A Micro Data Approach to the Identification of Credit Crunches

This paper presents a micro data approach to the identification of credit crunches. Using a survey among German firms which regularly queries the firms’ assessment of the current willingness of banks to extend credit we estimate the probability of a restrictive credit supply policy by time taking into account the creditworthiness of borrowers. Creditworthiness is approximated by firm–specific factors, e.g. the firms’ assessment of their current business situation and their business expectations. After controlling for the banks’ refinancing costs, which are also likely to affect the supply of loans, we derive a credit crunch indicator, which measures that part of the shift in the willingness to lend that is neither explained by firm-specific factors nor by refinancing costs.credit crunch, loan supply, surveys, nonlinear binary outcome panel-data models

Options for the exchange rate policies in the EU accession countries (and other emerging market economies)

We develop an institutional framework for central banks that try to pursue a stability-oriented monetary policy with the strategy of exchange rate targeting. Recent experience shows that a crucial element of this approach is to avoid destabilising capital inflows. Policy makers can exert monetary pressure by two different but interrelated channels: the interest rate and the exchange rate. We introduce an open-economy Taylor rule which determines the domestic interest rate of a central bank targeting a depreciation of its exchange rate. The interrelation of the two channels is taken into account by a risk premium adjusted uncovered interest parity condition. In our view sustained violations of this constraint provide an important explanation for the problem of speculative capital inflows. We distinguish between two basically different types of pegs: fixed nominal exchange rate targets and flexible nominal exchange rate targets. With the lessons that we draw from the past experiences of these regimes in Asia, Latin America, Eastern and Central Europe and the ERM I, we develop a framework for the exchange rate strategies of the accession countries during their path towards EMU entry. --EU accession countries,monetary integration,emerging market economies,flexible nominal exchange rate target,open-economy Taylor rule,UIP,risk premium,monetary conditions index,capital flows

Managed floating: Understanding the new international monetary order

Although there seems to be a broad consensus among economists that purely floating or completely fixed exchange rates (the so-called corner solutions) are the only viable alternatives of exchange rate management, many countries do not behave according to this paradigm and adopt a strategy within the broad spectrum of exchange rate regimes that is limited by the two corner solutions. These intermediate regimes are characterized by significant foreign exchange market interventions of central banks and a certain degree of exchange rate flexibility. We develop a new empirical methodology that identifies three different forms of floating on the basis of a central bank's intervention activity: pure floating (no interventions), independent floating (exchange rate smoothing), and managed floating (exchange rate targeting). Our cross-country study shows that exchange rate targeting is at least as important as exchange rate smoothing. Subsequently we present a monetary policy framework in which central banks use the exchange rate as an operating target of monetary policy. We explain the mechanics of interventions and sterilization and we explain why a central bank has an interest of controlling simultaneously the exchange rate and the short-term interest rate. We derive the monetary policy rules for our two operating targets from a simple open economy macro model in which the uncovered interest parity condition and the Monetary Conditions Index play a central role. --exchange rate regime,monetary policy,interventions,sterilization,floating,Monetary Conditions Index

Monetary policy and exchange rate targeting in open economies

We develop an institutional framework for central banks that try to pursue a stability-oriented monetary policy in open-economies by directly targeting the exchange rate. Our main intention is to design a framework which avoids excessive capital inflows that can be regarded as a main cause of the crises in Asia, Latin America, Eastern and Central Europe and of the ERM I. In an open economy policy makers can target two interrelated variables: the interest rate and the exchange rate. These two operating target have to fulfil two different conditions. On the one hand they have to create monetary conditions that are consistent with the domestic economic situation. On the other hand they have to be compatible with a risk-premium adjusted uncovered interest parity condition (UIP). It is obvious that both conditions are difficult to met. In our view sustained violations of the second condition provide an important explanation for the problem of speculative capital inflows under a fixed nominal peg. We show that an adjustable nominal peg is in most cases a better solution to the dual requirement of UIP and adequate monetary conditions. This leads to a new solution for the inconsistency triangle: a central bank can combine an autonomous domestic interest rate policy with capital mobility and a floor for the target path of the exchange rate. --emerging market economies,exchange rate targeting,open-economy Taylor rule,UIP,risk premium,monetary conditions index,sterilised intervention, inconsistency triangle

The New Keynesian Phillips Curve and the Role of Expectations: Evidence from the Ifo World Economic Survey

We provide evidence on the fit of the hybrid New Keynesian Phillips curve for selected euro zone countries, the US and the UK. Instead of imposing rational expectations and estimating the Phillips curve by the Generalized Method of Moments, we follow Roberts (1997) and Adam and Padula (2003) and use direct measures of inflation expectations. The data source is the Ifo World Economic Survey, which quarterly polls economic experts about their expected future development of inflation. Our main findings are as follows: (i) In comparison with the rational expectations approach, backward-looking behaviour turns out to more relevant for most countries in our sample. (ii) The use of survey data for inflation expectations yields a positive slope of the Phillips curve when the output gap is used as a measure for marginal cost.inflation expectations, survey data, euro zone, Phillips curve

Sterilized Foreign Exchange Market Interventions in a Chartist-Fundamentalist Exchange Rate Model

Sterilized foreign exchange market interventions are commonly dismissed by economists as an ineffective policy instrument. Nevertheless many central banks operating under independently floating exchange rates regimes are often engaged in sales and purchases of foreign exchange in order to manipulate the current value of their currencies. In this paper we argue that the skepticism of many economists can be ascribed to their orientation on fundamental-based, efficient-market exchange rate models. Given their weak empirical support, however, it is unreasonable to evaluate the effectiveness of sterilized foreign exchange interventions against the background of this class of models. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the effectiveness of sterilized foreign exchange market interventions on the basis of a more suitable model. Using a chartist-fundamentalist model we show that central banks can influence exchange rates by using sterilized interventions. In particular, turning points occur earlier and exchange rate misalignments are substantially reduced. --Foreign exchange,central bank intervention,heterogeneous expectation

Vorhersage der Revisionen der Vorratsveränderungen mit Hilfe der ifo Lagerbeurteilung

In dem Beitrag werden die Revisionen der Vorratsveränderungen genauer untersucht. Die häufigen und zum Teil beträchtlichen Revisionen der Vorratsveränderungen lassen eine gewisse Systematik erkennen, die unter anderem durch die ifo Lagerbeurteilung vorhergesagt werden kann

Sterilisierte Devisenmarktinterventionen - ein umstrittenes währungspolitisches Instrument

Ziel dieses Aufsatzes ist es, die Wirksamkeit von Devisenmarktinterventionen im Lichte eines neuen Wechselkursmodells zu bewerten. Dabei steht nicht die Beeinflussung von Fundamentalfaktoren im Vordergrund, sondern die Koordination heterogener Erwartungen unter den Devisenmarktakteuren, die zu langfristigen Abweichungen des Wechselkurses von seinem Fundamentalwert führen können. Es wird gezeigt, dass sterilisierte Devisenmarktinterventionen aus dieser Perspektive als Instrument in den Händen der Notenbanken betrachtet werden können, das zwar keinen sicheren, unmittelbaren Erfolg verspricht, das aber dennoch dazu beiträgt, über längere Frist persistente Fehlentwicklungen des Wechselkurses zu mildern und zu korrigieren. Ein interessanter Nebenaspekt dabei ist, dass dieses Instrument mit keinerlei Kosten verbunden ist

An Alternative to the Carlson-Parkin Method for the Quantification of Qualitative Inflation Expectations: Evidence from the Ifo World Economic Survey

This paper presents a new methodology for the quantification of qualitative survey data. Traditional conversion methods, such as the probability approach of Carlson and Parkin (1975) or the time-varying parameters model of Seitz (1988), require very restrictive assumptions concerning the expectations formation process of survey respondents. Above all, the unbiasedness of expectations, which is a necessary condition for rationality, is imposed. Our approach avoids these assumptions. The novelty lies in the way the boundaries inside of which survey respondents expect the variable under consideration to remain unchanged are determined. Instead of deriving these boundaries from the statistical properties of the reference time-series (which necessitates the unbiasedness assumption), we directly queried them from survey respondents by a special question in the Ifo World Economic Survey. The new methodology is then applied to expectations about the future development of inflation obtained from the Ifo World Economic Survey.Inflation expectations, survey data, quantification methods.