Political Business Cycles and Monetary Policy Revisited – An Application of a Two-Dimensional Asymmetric Taylor Reaction Function

This paper uses two-dimensional asymmetric Taylor reaction functions for 16 OECD-countries to account for different reactions to the inflation rate and output by central banks before or after an election of the fiscal authorities in the respective country. Important for such an investigation is not only the period before or after an election takes place but also whether the inflation rate and output are below or above their target or potential value because this information shows whether the central bank systematically deviates from the Taylor rule. Using a Panel-GMM we observe that in the OECD-countries there are political business cycles in monetary policy with respect to the inflation and output response. However, the supporting time horizon differs between both exogenous indicators and state of variables.Political business cycle; monetary policy; Taylor rule; asymmetries; Panel- GMM

(How) Do the ECB and the Fed React to Financial Market Uncertainty?: The Taylor Rule in Times of Crisis

We assess differences that emerge in Taylor rule estimations for the Fed and the ECB before and after the start of the subprime crisis. For this purpose, we apply an explicit estimate of the equilibrium real interest rate and of potential output in order to account for variations within these variables over time. We argue that measures of money and credit growth, interest rate spreads and asset price inflation should be added to the classical Taylor rule because these variables are proxies of a change in the equilibrium interest rate and are, thus, also ikely to have played a major role in setting policy rates during the crisis. Our empirical results gained from a state-space model and GMM estimations reveal that, as far as the Fed is concerned, the impact of consumer price inflation, and money and credit growth turns negative during the crisis while the sign of the asset price inflation coefficient turns positive. Thus we are able to establish significant differences in the parameters of the reaction functions of the Fed before and after the start of the subprime crisis. In case of the ECB, there is no evidence of a change in signs. Instead, the positive reaction to credit growth, consumer and house price inflation becomes even stronger than before. Moreover we find evidence of a less inertial policy of both the Fed and the ECB during the crisis.Subprime crisis, Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, equilibrium real interest rate, Taylor rule

Does the ECB Rely on a Taylor Rule During the Financial Crisis? Comparing Ex-post and Real Time Data with Real Time Forecasts

We assess the differences that emerge in Taylor rule estimations for the ECB when using ex-post data instead of real time forecasts and vice versa. We argue that previous comparative studies in this field risk mixing up two separate effects. First, the differences resulting from the use of ex-post and real time data per se and, second, the differences emerging from the use of non-modified real time data instead of real-time data based forecasted values (and vice versa). Since both effects can influence the ECB reaction to inflation and the output gap either way, we use a more clear-cut approach to disentangle the partial effects. However, “good” forecasts have to be as close as possible to the forecasts the ECB governing council had at hand when taking its interest rate decision. Therefore we use two approaches to generate the forecasts: First, forecasts generated relying on a pure AR process and, second, explicit ECB staff projections which are available only at a quarterly frequency. So we found it indispensable to estimate all variants of the reaction function using also quarterly data. Our estimation results indicate that using real time instead of ex post data leads to higher estimated inflation and output gap coefficients. If real time forecasts are used (since actual data become available with a lag), the output response is reduced while the inflation response depends crucially on the inclusion of an interest rate smoothing term, the data frequency and forecast type.European Central Bank, monetary policy, real time data, Taylor rule

(How) Do the ECB and the Fed React to Financial Market Uncertainty? – The Taylor Rule in Times of Crisis

We assess diff erences that emerge in Taylor rule estimations for the Fed and the ECB before and after the start of the subprime crisis. For this purpose, we apply an explicit estimate of the equilibrium real interest rate and of potential output in order to account for variations within these variables over time. We argue that measures of money and credit growth, interest rate spreads and asset price infl ation should be added to the classical Taylor rule because these variables are proxies of a change in the equilibrium interest rate and are, thus, also likely to have played a major role in setting policy rates during the crisis. Our empirical results gained from a state-space model and GMM estimations reveal that, as far as the Fed is concerned, the impact of consumer price infl ation, and money and credit growth turns negative during the crisis while the sign of the asset price infl ation coeffi cient turns positive. Thus we are able to establish signifi cant diff erences in the parameters of the reaction functions of the Fed before and after the start of the subprime crisis. In case of the ECB, there is no evidence of a change in signs. Instead, the positive reaction to credit growth, consumer and house price infl ation becomes even stronger than before. Moreover we fi nd evidence of a less inertial policy of both the Fed and the ECB during the crisis.Subprime crisis; Federal Reserve; European Central Bank; equilibrium real interest rate; Taylor rule

Does the ECB Rely on a Taylor Rule? - Comparing Ex-post with Real Time Data

We assess the differences that emerge in Taylor rule estimations for the ECB when using ex-post data instead of real time forecasts and vice versa.We argue that previous comparative studies in this field mixed up two separate effects. First, the differences resulting from the use of ex-post and real time data per se and, second, the differences emerging from the use of non-modified real time data instead of real-time data based forecasted values and vice versa. Since both effects can influence the reaction to inflation and the output gap either way, we use a more clear-cut approach to disentangle the partial effects. Our estimation results indicate that using real time instead of ex post data leads to higher estimated inflation coefficients while the opposite is true for the output gap coefficients. If real time data forecasts for the current period are used (since actual data become available with a lag), this empirical pattern is even strengthened in the sense of even increasing the inflation response but lowering the reaction to the output gap while the reverse is true if "true" forecasts of real time data for several periods are employed.European Central Bank, monetary policy, real time data, Taylor rule

COVID-19 and Financial Markets: A Panel Analysis for European Countries

In order to fight the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, monetary and fiscal policy announced a large variety of support packages which are often unprecedented in size. In this paper, we provide an empirical analysis of the responses of European financial markets to these policy announcements. The key contribution is a very granular set of policy announcements, both at the national and the European level. We also differentiate between the first announcement in a series of policies and the subsequent announcements because the initial steps were often seen as bad news about the state of the economy. In a panel model we find that monetary policy, in particular through asset purchases, is effective in supporting the real economy and easing the pressure on governmental finances. Across all subsets of polices, it seems that monetary policy is more effective in supporting the stock market than national fiscal policy, though markets clearly distinguish between different types of policies

Cryptocurrencies and Gold – Similarities and Differences

This article investigates similarities and differences between gold and four cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin). To do so, we estimate a system-GARCH-in-mean with respect to four determinants for the period starting 7/18/2014 at earliest until 7/12/2021. We find that, first, liquidity premia are less important. Second, volatility premia exist in either gold and cryptocurrencies. Third, the response of cryptocurrencies to ex- change rate changes is more pronounced than for gold at least if developing countries are included. Fourth, gold exhibits a safe haven status, while cryptocurrencies do not. So those cannot be seen as a store of value but rather as speculative assets

Daily Monetary Policy Rules and the ECB’s Medium-Term Orientation

This article develops the first granular database on daily real-time inflation rates and output. Four different European forecast sources and three computation methods are applied to calculate those daily data. These are used in two types of monetary policy rules, for three different interest rates as the dependent variable. The results indicate that the main source of differences in the forecast horizons and response coeffcients is not the data sources or the computation method but, rather, the monetary policy rule applied and the interest rate used. That is, the results differ if unconventional monetary policies are considered. Moreover, the results tend to be time-varying; that is, sudden shifts in the optimal forecast horizon can be identified, leading to substantially altered policy rules

The Real and Financial Impact of COVID-19 Around the World

In this paper, we study the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in estimated panel VAR models for 92 countries. The large cross section of countries allows us to shed light on the heterogeneity of the responses of stock markets and NO2 emissions as high-frequency measures of economic activity. We quantify the effect of the number of infections and four dimensions of policy measures: (1) containment and closure, (2) movement restrictions, (3) economic support and (4) adjustments of health systems. Our main findings show that a surprise increase in the number of infections triggers a drop in our two measures of economic activity. Propping up economic support measures, in contrast, raises stock returns and emissions and, thus, contributes to the economic recovery. We also document vast differences in the responses across subsets of countries and between the first and the second wave of infections

Are Eastern European Taylor Reaction Functions Asymmetric in Inflation or Output: Empirical Evidence for four Countries

Do central banks in Eastern European countries react asymmetrically and in a non-linear fashion to changes in inflation and output? We tackle this question by expanding the standard Taylor reaction function for the four inflation targeting countries Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Ro- mania. We do so taking explicitly inflation rates below or above target and output below or above potential, the so-called state of the economy, into account. The results reveal that there are indeed substantial asymmetries in the reaction function of the Czech, Polish and Romanian central bank, which are only evident when the combination of inflation and output thresholds is explicitly modelled in one estimation equation. For these three central banks also non-linearities in the inflation and output response could be verified