Measuring Monetary Policy Shocks in a Small Open Economy

Abstract

This paper presents different specifications of a structural VAR model which are useful to identify monetary policy shocks and their macroeconomic effects for the Italian economy in the 1990s. The analysis is based on a detailed institutional description of the functioning of the domestic market for bank reserves. In this setting, we try to establish if monetary policy shocks are better identified using exchange rates or foreign exchange reserves as a conditioning variable for the small open economy framework. Our analysis confirms the view that the Bank of Italy has been targeting the rate on overnight interbank loans in the 1990s. This is coherent with either proposed modelling choices. Therefore, we interpret shocks to the overnight rate as purely exogenous monetary policy shocks and study how they impact the economy.(J.E.L.: E52, F41, F47).