EU Governments Must not Return to Their Dysfunctional Fiscal Rules

Fiscal rules such as the European Stability and Growth Pact and the German debt brake have been suspended in the Covid19-pandemic in order to provide emergency measures and to overcome the crisis. Now, the controversial debate is back again: When should governments return to fiscal rules? Should they return to fiscal rules, at all? This article argues that it is not so much a question whether governments should return to fiscal rules at all, but to which kind of rules they should return. Following the deficit bias argument and the need for fiscal policy coordination in a monetary union some kind of limitation for government debt and some kind of fiscal rules may easily be justified. However, that does not mean that governments should return exactly to the previously existing rules, because these are economically flawed. Recently the argument for reform has become even stronger due to new empirical evidence about the macroeconomic effectivity of fiscal policy, the experience of the dysfunctionality of the existing rules during the Euro crisis and the fact that the cost of public debt has been reduced dramatically because of persistently low if not negative nominal interest rates.

Coordination in price setting and the zero lower bound: a global games approach

This paper constructs a two-period general equilibrium model with the effective lower bound of nominal interest rates and describes price competition among monopolistically competitive firms as a coordination game. While the model has multiple equilibria with different levels of inflation (positive or zero), the equilibrium selection in line with global games implies that the economy with high expected productivity growth moves into the positive inflation equilibrium. The policy analyses indicate that monetary policy measures such as an increase in the target inflation can prevent the economy from moving into the zero inflation equilibrium even with low productivity growth.

How Does Monetary Policy Affect Income Inequality? Evidence from Europe

The issue of inequalities has become increasingly important in recent decades. Although distributional effects, such as inequalities, are commonly associated with globalisation and fiscal policy processes, many of the side effects of the exceptionally loose monetary policy of the last decade also affect the issue. After identifying the mechanisms and channels linking the field of monetary policy and inequality, the research focuses on empirical analyses. The research is based on a panel ARDL test focusing on the 19 Euro area countries and Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland, where negative nominal interest rates have been applied. The research includes the period of 2008–2018. The aim of the paper is to assess how certain monetary policy indicators affect inequality. The main conclusion is consistent with the existing literature: the effect of monetary policy to inequalities is modest, however not negligible. The effect of inflation seems to be weak; however, the rise in unemployment rate and long term interest rates negatively affect inequalities. The positive effects of the rising GDP per capita are also proven by the analysis.

High-Frequency Estimates of the Natural Real Rate and Inflation Expectations

We propose a new method of estimating the natural real rate and long-horizon inflation expectations, using nonlinear regressions of survey-based measures of short-term nominal interest rates and inflation expectations on U.S. Treasury yields. We find that the natural real rate was relatively stable during the 1990s and early 2000s, but declined steadily after the global financial crisis, before dropping more sharply to around 0 percent during the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Long-horizon inflation expectations declined steadily during the 1990s and have since been relatively stable at close to 2 percent. According to our method, the declines in both the natural real rate and long-horizon inflation expectations are clearly statistically significant. Our estimates are available at whatever frequency we observe bond yields, making them ideal for intraday event-study analysis--for example, we show that the natural real rate and long-horizon inflation expectations are not affected by temporary shocks to the stance of monetary policy.

Application of the Bayesian New Keynesian DSGE Model to Polish Macroeconomic Data

In the paper we estimate a simple New Keynesian Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium NK DSGE model on the basis of Polish macro data from the period 2000-2019. The model is specified similarly to Galí (2008) with the use of the Bayesian approach. The NK DSGE model combines the advantages of both structural models and time-series models and, therefore, shows a significant degree of alignment with empirical data. The Bayesian estimation is based on the prior distribution of the model input parameters, which are later compared with the posteriors. The results obtained allow for assessing the persistence of responses to technological, inflationary and monetary policy shocks. On the basis of the NK DSGE model, we formulate a perception of macroeconomic interactions, e.g. nominal interest rates’ association with inflation and the output gap. In other words, the NK DSGE model provides a better understanding of the relationship between interest rates, inflation and the output gap. This in turn makes it easier to understand the monetary policy response function.

Oil, Equities, and the Zero Lower Bound

From late 2008 to 2014, oil and equity returns were more positively correlated than in other periods. In addition, we show that both oil and equity returns became more responsive to macroeconomic news. We provide empirical evidence that these changes resulted from the zero lower bound (ZLB) on nominal interest rates, consistent with the theoretical predictions of a model that includes the ZLB. Although the ZLB alters the economic environment in theory, supportive empirical evidence has been lacking. Our paper provides clear evidence of the ZLB altering the economic environment. (JEL E12, E32, E43, G12, G14, Q43)

New paths in Austrian Macroeconomics

This paper makes four points. First, interest rates are not prices; rather they are metrics. Second, there are no markets for «loanable funds» in reality, so attempts to use «the» market for loanable funds either to explain saving-induced growth (or growth induced in other ways) are misleading. Rather, the appropriate concept is markets for financial assets. Third, the primary and most important source of growth is not households’ low or reduced time preferences, but entrepreneurs high or increased profit expectations. Fourth, financial institutions may respond, in part, to a rise in the monetary base by accepting a higher default risk of their assets; i.e., by making riskier loans and buying riskier (financial) assets, in order to maintain nominal interest rates and net interest margins. Key words: Risk, Loanable funds, Financial assets, Austrian business cycle theory. JEL Classification: E32. Resumen: Este artículo desarrolla una versión modificada de la teoría austriaca del ciclo económico en la que el papel protagonista lo juegan las expectativas de beneficio de los empresarios (más que la reducción de la preferencia temporal de los agentes económicos) y la asunción de proyectos empresariales más arriesgado, como principal detonante de las malas inversiones. Palabras clave: Riesgo, Fondos prestables, Activos financieros, Teoría austriaca del ciclo económico. Clasificación JEL: E32.

The Determinants of House Prices in Malaysia

This paper studied how house prices were affected by macroeconomic factors from Q1 2009 to Q4 2018. The short and long-run effects of real income, nominal interest rates, inflation rate and stock prices on house prices in Malaysia were examined with the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) of a restricted error correction model (ECM). It was discovered that the selected macroeconomic factors were cointegrated with house prices. Income, represented by real Gross Domestic Product (GDP), significantly affected house prices in the short and long-run. Inflation and interest rate, proxied by Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Overnight Policy Rate (OPR), respectively, affected house prices significantly in the long-run. The stock market, tracked by Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI), had no significant impact on house prices signifying no wealth effect. Through the findings of an inelasticity of demand and an undesirable result of monetary policies, this paper concluded that more effective solutions needed to be carried out to ensure affordability of house ownership in Malaysia.

Analysis of stock returns of main European service and tourism companies

This research explores the sensitivity of the returns of some selected European companies to changes in the explanatory factors proposed during the sample period between January 2000 and December 2019. We focus on listed companies in the tourism and services sector and estimate an extension of the Fama and French five-factor model (2015) by applying the quantile regression approach. Specifically, this study starts from the Fama and French risk factors and adds the nominal interest rates, a momentum and momentum reversal factors and a traded liquidity factor. For robustness, this research divides the whole sample period into three sub-periods: pre-crisis, crisis and post-crisis. In line with the previous literature, the explanatory power of this factor model shows a U-shape, which is compatible with the highest R2 coefficients in the extreme quantiles, as well as in extreme stages of the economy, that is, in the bullish and bearish market states.

Going Negative at the Zero Lower Bound: The Effects of Negative Nominal Interest Rates

After the Great Recession several central banks started setting negative nominal interest rates in an expansionary attempt, but the effectiveness of this measure remains unclear. Negative rates can stimulate the economy by lowering the rates that commercial banks charge on loans, but they can also erode bank profitability by squeezing deposit spreads. This paper studies the effects of negative rates in a new DSGE model where banks intermediate the transmission of monetary policy. I use bank-level data to calibrate the model and find that monetary policy in negative territory is between 60 and 90 percent as effective as in positive territory. (JEL E12, E32, E43, E52, E58, G21)