Monetary policy analysis in a small open economy using Bayesian cointegrated structural VARs

Structural VARs have been extensively used in empirical macroeconomics during the last two decades, particularly in analyses of monetary policy. Existing Bayesian procedures for structural VARs are at best confined to a severly limited handling of cointegration restrictions. This paper extends the Bayesian analysis of structural VARs to cover cointegrated processes with an arbitrary number of cointegrating relations and general linear restrictions on the cointegration space. A reference prior distribution with an optional small open economy effect is proposed and a Gibbs sampler is derived for a straightforward evaluation of the posterior distribution. The methods are used to analyze the effects of monetary policy in Sweden. JEL Classification: C11, C32, E52Counterfactual experiments, Impulse responses, monetary policy, Structural, Vector autoregression

Monetary policy shocks - a nonfundamental look at the data

VAR studies of the effects of monetary policy on output suggest that a contractionary impulse results in a drawn-out, hump-shaped response of output. Standard structural economic models are generally not able to reproduce such a response. In this paper I look at nonfundamental representations that are observationally equivalent to a VAR. I find that the quantitative effect of a monetary policy shock on output might be much smaller and much more short-lived than the VAR studies suggest. I conclude that the apparent discrepancy between the VAR findings and standard structural models may be spurious and that the general tendency to append non-structural, ad hoc features to structural models should be questioned. JEL Classification: C12, E52

Monetary policy, inflation expectations and the price puzzle

This paper re-examines the VAR evidence on the price puzzle and proposes a new theoretical interpretation. Using actual data and two identification strategies based on zero restrictions and model-consistent sign restrictions, we find that the positive response of prices to a monetary policy shock is historically limited to the sub-samples that are typically associated with a weak interest rate response to inflation. Using pseudo data generated by a sticky price model of the US economy, we then show that the structural VARs are capable of reproducing the price puzzle only when monetary policy is passive. The omission in the VARs of a variable capturing expected inflation is found to account for the price puzzle observed in simulated and actual data.SVARs; price puzzle; sticky price model; Taylor principle; passive policy

Policy Risk and the Business Cycle

The argument that policy risk, i.e. uncertainty about monetary and fiscal policy, has been holding back the economic recovery in the U.S. during the Great Recession has a large popular appeal. We analyze the role of policy risk in explaining business cycle fluctuations by using an estimated New Keynesian model featuring policy risk as well as uncertainty about technology. We directly measure uncertainty from aggregate time series using Sequential Monte Carlo Methods. While we find considerable evidence of policy risk in the data, we show that the "pure uncertainty"-effect of policy risk is unlikely to play a major role in business cycle fluctuations. With the estimated model, output effects are relatively small due to i) dampening general equilibrium effects that imply a low amplification and ii) counteracting partial effects of uncertainty. Finally, we show that policy risk has effects that are an order of magnitude larger than the ones of uncertainty about aggregate TFP.Policy Risk; Uncertainty; Aggregate Fluctuations; Particle Filter; General Equilibrium.

Were There Regime Switches in U.S. Monetary Policy?

A multivariate model, identifying monetary policy and allowing for simultaneity and regime switching in coefficients and variances, is confronted with US data since 1959. The best fit is with a version that allows time variation in structural disturbance variances only. Among versions that allow for changes in equation coefficients also, the best fit is for a one that allows coefficients to change only in the monetary policy rule. That version allows switching among three main regimes and one rarely and briefly occurring regime. The three main regimes correspond roughly to periods when most observers believe that monetary policy actually differed, but the differences among regimes are not large enough to account for the rise, then decline, in inflation of the 70’s and 80’s. In versions that insist on changes in the policy rule, the estimates imply monetary targeting was central in the early 80’s, but also important sporadically in the 70’s.Counterfactuals; Lucas critique; policy rule; monetary targeting; simultaneity; volatility; model comparison.

What Does Monetary Policy Do?

macroeconomics, monetary policy