Monetary Policy and Learning from the Central Bank's Forecast

We examine the expectational stability (E-stability) of the rational expectations equilibrium (REE) in a simple New Keynesian model in which private agents engage in adaptive learning by referring to the central bank's forecast. In this environment, to satisfy the E-stability condition, the central bank must respond more strongly to the expected inflation rate than the so-called Taylor principle suggests. On the other hand, the central bank's strong reaction to the expected inflation rate raises the possibility of indeterminacy of the REE. In considering these problems, a robust policy is to respond to the current inflation rate to a certain degree.Adaptive Learning, E-stability, New Keynesian Model, Monetary Policy, Taylor principle

Productivity Growth, Transparency, and Monetary Policy

In this study, we investigate how central bank transparency about views on future productivity growth influences social welfare. To this end, we use a New Keynesian framework in which both the central bank and private agents are engaged in filtering problems regarding the persistence of productivity growth. Since the central bank and private agents do not know the true value of the signal-to-noise ratio, the gain parameters used in the filtering problems can be heterogeneous. If the central bank is not transparent, private agents must conjecture the central bank's estimate of the efficient level of the real interest rate. Under this setup, we show that central bank transparency does not necessarily improve social welfare. It can potentially yield a welfare loss, depending on (i) the gain parameters used by the central bank and private agents and (ii) private agents' conjecture on the gain parameter used by the central bank. If the central bank is uncertain about the combination of these gain parameters, it is sensible for the central bank to respond strongly to the variations of the inflation rate, because the misperceptions about these parameters become the source of demand shock.New Keynesian Model, Monetary Policy, Transparency, Productivity Growth, Learning

A note on expectational stability under non-zero trend inflation

This study examines the expectational stability of the rational expectations equilibria (REE) under alternative Taylor rules when trend inflation is non-zero. We find that when trend inflation is high, the REE is likely to be expectationally unstable. This result holds true regardless of the nature of the data (such as contemporaneous data, forecast, and lagged data) introduced in the Taylor rule. Our results suggest that a high macroeconomic volatility during the period of high trend inflation can be well explained by introducing the concept of expectational stability.adaptive learning, E-stability, Taylor rule, trend inflation

Rebalancing China’s economic growth: some insights from Japan’s experience

One of the greatest challenges China faces is how to reshape its heavily investment-driven mode of economic growth. By investigating how the rebalancing of Japan’s economic growth mode was realized in the 1970s, we indicate that it is essential in the rebalancing to correct the distortions in the factor cost (labor cost and capital cost) in a harmonious way. In addition, we refer to Japan’s experience to indicate that achieving domestic rebalancing does not necessarily lead to external rebalancing.China; Japan; Rebalancing; Factor Cost Distortion; Current Account Imbalance

Expectational stability under non-zero trend inflation

This study examines the expectational stability of the rational expectation equilibria(REE) under Taylor rules when trend inflation is non-zero. We find that whether or not a higher (lower) trend inflation makes the REE more (less) unstable depends largely on the data (such as contemporaneous data, forecasts and lagged data) used in the conduct of monetary policy.adaptive learning, E-stability, Taylor rule, trend inflation

A Historical Evaluation of Financial Accelerator Effects in Japan's Economy

In this paper, we carry out a historical evaluation of the financial accelerator effects, which were mainly generated by the changes in asset prices, operating on Japan's economy since the 1980s. For this purpose, we estimate a Japanese financial accelerator model, which is a modified version of Bernanke, Gertler and Gilchrist [1999]'s model, and identify the historical exogenous shocks affecting the evolution of firms' net worth. As a result, we confirm that the estimated parameter on the corporate balance sheet channel is statistically significant. We also find that the identified net worth shocks, which change the amount of firms' debt holdings relative to their total values, produced a large and persistent impact on Japan's output and prices. This result strongly suggests that the negative financial accelerator effects were indispensable to explain the mechanism behind Japan's long stagnation during the 1990s and early 2000s, as well as indicating that the deflation of general prices since the late 1990s has been at least partly attributed to the same cause.

Estimating a New Keynesian Phillips Curve with a Corrected Measure of Real Marginal Cost: Evidence in Japan

We estimate a New Keynesian Phillips curve (NKPC) in Japan, focusing on the measurement of real marginal cost (RMC). Especially, we correct labor share by taking account of two kinds of labor market frictions: (i) labor adjustment costs and (ii) real wage rigidity. Our results show that the consideration of these labor market frictions greatly improves the fit of Japan's NKPC. Furthermore, if we additionally incorporate materials prices in the calculation of RMC, then the fit of the NKPC is further improved. Our most important finding is that the conventional backward-looking component is no more needed to explain Japan's inflation dynamics if we use a corrected measure of RMC.

A note on expectational stability under non-zero trend inflation

This study examines the expectational stability of the rational expectations equilibria (REE) under alternative Taylor rules when trend inflation is non-zero. We find that when trend inflation is high, the REE is likely to be expectationally unstable. This result holds true regardless of the nature of the data (such as contemporaneous data, forecast, and lagged data) introduced in the Taylor rule. Our results suggest that a high macroeconomic volatility during the period of high trend inflation can be well explained by introducing the concept of expectational stability.Adaptive learning, E-stability, Taylor rule, trend inflation