Macroeconomic performance of inflation targeting in European and Asian emerging economies

The macroeconomic performance resulting from adopting an inflation targeting policy in emerging economies of Europe and Central Asia are examined. The research includes 26 countries in the period 1997–2019, with a special focus on the period 2008–2019. Our econometric analysis consists of two approaches: dynamic panel modeling and propensity score matching. The results suggest that macroeconomic performance has improved due to the inflation targeting monetary framework. We find that a policy of inflation targeting has been effective in reducing the inflation rate, inflation volatility, and GDP volatility. The results are particularly robust for the subperiod that started in 2008. Econometric results suggest that inflation targeting policy did not affect inflation persistence or GDP growth. Our results suggest that inflation targeting improves the macroeconomic performance of developing countries even when they only partially meet the standard requirements for its implementation.     

The inflation–output volatility trade-off: a case where anti-inflation monetary policy turns out to be successful, a historical assessment

Over the period 1988–2000, the Greek monetary authorities seemed to have implemented a successful disinflation policy. The question, however, is whether this disinflation was optimal or not. This paper, through a theoretical model and the GMM approach, constructs an optimal policy frontier in terms of a trade-off between output and inflation variabilities. The frontier yields increases in the output variance when policymakers attempt to decrease inflation variances, and vice versa. The location of the actual monetary policy performance suggests a policy close to the frontier, implying a successful monetary policy.     

Pre- versus post-crisis central banking in Qatar

In the years before the global financial crisis of 2008–2010, Qatar experienced a huge build-up of liquidity surplus in the banking system, mainly driven by surging net capital inflows. This paper identifies various sources of interbank liquidity in Qatar and discusses the various implications of structural primary liquidity surplus for the money market in particular and the economy at large. The paper attempts to evaluate the Qatar Central Bank policy making and conduct during the pre- and post-crisis periods within a framework of the Austrian monetary overinvestment theories, and concludes that the central bank had forcibly committed several forced monetary policy mistakes, which resulted in a breakdown in the interest rate channel of the monetary policy transmission mechanism. This led to the inability of the central bank to control the interbank interest rate and to an accelerating inflation rate during the pre-crisis years. In contrast, a dramatic change in the central bank's monetary policy framework and a deliberate monetary policy mistake on behalf of the central bank resulted in a restoration of the interest rate channel of the monetary policy transmission mechanism, stabilization of the interbank interest rate close to the central bank's policy rate and a sharp deceleration in the inflation rate in the post-crisis period. The paper concludes by offering brief policy recommendations.     

Monetary policy,trade-offs and the transmission of UK Monetary Policy

We provide a new method to model changes in monetary policy of the Bank of England (BoE) as well as the impact of these changes on UK economy. This is important as central bankers have widened the range of instruments in their monetary policy toolbox. Specifically, we estimate a proxy for the monetary policy stance and then analyse a time-varying parameter vector autoregressive with stochastic volatility model to explain the BoE’s trade-offs when making policy decisions and as well as to demonstrate dynamic impacts of monetary policy on inflation and economic growth. The empirical results show that our estimated monetary policy proxy is better at capturing the BoE’s policy when the interest rate lower bound becomes binding.     

The effectiveness of monetary policy in small open economies

This paper examines the relative effectiveness of the use of direct and indirect monetary policy instruments in Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, by estimating a restricted Vector Autoregressive model with Exogenous Variables (VARX). The model captures the dynamic interaction of the key sectors in the economy and it accounts for the fact that the banking system in those countries is characterized by high levels of excess reserves. Also, the study assumes that the central bank conducts monetary policy using a Taylor-type rule, and it evaluates the effects of a reserve requirement policy. The results show that although a positive shock to the policy interest rate has a direct effect on commercial banks’ interest rates, there is a weak transmission to the real variables. Furthermore, an increase in the required reserve ratio is successful in reducing private sector credit and excess reserves, while at the same time alleviating pressures on the exchange rate. The findings therefore indicate that central banks in small open economies should consider using reserve requirements as a complement to interest rate policy, to achieve their macroeconomic objectives.     

Expectations and the inertia of inflation: The case of Indonesia

It has long been recognised that the balance between backward-looking and forward-looking expectations has critical policy implications. This is because backward-looking expectations impart a substantial degree of inertia to the inflation rate whereas forward-looking expectations lead to rapid adjustment in response to shocks. In this paper we examine the policy implications for the Indonesian economy of the form taken by the price adjustment equation. We allow for both backward-looking and forward-looking effects of inflation expectations, proxying forward expectations with the realised rate and using a GMM estimator to allow for the resulting endogeneity. Using monthly data from 1980:1 to 2008:12, our estimates show that CPI inflation in Indonesia is significantly determined by backward-looking inflation expectations, forward-looking inflation expectations, the output gap, exchange rate depreciation, and money growth. However, the backward expectation attracts a significantly higher weight than the forward rate leading to the conclusion that inflation in Indonesia has considerable inertia. The implication of this is that a gradualist monetary policy is likely to be more effective as a means of smoothing fluctuations in inflation and real output.     

Alternative specifications of the demand for money and their implications for forecasting and policy analysis with large macroeconomic models

The demand for money is an important function in large macroeconomic models because of its central role in monetary policy. The interest rate responsiveness of money demand determines the interest rate changes consistent with the initial change in monetary policy and the subsequent changes on aggregate demand and the price level. This paper uses the DRI macroeconometric model to investigate these issues, finding that the model's predictive power and its estimates of the relative potency of monetary and fiscal policy are dependent upon the specification of the money demand function.     

Credibility and Inflation Expectations: What we can tell from seven emerging economies?

This study is a contribution to the literature concerning credibility and its effect on the distribution between forward-looking behavior and backward-looking behavior for formation of inflation expectations in the case of emerging economies. Based on data gathered from seven inflation targeting emerging economies (Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Poland, South Africa, and Turkey), this paper analyzes how much the credibility associated with the inflation target contributes to anchoring expectations. The findings denote that although credibility is relevant to reduce inflation expectations, these countries present low monetary credibility and thus the backward-looking behavior is predominant for the formation of inflation expectations. Therefore, in order to improve the expectations channel of monetary policy in emerging economies, a policy of increasing transparency regarding inflation expectations is mandatory to the central banks’ task of anchoring inflation expectations.     

Periods and structural breaks in US economic history 1959-2007

Principal component analysis (PCA) is applied to six macroeconomic time series observed over 1959-2007. Six periods in US economic history are identified by a cluster analysis of observations in the PCA score plot. The method is data driven with no a priori information on the number or dates of breaks. Our findings give independent support to the effect of the oil price shock in 1973, and the introduction of the Great Moderation period. Of the five transition periods, two have been identified by previous studies as breaks (1973, 1984), one is a well-known date of monetary policy change (1979), and two had not previously been identified (1970, 1977-1978). In the long-run inflation and the federal funds rate are unrelated to industrial production and unemployment. Inflation and interest are positively associated as predicted by the Fisher hypothesis. These long-run relations argue against the use of monetary policy to peg the rate of unemployment or real interest rates. In the short-run inflation acts a leading indicator for unemployment for the period 1959-1997, but not for the period after 1997. The well-established reduction in macroeconomic volatility in the mid-1980s is specific to the period from 1985 to 1997; volatility subsequently rises above pre-1979 levels.     

Macroeconomic stabilization of primary commodities price cycles in developing economies

This paper proposes a strategy for stabilizing macroeconomic policy to address jointly the effects of changes in the prices of food, minerals and energy (oil). Our approach differs from the general literature, which analyzes the effects of a commodity boom or bust and therefore the solutions in terms of economic policy separately, that is, by type of commodity. The stabilization strategy that we propose considers a key fact affecting many open economies, namely, that they not only are affected by increases or decreases in commodity prices, but also benefit from them. Consequently, we use a structural model for an open economy with restricted households to show that welfare could be improved with a fiscal rule incorporating transfers to stabilize household consumption. This strategy noticeably dominates an aggressive monetary policy focused only on stabilizing inflation and a fiscal policy that has an excessive bias toward saving income from exports.     

Commodities and monetary policy: Implications for inflation and price level targeting

We examine the relative ability of inflation targeting and price level targeting monetary policy rules to minimize inflation variability and business cycle fluctuations in a commodity-exporting country for supply and demand shocks to global commodity markets. The macroeconomic consequences of oil and non-oil primary commodities differ and affect the relative merits of the alternative monetary policy frameworks. Particularly, the consumption of refined oil products and demand-driven commodity price movements induce highly persistent inflation pressures resulting in a significant deterioration of the inflation-output gap trade-off available to central banks. When such terms-of-trade shocks are prevalent, price level targeting is inferior to inflation targeting.     

Can alternative Taylor-rule specifications describe Federal Reserve policy decisions?

We look at how well several alternative Taylor-rule specifications describe Federal Reserve policy decisions in real time, using the newly developed Giacomini and Rossi (2007) test for non-nested model selection in the presence of (possible) parameter instability. Further, we isolate those Taylor-rule features that are most important for achieving relatively strong real-time performance. Key features of our preferred rule, which is robust to changing economic conditions, are the partial adjustment of the federal funds rate toward an equilibrium rate that depends on the unemployment rate and forward-looking inflation measures. We conclude by presenting an empirical application to show the policy relevance of our preferred rule in the context of the 2008–2009 recession.     

宏观金融博弈分析与我国货币政策实践

西方经济学界将博弈分析方法推广到金融领域取得了理论成果,尤其以宏观金融博弈分析在20世纪90年代的最新发展为主要内容.完全信息动态博弈和不完全信息动态博弈两类模型,对货币政策的连贯性与可信度以及中央银行声誉做出了重新解释,货币政策目标、货币政策操作程序、中央银行独立性及政策透明度等热点问题在我国金融体制改革实践中的作用是至关重要的.     

Interest rate pass-through in the Euro area during the financial crisis: A multivariate regime-switching approach

In this paper we use a Markov-switching vector autoregressive model to analyse the interest rate pass-through between interbank and retail bank rates in the Euro area. Empirical results, based on monthly data for the period 2003–2011, show that during periods of financial distress bank lending rates to both households and non-financial corporations show a reduction of their degree of pass-through from the money market rate. Significant sectoral heterogeneities characterise the transmission mechanism of monetary policy impulses, with rates on loans to non-financial firms being more affected by changes in the interbank rate than loans to households, both in times of high volatility and in normal market conditions.     

Fiscal rules in a volatile world: A welfare-based approach

It is widely agreed that a fiscal rule should boost discipline and credibility. A rule should also reduce macroeconomic volatility and be easily understood. Toward such ends, a government may run structural surpluses. In so doing, the government accumulates a precautionary cushion of assets on behalf of agents who do not enjoy access to capital markets. As an additional criterion, that level of assets should be bounded. We provide an example of a structural surplus rule that satisfies all such criteria. In our general equilibrium simulations, we show that such a rule benefits credit-constrained consumers but may hurt others.     

On the predictive power of the term structure of interest rates for future inflation changes in the presence of political instability: the Turkish economy

This study investigates whether the term structure contains useful information about future inflation for Turkey during 1990–2000, a period of high inflation, high budget deficits, and political instability. Constant parameter and time varying parameter models are rejected by the data. The relationship between term structure of interest rates and inflation changes is found to be explained by a time-varying-parameter model with Markov-switching heteroskedastic disturbances. Thus, the term structure of interest rates is limited as a guide for monetary policy in an economy subject to regime changes such as that of Turkey. Stability can be achieved only by reducing inflation through circumscribing substantial government budget deficits and the political instability underlying them.     

Macroeconomic effects of an open-ended asset purchase programme

We evaluate the effectiveness of an open-ended asset purchase programme (APP) using a New Keynesian model of euro area. We assume that the central bank does not announce the ending date of the programme, and agents form their expectations about possible additional purchases beyond the horizon of the announcement according to the central bank reaction function, that links the purchases to the expected inflation gap. It is showed that the open-ended APP is more effective in stimulating macroeconomic conditions than committing ex ante to an ending date.     

Capital mobility among advanced countries

Mobility of capital has been studied by examining savings–investment correlations, real interest rates differentials, covered and uncovered interest parity, and equity home bias. All these examine the capital mobility question indirectly. This paper directly tests the return/total flow specification of the Mundell–Fleming model. It finds that while portfolio equity and debt flows are, direct investment is not; and in every case, the inclusion of direct investment makes the aggregative-capital variable unresponsive to interest rates. Asset-based exchange rate models may benefit by looking at the composition of cross-border assets, countries can have independent monetary policies with full capital mobility, and macroeconomic policy trilemma for open economies disappears.     

Does inflation bias stabilize real growth? Evidence from Pakistan

The motive of a typical discretionary central banker to accommodate excess inflation (inflation bias) is either to stabilize real growth or to spur it beyond natural rate. To what extent inflation bias helps to materialize this intention warrants empirical investigation. A more direct empirical probe into this issue, however, requires observable inflation bias indicators, which we model through desirable and threshold inflation rates as well as their respective society’s preferences. While examining the effects of inflation bias for a typical case of the discretionary monetary policy strategy of Pakistan, we found that contrary to the desired boost/stabilization in real growth, the policy (via. inflation bias) produced counterproductive results. Inflation bias was not merely ineffective in inducing real growth but significantly destabilized it. Moreover, the results, which are robust to different inflation bias indicators and subsample analysis, indicate that the higher the inflation bias, the higher is the intensity (magnitude) of its destabilizing effect and vice versa. This suggests that a policy that would minimize/constrain inflation bias would be a better choice as it would not only help achieve low and stable inflation but also a sustainable real economic growth.     

Towards monetary union in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS): Better policy harmonisation and greater intra-trade are needed

Since the launch of the euro in 1999, the policy aspiration of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) for monetary union has increased despite its convergence challenge. This study investigates the economic characteristics of ECOWAS for a successful and sustainable monetary union. We use cluster analysis for the period 1998–2018. The findings show that there is considerable heterogeneity in the economic characteristics of ECOWAS countries. This suggests that the countries are not yet economically ready for a regional wide monetary union. The study also revealed key variables, including inflation, exchange rate volatility, intra-regional trade, that clearly demarcate the two pre-existing monetary zones in the region. The study concludes that ECOWAS policymakers must enhance policy harmonisation and intra-regional trade.