Dynamic interactions between financial cycles, business cycles and macroeconomic imbalances: A panel VAR analysis

Abstract

We use Bayesian and GMM panel VAR frameworks to study interactions between financial and macroeconomic imbalances based on a global sample of 24 countries spanning the period 1998–2012. We find that financial cycles play an important role in shaping macroeconomic imbalances with expansions inducing economic overheating and a downward pressure on public debt-to-GDP ratios. Financial misalignments invoke deeper and faster response of business cycles in bank-based economies and milder, but more persistent in market-based economies, with greater significance for current account and public debt dynamics. High-public debt countries reveal much stronger effects on fiscal stance and output gap trajectories.