This thesis is an empirical comparison of the relationship between money and other key economic variables and investigates an alternative method of defining money in Canada. Severe theoretical problems with traditional monetary aggregation methods are identified and Divisia aggregates are examined through the use of index number and aggregation theory. Summation and Divisia aggregates are constructed, tested and compared in three critical areas: information content, causality and stability. In particular this thesis investigates whether Divisia money is a potentially useful indicator of economic conditions. The data consists of Canadian quarterly observations for the period 1968.1 to 1989.4 for 26 different monetary assets and their own rates of return. The Divisia indices do not clearly outperform their summation counterparts but do show consistent and stable growth trends during the period in question. The results show that Divisia monetary aggregation is theoretically more appealing than the simple sum approach and that Divisia money provides meaningful information for Canadian monetary policy.

This thesis examines the problems posed by Japan???s recent macroeconomic experience for conventional monetary policy theory and practice. Japan???s experience with deflation and the zero lower bound for nominal official interest rates is placed in the context of neo-Wicksellian and monetarist interpretations of the monetary policy transmission mechanism. The neo-Wicksellian approach to the zero bound problem is shown to suffer significant limitations in view of Japan???s experience, while a monetarist interpretation of the transmission mechanism is shown to be more robust. The thesis considers the role of the official interest rate and the money base in vector autoregression models of the Japanese economy, finding that the economy became less amenable to effective stabilisation by monetary policy from the early 1990s onwards. A new approach to estimating a neo-Wicksellian monetary policy rule for the Bank of Japan is proposed and the robustness of the parameters of this rule determined. The thesis motivates a role for the money base in the determination of real output and inflation. A policy rule in the growth rate of the nominal money base is estimated and the stability of its parameters with respect to a hypothesised structural break and changes in the governorship of the Bank of Japan is considered. Aggregate demand and supply specifications for the Japanese economy are estimated that show a distinct role for the money base that is independent of the official interest rate. These specifications are extended to develop a model of the Japanese economy. The model is distinctive in incorporating both neo-Wicksellian and monetarist views of the monetary policy transmission mechanism. The macroeconomic stabilisation properties of various interest rate and money base growth rules are compared in the context of the model, using stochastic simulation methods. In particular, a policy rule in the growth rate of the nominal money base with the nominal official interest rate set to zero is simulated and shown to have macroeconomic stabilisation properties that compare favourably to conventional interest rate rules. The thesis concludes that the neglect of money in contemporary monetary policy theory and practice is mistaken in view of Japan???s recent macroeconomic experience.

Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2007.

Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögsk., 2004.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 117-123) Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Michigan State University. Dept. of Economics, 2006. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Nov. 25, 2008) Includes bibliographical references. Also issued in print.

Thesis (doctoral)--Philipp-Universität zu Marburg.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Köln.

Thesis (M.A.)--Guo li Taiwan da xue, 1972. / Reproduced from typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 142-149).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Göteborgs Universitet. / Added thesis t.p. and abstract page inserted. Includes bibliographical references (p. [154]-163).