The 2008-2009 crisis showed that the main macroeconomic challenge facing an economy such as Peru's is the management of external shocks that deteriorate the balance of payments and reduce aggregate demand. The aim of this paper is to discuss what the monetary policy response to theseexternal shocks should be. Since inflation targeting was implemented in 2002, the most important instrument of Peruvian monetary policy has been a short-term interest rate. Another key instrument of monetary policy has been sterilized intervention in the foreign exchange market. In order to compare the different monetary policy responses to external shocks, these central bank instruments are incorporated into a textbook IS-LM-BP model. This model is adapted to the financial conditions of an economy such as Peru’s, which has a banking system that operates in both domestic and foreign currency.The conclusion of this paper, in keeping with that of Blanchard et al. (2010), is that a monetary policy which combines a Taylor rule for setting the interest rate, aimed at internal equilibrium, with a foreign exchange intervention policy of leaning against the wind, aimed at external equilibrium, can stabilize both price levels and economic activity in the face of external shocks.The central bank should reduce the interest rate and sell foreign currency to face adverse external shocks, and should raise the interest rate and buy foreign currency to face favorable external shocks. / La crisis de 2008-2009 demostró que el principal desafío macroeconómico que enfrenta una economía como la peruana es el manejo de los choques externos adversos que deterioran la balanzade pagos y reducen la demanda agregada. El objetivo de este artículo es discutir cual debiera ser la respuesta de política monetaria a estos choques externos. Desde que se implementó el sistema de metas de inflación en 2002, el instrumento principal dela política monetaria peruana ha sido una tasa de interés corto plazo. La otra herramienta clave de la política monetaria ha sido la intervención esterilizada en el mercado cambiario. Para comparar las respuestas de política monetaria ante los choques externos adversos, se incorporan estos diversos instrumentos del banco central en un modelo IS-LM-BP, similar al del libro de texto. Este modelo es adaptado a las condiciones financieras de una economía como la peruana que tiene un sistema bancario que opera en moneda nacional y extranjera. La conclusión del texto es que una política monetaria, como la sugerida por Blanchard et al (2010), que combine una regla de Taylor para el manejo de la tasa de interés, dirigida al equilibrio interno, con una regla de intervención cambiaria que rema en contra de la corriente, dirigida al equilibrio externo, puede estabilizar el nivel de precios y la actividad económica ante los choques externos. El banco central debe reducir la tasa de interés y vender moneda extranjera ante choques externos adversos y debe subir la tasa de interés y comprar moneda extranjera ante choques externos favorables.

CHARLES UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES Institute of Economic Studies Essays on monetary policy Abstract Author: Mgr. Jan Žáček Advisor: doc. Mgr. Tomáš Holub, Ph.D. Academic year: 2020/2021 Abstract The dissertation thesis consists of three research papers in the field of mone- tary policy. All three papers connect the same topic - monetary policy rules. The first two papers focus on monetary policy rules augmented with finan- cial variables from a theoretical point of view, while the third paper provides international empirical evidence on the monetary policy conduct taking into account financial cycle developments. In the first paper I employ a small-open economy dynamic stochastic gen- eral equilibrium (DSGE) model to examine whether the central bank's direct reaction to asset prices or credit-to-GDP ratio brings macroeconomic benefits in terms of lower volatility of inflation and output. I find that direct reaction to asset prices can be beneficial for a central bank; however, the result holds only for some domestic shocks. When facing shocks originating abroad, the usefulness of the augmented monetary policy rule deteriorates. Overall, the performance of the rule augmented with asset prices is shock-dependent, and therefore, any strict rule-like behaviour for a central bank operating within a...

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[pt] Nesse artigo aplicamos a técnica de estimação dos nowcasts apresentada por Giannone, Reichlin e Small (2008), para o PIB e inflação brasileiros. Extraímos informações de um elevado número de variáveis e produzimos modelos capazes de informar contemporaneamente uma medida para as variáveis em questão. Em posse dessa leitura cotidiana, produzida por esses modelos, estimamos uma regra de Taylor diária para o Banco Central do Brasil (BCB), o que permitiu melhor identificar choques monetários e alterações na função de reação do BCB ao longo do tempo. Concluímos, primeiramente, que os modelos nowcasts apresentam acurácia comparável às previsões do relatório Focus do BCB. Segundo, 2 (duas) comparações históricas realizadas mostraram indícios que nossa proxy para choques monetários diários está relacionada às decisões explícitas de política monetária. Por fim, encontramos evidências que os modelos nowcasts puderam capturar grande parte da informação relevante para a determinação da taxa de juros de curto prazo, o que deveria estimular a aplicação de tais modelos nos processos decisórios públicos e privados. / [en] In this article we apply the two-steps nowcasting method, described in Giannone, Reichlin, and Small (2008), to build nowcast models for Brazilian GDP and inflation. Throught the application of this method, we could extract information from a large data-set and build models which could be used to produce a daily measurement of GDP and inflation. Using this measurement was possible to build a daily Taylor rule for the Brazilian Central Bank (BCB). This new application of nowcast models allowed us to extract a daily measurement of monetary shocks. Our study produced three main findings. First, the nowcast model showed an accuracy close to projections presented in the Focus survey. Second, we identified by historical comparison that the monetary shocks proxy, measured by the differences between the daily Taylor rule and the movements in the short-term interest rate, are related with unanticipated monetary policies decisions. Finally, nowcasts were able to capture a great part of relevant information to determine the short-term interest rate, which should stimulate the policymakers and financial markets members to apply those models.

My dissertation topic is on the impact of changes in the monetary policy interest rate target on bank distress and systemic risk in the U.S. banking system. The financial crisis of 2007-2009 had devastating effects on the banking system worldwide. The feeble performance of financial institutions during the crisis heightened the necessity of understanding systemic risk exhibited the critical role of monitoring the banking system, and strongly necessitated quantification of the risks to which banks are exposed, for incorporation in policy formulation. In the aftermath of the crisis, US bank regulators focused on overhauling the then existing regulatory framework in order to provide comprehensive capital buffers against bank losses. In this context, the Basel Committee proposed in 2011, the Basel III framework in order to strengthen the regulatory capital structure as a buffer against bank losses. The reform under Basel III framework aimed at raising the quality and the quantity of regulatory capital base and enhancing the risk coverage of the capital structure. Separately, US bank regulators adopted the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (2010) to implement stress tests on systemically important bank holding companies (SIBs). Concerns about system-wide distress have broadened the debate on banking regulation towards a macro prudential approach. In this context, limiting bank risk and systemic risk has become a prolific research field at the crossroads of banking, macroeconomics, econometrics, and network theory over the last decade (Kuritzkes et al., 2005; Goodhart and Sergoviano, 2008; Geluk et al., 2009; Acharya et al., 2010, 2017; Tarashev et al., 2010; Huang et al., 2012; Browless and Engle, 2012, 2017 and Cummins, 2014). The European Central Bank (ECB) (2010) defines systemic risk as a risk of financial instability “so widespread that it impairs the functioning of a financial system to the point where economic growth and welfare suffer materially.” While US bank regulators and policy-makers have moved to strengthen the regulatory framework in the post-crisis period in order to prevent another financial crisis, a growing recent line of research has suggested that there is a significant link between monetary policy and bank distress (Bernanke, Gertler and Gilchrist, 1999; Borio and Zhu, 2008; Gertler and Kiyotaki, 2010; Delis and Kouretas, 2010; Gertler and Karadi, 2011; Delis et al., 2017). In my research, I examine the link between the monetary policy and bank distress. In the first chapter, I investigate the impact of the federal funds rate (FFR) changes on the banking system distress between 2001 and 2013 within an unrestricted vector auto-regression model. The Fed used FFR as a primary policy tool before the financial crisis of 2007-2009, but focused on quantitative easing (QE) during the crisis and post-crisis periods when the FFR hit the zero bound. I use the Taylor rule rate (TRR, 1993) as an “implied policy rate”, instead of the FFR, to account for the impact of QE on the economy. The base model of distress includes three macroeconomic indicators—real GDP growth, inflation, and TRR—and a systemic risk indicator (Expected capital shortfall (ES)). I consider two model extensions; (i) I include a measure of bank lending standards to account for the changes in the systemic risk due to credit tightening, (ii) I replace inflation with house price growth rate to see if the results remain robust. Three main results can be drawn. First, the impulse response functions (IRFs) show that raising the monetary policy rate contributed to insolvency problems for the U.S. banks, with a one percentage point increase in the rate raising the banking systemic stress by 1.6 and 0.8 percentage points, respectively, in the base and extend models. Second, variance decomposition (VDs) analysis shows that up to ten percent of error variation in systemic risk indicator can be attributed to innovations in the policy rate in the extended model. Third, my results supplement the view that policy rate hikes led to housing bubble burst and contributed to the financial crisis of 2007-2009. This is an example for how monetary policy-making gets more complex and must be conducted with utmost caution if there is a bubble in the economy. In the second chapter, I examine the prevalence and asymmetry of the effects on bank distress from positive and negative shocks to the target fed fund rate (FFR) in the period leading to the financial crisis (2001-2008). A panel model with three blocks of control variables is used. The blocks include: positive/negative FFR shocks, macroeconomic drivers, and bank balance sheet indicators. A distress indicator similar to Texas Ratio is used to proxy distress. Shocks to FFR are defined along the lines suggested by Morgan (1993). Three main results are obtained. First, FFR shocks, either positive or negative, raise bank distress over the following year. Second, the magnitudes of the effects from positive and negative shocks are unequal (asymmetric); a 100 bps positive (negative) shock raises the bank distress indicator (scaled from 0 to 1) by 9 bps (3 bps) over the next year. Put differently, after a 100 bps positive (negative) shock, the probability of bankruptcy rises from 10% to 19% (13%). Third, expanding operations into non-banking activities by FHCs does not benefit them in terms of distress due to unanticipated changes in the FFR as FFR shocks (positive or negative) create similar levels of distress for BHCs and FHCs. In the third chapter, I explore the systemic risk contributions of U.S. bank holding companies (BHCs) from 2001 to 2015 by using the expected shortfall approach. Developed by analogy with the component expected shortfall concept, I decompose the aggregate systemic risk, as measured by expected shortfall, into several subgroups of banks by using publicly available balance sheet data to define the probability of bank default. The risk measure, thus, encompasses the entire universe of banks. I find that concentration of assets in a smaller number of larger banks raises systemic risk. The systemic risk contribution of banks designated as SIFIs increased sharply during the financial crisis and reached 74% at the end of 2015. Two-thirds of this risk contribution is attributed to the four largest banks in the U.S.: Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo. I also find that diversifying business operations by expanding into nontraditional operations does not reduce the systemic risk contribution of financial holding companies (FHCs). In general, FHCs are individually riskier than BHCs despite their more diversified basket of products; FHCs contribute a disproportionate amount to systemic risk given their size, all else being equal. I believe monetary policy-making in the last decade carries many lessons for policy makers. Particularly, the link between the monetary policy target rate and bank distress and systemic risk is an interesting topic by all accounts due to its implications and challenges (explained in more detail in first and second chapters). The literature studying the relation between bank distress and monetary policy is fairly small but developing fast. The models I investigate in my work are simple in many ways but they may serve as a basis for more sophisticated models. / Economics

We estimate a multivariate unobserved components stochastic volatility model to explain the dynamics of a panel of six exchange rates against the US Dollar. The empirical model is based on the assumption that both countries' monetary policy strategies may be well described by Taylor rules with a time-varying inflation target, a time-varying natural rate of unemployment, and interest rate smoothing. The estimates closely track major movements along with important time series properties of real and nominal exchange rates across all currencies considered. The model generally outperforms a benchmark model that does not account for changes in trend inflation and trend unemployment. (authors' abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

La thèse se propose, dans une première partie, de décrire l'origine des débats sur la nécessité d'une banque centrale jusqu'aux formulations actuelles. Sont examinés les éléments qui ont posé les bases d'un prêteur ultime et favorisé la maturation de ce métier, de même que sont mis en relief les résultats accumulés depuis deux siècles. Notre attention porte sur la Réserve Fédérale des Etats-Unis. Les économistes sont en quête de solutions afin de prévenir les crises financières. Ainsi a été proposé un élargissement du tableau de bord de manière à contenir les prix d'actif dans une approche macro et micro-prudentielle. Parallèlement, sont analysés les canaux par lesquels la politique monétaire influence les variables réelles et financières de l'économie, et qui attestent alors du rôle pouvant être théoriquement assumé par la banque centrale sur les marchés financiers. La deuxième partie concentre le propos sur les ressorts des crises financières. Nous nous intéressons au paradoxe de la surliquidité et du surendettement, en insistant sur les particularités des marchés financiers devenant plus vulnérables. La contribution de la thèse dans cette étape consiste à vérifier si la banque centrale contribue à la manifestation de comportements abusifs et excessifs sur les marchés financiers par l'abondante création de liquidité. Notre étude empirique devrait permettre de répondre à cette question à travers une modélisation économétrique et des tests statistiques (dont le test de Chow) appliqués à une politique monétaire active (type règle de Taylor). En ce sens, cette recherche sur les actions de la Fed vise à forger une opinion sur le métier de banquier central et sur son devenir. / The thesis proposes, in a first part, to describe the origin of the debate on the need for a central bank up until the recent formulations. They were examined the elements which have posed the bases of an "ultimate lender" and promoted the maturation of this function, as were highlighted the results accumulated over two centuries. Our attention is drawn to the Federal Reserve of the United States. The economists are always in search for solutions to prevent financial crises. It has thus been proposed to extend the dashboard of central banks as to contain asset prices in a macro and micro-prudential approach. In parallel, in order to support this debate, we analyze the mechanisms by which the monetary policy affects the real and financial variables of the economy, which also affirm the role that can be assumed in theory by a central bank on financial markets. The second part focuses on the recurrence and intensity of financial crises. We consider the paradox of excess liquidity and over-indebtedness, with an emphasis on properties of financial markets becoming more vulnerable and their recent development. The contribution of the thesis in this stage consists of checking whether the central bank is responsible of abusive and excessive behavior on the financial markets by the abundant creation of liquidity. Our empirical study should help to answer this question through an econometric modeling and statistical tests (including the Chow test) applied to an active monetary policy (type Taylor rule). In this way, our research on the actions of the Fed aims to forge an opinion on the profession of modern central bankers, and perhaps on the future of central banks themselves.

RESUMO No início de 1995 foi adotado no Brasil o Plano Real, tendo como um dos seus tripés de sustentação a busca pelo combate ao processo inflacionário crônico brasileiro que já se estendia por um longo período. Assim, a política monetária passou a ter um papel importante na determinação das variáveis macroeconômicas. Este trabalho busca analisar uma regra de política monetária que capte as variações ocorridas em todo o período do Plano Real, se estendendo até meados de 2005, bem como se deram as relações entre as variáveis econômicas neste período. A especificação proposta consiste na estimação de modelos não-lineares distintos dependendo do estado da economia (em crise ou fora de crise). Utilizamos um modelo com chaveamento Markoviano para a dinâmica da taxa de juros nominal onde a determinação de períodos de crise é feita por uma variável nãoobservada. Além disso, procuramos adotar dois algoritmos distintos de estimação, Expectation-Maximization (EM) e Monte Carlo Markov Chain (MCMC), concluindo que a análise para ambos é bastante próxima, sendo identificados os mesmos períodos entre regimes. Finalmente, motivamos a estimação através de modelos econômicos teóricos cujas dinâmicas são compatíveis com uma regra de fixação de juros não-linear, avaliando os padrões de resposta a impulso condicionados ao estado da economia (regimes de estabilidade e crise econômica). / ABSTRACT In the beginning of 1995, continuing the process of inflation combat, the monetary policy should have been an important role in the determinacy of macroeconomics variables. This work has a target analyzing a monetary rule that reflects the occurred variations in every Real Plan?s period. The specification proposed by the authors consists in an estimation of two independent nonlinear models for different states of the nature (crises or not crises). Here we estimate a model where the dynamic of the nominal interest rate follows a Markov Switching process and the regimes are unobservable variables. In addition, we try adopting two different algorithms to estimation; Expectation-Maximization (EM) and Monte Carlo Markov Chain (MCMC), concluded that the results are very similar. Finally, we motivate the estimations analyzing models where the theoretical dynamics of the economy are compatible with a nonlinear interest rate rule, analyzing the impulse response conditioned to state of economy (regimes of crises or not crises).

Inflationen har i många länder varit låg sedan finanskrisen 2008. I försök öka inflationstakten har centralbanker sänkt sina räntor till rekordlåga nivåer. I Danmark, Schweiz och Sverige har styrräntorna varit negativa. John B Taylor föreslog 1993 en makroekonomisk regel med syfte att kunna ge en prognos för styrräntan. Enligt Taylorregeln kan styrräntan förklaras av tidigare perioders inflationstakt och bruttonationalprodukt. Denna uppsats syftar till att undersöka Taylorregelns empiriska relevans i Danmark, Schweiz och Sverige under perioden 2000 till 2018. Två tester genomförs. Det första är att, med en linjär regressionsmodell, undersöka sambandet mellan styrränta, inflationsgap och BNP-gap. Det andra är ett Granger-kausalitetstest för att se om den implicerade kausaliteten i Taylorregeln stämmer. Granger-testet bygger på resultaten från en vektor autoregression. Resultaten i denna uppsats visar att det finns ett samband mellan inflationstakt och styrränta, men inte mellan BNP-gap och styrränta i de valda länderna under undersökningsperioden. Vidare visar resultaten att kausaliteten går från inflationsgap och BNP-gap mot styrränta, som Taylorregeln föreslår. Resultatet lyckas inte påvisa att negativa styrräntor skulle påverka Taylorregelns relevans. / The rate of inflation has been low in many countries since the financial crisis in 2008. In attempts to increase the inflation rate, central banks have lowered their interest rates to historically low levels. In Denmark, Switzerland and Sweden, the central banks key interest rates have been negative. In 1993, John B Taylor proposed a macroeconomic rule with the aim of providing a forecast for the key interest rate. According to the Taylor rule, the policy rate can be explained by the inflation rate and gross domestic product of previous periods. This paper aims to investigate the empirical relevance of the Taylor rule in Denmark, Switzerland and Sweden during the period 2000 to 2018. To do this, two tests are performed. The first is that, with a linear regression model, investigate the relationship between the key interest rate, the inflation gap and the GDP gap. The second is a Granger causality test to see if the implicit causality of the Taylor rule is correct. The Granger test is based on the results of a vector autoregression. The results of this paper show that there is a correlation between the rate of inflation and the key interest rate, but not between the GDP gap and the key interest rate in the selected countries during the investigation period. Furthermore, the results show that causality goes from the inflation gap and the GDP gap towards the key interest rate, as the Taylor rule suggests. The result does not suggest that negative key interest rates would affect the relevance of the Taylor rule.

Syftet är att undersöka om Sverige tillsammans med ett eller flera av de nordiska länderna kan utgöra en optimal valutaunion. Utifrån ett svenskt perspektiv visar resultaten att det är lämpligast för Sverige att ingå i en valutaunion med Norge och Danmark eftersom den ekonomiska integrationen mellan dessa länder har varit störst. Taylors ränteregel visar att Sverige och Norges räntebanor samvarier mest och Optimal currency area-index (OCA-index) visar att Sverige, Danmark och Norge präglas av störst ekonomisk integration. Vi har använt två olika metoder för att undersöka en optimal nordisk valutaunion utifrån ett svenskt perspektiv, OCA-index och Taylors ränteregel. De båda tillvägagångssätten fokuserar på hur ekonomiskt integrerade länderna är, men genom olika variabler och ekonomiska storheter. Ett OCA-index har skapats och skattningen visar att variabeln som beskriver konjunkturcykeln är den som har störst inverkan på den beroende variabeln, växelkursvolatilitet. För att undersöka hur de nordiska länderna har påverkats av chocker har taylor-räntor beräknats och skillnader i korrelation har analyserats. Analysen visar på svårigheter i att mäta ekonomisk integration, något som OCA-teorin hävdar är viktigt för en optimal valutaunion. Beroende på vilken utgångspunkt som väljs varierar resultatet för vilket land Sverige skulle kunna bilda en optimal valutaunion med. Resultaten skiljer sig från tidigare forskning, delvis i tolkningen av variabeln för exportsektorsammansättning och delvis på grund av den studerade tidsperioden. / The aim is to investigate if Sweden constitutes a possible optimal currency area with one or more of the Nordic countries. The results show that Norway and Denmark are the two most suitable partners to join Sweden in a currency union since the economic integration between these countries is the strongest. The Taylor interest rate rule indicates that the interest rate paths between Sweden and Norway correlate the most. The variables in the optimal currency area-index (OCA-index) show that it is Sweden, Denmark and Norway that enjoys the strongest economic integration and therefore constitutes a possible optimal currency area. Two different methods have been used to investigate the possibility of an optimal currency area; the OCA-index and the Taylor interest rate rule. Both methods focus on the level of economic integration between the countries but do this by assessing different economic variables. The OCA-index has been compiled and the estimation indicates that the variable describing the business cycle has the greatest impact on the dependent variable, exchange rate volatility. In order to examine how the Nordic countries have been affected by shocks, Taylor interest rates have been calculated and differences in correlation have been examined. The conducted analysis points toward difficulties measuring economic integration, which according to the OCA-theory is important for an optimal currency union. There are several consistencies between the results of the two methods but also important differences such as which country would be the best partner in a currency union with Sweden. The findings differ from earlier scientific results mostly regarding the interpretation of the variable describing the export sectorial composition and the considered time period.