bound; however, both low and high levels of societal environmental concerns may lead to the choice of dirty technology and significant welfare losses as compared to the centralized case. Supplementing the environmental taxation with fixed cost subsidies and consumer rebates can eliminate this effect, expanding the range of parameters over which the green technology is chosen and often closing the welfare gap to the centralized solution.     

违约风险、银行信贷筛选与货币政策非对称效应

本文构建一个包含企业违约风险与银行信贷筛选的动态随机一般均衡模型,研究银行信贷筛选对货币政策宏观经济效应产生的影响。在参数校准的基础上,分析了货币政策冲击的长期效应与短期效应。研究结果显示：(1)无论是基于长期还是短期效应的角度,银行信贷筛选均显著抑制了扩张性货币政策对宏观经济产生的积极影响;(2)基于货币政策冲击的短期效应可以发现,银行信贷筛选降低了扩张性货币政策的实际效应,并且放大了货币政策对通胀的影响;(3)通过比较扩张性与紧缩性货币政策的脉冲响应可以发现,银行信贷筛选导致货币政策的宏观经济效应存在非对称性特征。福利分析的结果表明,相比无银行信贷筛选的情形而言,银行信贷筛选导致了整体社会福利的恶化。     

新常态下货币供给对工业经济的非对称冲击——兼论冲击路径的情景设计与分析

货币政策冲击对工业产出和价格的非对称影响，是新常态下把握好货币供给政策的方向、力度和节奏的重要参考依据，有助于提升货币供给政策的针对性、灵活性和前瞻性。局部投影方法在不同区制下，计算工业产出和价格对货币供给冲击的脉冲响应结果表明：货币供给冲击对工业产出的影响具有不确定性，且总体上表现为中性特征；而货币供给冲击对工业价格的影响不仅在不同区制下，而且在新常态前后均表现出显著的差异性和非对称性，总体来说是短期有效，长期中性的。情景设计的分析结果显示新常态下采用增加货币供给的政策来刺激工业经济是不可取的，其作用效果可能出现工业产出停滞不前，工业价格急剧飙升的工业滞胀。因此，需要从工业产业升级，工业技术创新等工业供给侧寻求工业经济新的增长点和动力机制。     

开放经济条件下中国货币政策传导机制的计量检验

运用结构向量自回归模型方法,检验了开放经济条件下我国货币政策的传导机制和作用效果。检验发现,通货膨胀率、名义利率和名义汇率都对GDP增长率冲击具有敏感的反应,而名义利率也对名义汇率冲击具有显著反应,这说明外国货币政策已经通过汇率渠道对我国货币政策产生了影响。     

Modelling Wage Growth Dynamics in Italy, 1960-90

ABSTRACT: In this work we analyse the common dynamic properties of wage inflation, price inflation, unemployment and labour productivity using Italian annual data (1960-90, source: Prometeia). Applying multivariate cointegration technique we test for the presence of a wage equation and a price mark-up equation. The preferred identification suggests that it is possible to build up an error correction representation for the wage inflation, in which the rate of acceleration in wages depends on the contemporaneous rate of acceleration in prices and on the adjustment to long-run disequilibrium as represented by a Phillips type relation. This representation is rejected for the price inflation which turns out to be weakly exogenous within the system. Furthermore, there is evidence that wage inflation does not Granger-cause price inflation. The overall conclusion is that wage inflation does not contribute in explaining the price inflation process and the traditional mark-up view of inflation is not supported by data. The policy implication is that monetary policy need not respond to wage data because they do not contain additional information about the future path of inflation.     

货币政策规则对国际资本流动与人民币汇率的时变影响——基于TVP-SV-VAR模型的实证检验

本文从货币政策理论出发,构建以稳定国际资本流动与人民币汇率的“多目标”货币政策规则理论模型,并采用1998年1月至2019年11月的月度数据,建立开放经济下的TVP-SV-VAR模型,实证检验不同货币政策规则下货币供应冲击、利率冲击对国际资本流动与人民币汇率的时变与动态影响。结果表明：(1)不同时间阶段,货币政策冲击对国际资本流动和人民币汇率的影响存在较强的时变特征。(2)等间隔脉冲响应表明,货币政策冲击对国际资本流动的短期影响效应要高于中长期,而对人民币汇率的影响却存在一定滞后性和扩散性,且价格型规则更有利于熨平外部冲击对国际资本流动与人民币汇率的影响。(3)时点脉冲响应表明,利率冲击对国际资本流动和人民币汇率的影响弱于货币供应冲击,且利率冲击对国际资本流动的影响回到稳态均衡的速度更快。总体来看,在调节国际资本流动和稳定人民币汇率的效果上,价格型规则优于数量型规则,我国央行货币政策选择应逐步从数量型规则向价格型规则转变。     

我国通货膨胀路径的对称性和波动性分析

我国价格水平变化具有一定程度的对称性,但在通货膨胀和通货紧缩阶段具有不同的波动性。影响我国价格水平变化的重要原因来自消费需求,目前我国价格水平变化具有有效需求驱动特性。紧缩货币政策有效地抑制了通货膨胀,但稳健货币政策对缓解通货紧缩作用微弱,同时积极财政政策也没有明显地影响价格水平,因此缓解通货紧缩还需要更为积极的名义扩张。     

中国股市是宏观经济的晴雨表吗?——基于马氏域变模型的研究

本文运用马氏域变向量自回归模型研究我国宏观经济因素变动对股市的影响。宏观因素选取了工业增加值、消费、出口、通胀率、广义货币增速、利率以及人民币兑美元的实际汇率以反映实体经济增长和货币政策变动。本文首先利用马氏域变模型对所选变量不同时期所处状态进行识别,进而分析了各宏观经济变量周期与股市周期之间的关系;在此基础上,对各序列绝对离差建立马氏域变向量自回归模型,并利用其冲击响应函数研究各宏观经济因素波动对我国股市的影响。研究发现,A股收益率和各宏观经济变量变动都具有明显的非线性;在大多数时间里实体经济变动和股市波动保持了较好的协同性,股市周期略领先于实体经济周期;M2的快速增长往往伴随着股市的大幅上涨,但股市大幅上涨阶段并不与M2的快速增长相伴;利率调节对股市周期有显著的负向影响;通货膨胀对股市收益率影响显著;实际汇率变化周期与股市收益率周期相协同。     

Time Consistency of Fiscal and Monetary Policy: A Solution

This paper demonstrates how time consistency of the Ramsey policy—the optimal fiscal and monetary policy under commitment—can be achieved. Each government should leave its successor with a unique maturity structure for nominal and indexed debt, such that the marginal benefit of a surprise inflation exactly balances the marginal cost. Unlike in earlier papers on the topic, the result holds for quite general Ramsey policies, including time‐varying polices with positive inflation and positive nominal interest rates. We compare our results with those in Persson, Persson, and Svensson (1987), Calvo and Obstfeld (1990), and Alvarez, Kehoe, and Neumeyer (2004).