Changes In Short-term Interest Rates Research Articles

Assessing monetary policy surprises in Japan by high frequency identification

The use of changes in short-term interest rates (STIRs) within 30 min before and after monetary policy announcements, or so-called high-frequency identification (HFI), has been attracting attention as a method of extracting monetary policy surprises. In this paper, we use the Japanese data during the 2000s and 2010s, which includes periods when interest rates hovered around the ELB, to construct an indicator of monetary policy surprises using HFI and document its properties. We find that the STIR futures variations within 30 min around monetary policy announcements are more closely correlated with key financial variables than those outside that window. We also find that the impulse responses of macroeconomic variables to the identified shocks are overall in line with what conventional theory predicts.

The effects of countercyclical interest rates: Evidence from the classical gold standard

We estimate the impact of countercyclical interest rates on macroeconomic outcomes in open economies. To identify countercyclical interest rates, we construct a new database of short-term interest rates, principal exports, and commodity prices for 40 economies from 1870–1913. Specialization and trade integration subjected economies to a “commodity lottery” in the form of price fluctuations in world markets. Capital mobility and a currency peg exposed them to interest-rate movements originating in the U.K., the largest economy and linchpin of the classical gold standard. We use these two exogenous shocks to identify positive effects of commodity-export prices on real GDP and the domestic price level and negative effects of exogenous changes in short-term interest rates on the same variables. We show that countercyclical interest rates, defined relative to export-price shocks, stabilized both output and the domestic price level. This stabilization was more effective for the price level than for output.

Monetary policy, macroeconomic uncertainty and corporate liquid asset demand: a firm-level analysis for India

PurposeThe study examines how the liquid assets holdings among non-financial Indian firms vary due to tightening monetary policy and increasing macroeconomic uncertainty.Design/methodology/approachThe authors analyze 5,640 firms for the period 2011–2021. The authors first estimate India’s monetary policy shocks by decomposing the exogenous shocks from the systematic component of monetary policy changes. The authors then examine the effects of the estimated monetary policy shocks and a range of macroeconomic and policy uncertainty indicators on companies’ cash and bank balances to asset ratios using two-step system generalized method of moments (GMM) estimators.FindingsThe authors find that monetary policy shocks cause the cross-sectional variances for the firms’ liquidity holdings to increase. In anticipation of macroeconomic volatility, companies respond to these shocks after taking into account all the firm-level information to minimize the opportunity costs of holding extra cash or too few cash balances that can hamper firms’ operations. Furthermore, compared to other shocks, the contribution of inflation-induced shocks is predicted to be the largest in the cross-sectional deviation of the firm’s cash holdings. The authors also find that low-growth, older and financially constrained firms observe lesser heterogeneity in their cash holdings as they tend to hold cash as a precautionary buffer.Originality/valueThe authors’ approach to the analysis is unique in many ways. To address potential transmission bias, the authors use nowcasts and forecasts of real gross domestic product (GDP) growth and inflation to generate a series of exogenous monetary policy shocks for identifying unanticipated changes in short-term interest rates. Subsequently, the authors estimate how these shocks affect the cross-sectional deviation of liquid assets. For estimating the effects of macroeconomic uncertainty on corporate cash demand, the authors utilize a range of proxies for uncertainty. Unlike previous attempts, the authors offer evidence for a developing and fast-emerging economy.

A Tripolar Model of Gas Price Formation in Germany. Does the Shale Revolution in the US Matter?

Abstract Presented analysis of gas price formation mechanism in Germany was prompted by changes brought about by technological advancements and the liberalization and harmonization of natural gas markets in the European Union after the year 2000. Because the data used in the study is generated by nonstationary stochastic processes, the cointegrated vector autoregressive model was applied as the most appropriate. The analysis pointed out that the price of natural gas, oil and the USD/EUR exchange rate influence each other in the long run and thus should be modelled together. Gas price in Germany is driven by both fundamental and financial factors, and so it rises with economic expansion, oil price increases, and the depreciation of the USD. It also reacts to changes in short-term interest rates and the volume of gas production in the US, which confirms that the shale revolution in this country has been consequential for gas prices in Europe, like any other supply shock would have been.

Informed trading in government bond markets

Using comprehensive administrative data from the UK, we examine trading by different investor types in government bond markets. Our sample covers virtually all secondary market trading in gilts and contains detailed information on each transaction, including the identities of both counterparties. We find that hedge funds’ daily trading positively forecasts gilt returns in the following one to five days, which is then fully reversed in the following month. A part of this short-term return predictability is due to hedge funds’ ability to predict other investors’ future demand. Mutual fund trading also positively predicts gilt returns, but over a longer horizon of one to two months. This return pattern does not revert in the following year and is partly due to mutual funds’ ability to forecast changes in short-term interest rates.

Zmiany stopy procentowej Narodowego Banku Polskiego w XXI w. na tle reguły Taylora

Głównym celem tego opracowania jest analiza zmian stopy procentowej NBP w XXI w. Jako narzędzie badawcze wykorzystano regułę Taylora, która często stanowi odniesienie do zmian krótkookresowych stóp procentowych. W wielu przypadkach, mimo relatywnej swojej prostoty, dobrze opisuje faktyczne zmiany stóp procentowych w bankach centralnych. Opracowanie składa się z trzech głównych części. W pierwszej zarysowano współczesną politykę pieniężną, dokonując próby uchwycenia jej konsensu w zakresie celów, instrumentów i strategii. Ukazano przy tym rolę reguł i dyskrecjonalności w polityce pieniężnej. W drugiej części przedstawiono metodykę badania empirycznego zastosowanego w tym opracowaniu. Wskazano główne założenia badawcze oraz omówiono konstrukcję reguły Taylora. Trzecia część artykuł zawiera badania empiryczne, w których przeprowadzono analizę zmian stopy referencyjnej NBP w XXI w. na tle reguły Taylora. Dokonano przy tym oceny wybranych decyzji dotyczących zmiany tej stopy, w szczególności w latach 2015-2020.

Informed trading in government bond markets

Using comprehensive regulatory data, we examine trading by different investor types in government bond markets. Our sample covers virtually all secondary market trading in gilts and contains detailed information on each transaction, including the identities of both counterparties. We find that hedge funds’ daily trading positively forecasts gilt returns in the following one to five days, which is then fully reversed in the following month. A part of this short-term return predictability is due to hedge funds’ ability to anticipate future demand of other investors. Mutual fund trading also positively predicts gilt returns, but over a longer horizon of one to two months. This return pattern does not revert in the following year and is partly due to mutual funds’ ability to forecast changes in short-term interest rates.

Predicting Interest Rates

Using comprehensive administrative data from the UK, we examine trading by different investor groups in government bond markets. Our sample covers virtually all secondary market trading in gilts and contains detailed information of each transaction, including the identities of both counterparties. We find that hedge funds’ daily trading positively forecasts gilt returns in the following one to five days, which is then fully reversed in the following month. A part of this short-term return predictability is due to hedge funds’ front-running other investors’ future demand. Mutual fund trading also positively predicts gilt returns, but over a longer horizon of one to two months. This return pattern does not revert in the following year and is partly due to mutual funds’ ability to forecast changes in short-term interest rates.

Fiscal implications of the ECB’s Public Sector Purchase Programme

The large Public Sector Purchase Programme (PSPP), which the ECB started in 2015 for monetary policy purposes, had major side effects on fiscal policy. One concerns the programme’s uncommon seigniorage effects. We find that the PSPP not only led to partly negative seigniorage gains, but also produced super-seigniorage gains resulting from negative interest rates on the excess reserves that were created by the programme. Another effect of the PSPP is its interference with fiscal debt management, thereby making fiscal budgets more vulnerable to changes in short-term interest rates. Finally, the experience with the PSPP suggests that fiscal policy should prepare for a greater role in fighting future recessions.

Term structure dynamics at low and negative interest rates\u2014evidence from Switzerland

This paper studies the transmission of changes in short-term interest rates to longer-term government bond yields when interest rates are at very low levels or negative. We focus on Switzerland, where short-term interest rates have been at zero since late 2008 and negative since the beginning of 2015. The expectations hypothesis of the term structure implies that as nominal interest rates approach their lower bound, the effect of short-term rates on longer-term yields should decline, and positive short rate changes should have larger absolute effects than negative short rate changes. Contrary to studies of other countries, we find no evidence for a decline in the effect of short rate changes for the low-interest rate period using Swiss data. However, we do find evidence for the predicted asymmetric effect for positive and negative short rate changes during the period when short-term rates are close to zero. This asymmetry normalized again after the introduction of negative interest rates.

The effects of monetary policy shocks on inequality

This paper provides new evidence of the effect of conventional monetary policy shocks on income inequality. We construct a measure of unanticipated changes in policy rates—changes in short-term interest rates that are orthogonal to unexpected changes in growth and inflation news—for a panel of 32 advanced and emerging market countries over the period 1990–2013. Our main finding is that contractionary monetary policy shocks increase income inequality, on average. The effect is asymmetric—tightening of policy raises inequality more than easing lowers it—and depends on the state of the business cycle. We find some evidence that the effect increases with the share of labor income and is mitigated by redistribution policies. Finally, while an unexpected increase in policy rates increases inequality, changes in policy rates driven by an increase in growth and inflation are associated with lower inequality.

A theoretical model of jump diffusion-mean reversion

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop a theoretical model of a jump diffusion-mean reversion constant proportion portfolio insurance strategy under the presence of transaction cost and stochastic floor as opposed to the deterministic floor used in the previous literatures.Design/methodology/approachThe paper adopts Merton’s jump diffusion (JD) model to simulate the price path followed by risky assets and the CIR mean reversion model to simulate the path followed by the short-term interest rate. The floor of the CPPI strategy is linked to the stochastic process driving the value of a fixed income instrument whose yield follows the CIR mean reversion model. The developed model is benchmarked against CNX-NIFTY 50 and is back tested during the extreme regimes in the Indian market using the scenario-based Monte Carlo simulation technique.FindingsBack testing the algorithm using Monte Carlo simulation across the crisis and recovery phases of the 2008 recession regime revealed that the portfolio performs better than the risky markets during the crisis by hedging the downside risk effectively and performs better than the fixed income instruments during the growth phase by leveraging on the upside potential. This makes it a value-enhancing proposition for the risk-averse investors.Originality/valueThe study modifies the CPPI algorithm by re-defining the floor of the algorithm to be a stochastic mean reverting process which is guided by the movement of the short-term interest rate in the economy. This development is more relevant for two reasons: first, the short-term interest rate changes with time, and hence the constant yield during each rebalancing steps is not practically feasible; second, the historical literatures have revealed that the short-term interest rate tends to move opposite to that of the equity market. Thereby, during the bear run the floor will increase at a higher rate, whereas the growth of the floor will stagnate during the bull phase which aids the model to capitalize on the upward potential during the growth phase and to cut down on the exposure during the crisis phase.

Impacts of short-term interest rates on stock returns and exchange rates: Empirical evidence from EAGLE countries

ABSTRACTIn this study, we estimate Bayesian vector autoregression (BVAR) and time-varying structural VAR (TVP-VAR) models for Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico and Turkey to analyze the impacts of short-term interest rates on stock prices and exchange rates considering the relationships between these variables. BVAR and TVP-VAR models’ estimations indicate that monetary policy decisions of these countries lead to capital movements as well as capital movements may create a considerable amount of variation in exchange and stock markets both in the periods of economic stability and financial crisis. We also reveal that increases in interest rates intending to prevent capital outflows may lead to decrease in stock returns, which in turn may deteriorate the real economic activity in Indonesia, while changes in short-term interest rates in Brazil, Indonesia and Turkey cannot be used as a tool to stabilize the value of their home currencies against the USD. Our study highlights the importance of formulating an optimal monetary policy framework accompanied by macro-prudential polices, which help to reach inflation target and smooth the possible variations in exchange rates and stock prices during economic crisis conditions in Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico and Turkey.

A Keynesian explanation of Indian government bond yields

John Maynard Keynes held that the central bank’s actions mainly determine long-term interest rates through short-term interest rates and various monetary policy measures. His conjectures about the determinants of long-term interest rates were made in the context of advanced capitalist economies and were based on his views on liquidity preference, ontological uncertainty, and the formation of investors’ expectations. Is Keynes’s conjecture that the central bank’s action is the main driver of long-term interest rates valid in emerging markets, such as India? This paper empirically investigates the determinants of changes in Indian government bonds’ nominal yields. Changes in short-term interest rates, after controlling for other crucial variables, such as changes in the rate of inflation and the rate of economic activity, take a lead role in driving the changes of the nominal yields of Indian government bonds. This suggests that Keynes’s views on long-term interest rates can also be applicable to emerging markets. The empirical findings reveal that higher fiscal deficits do not appear to exert upward pressures on government bond yields in India.

The solvency of financial institutions in Spain: lessons from securitization

On analysing a sample of Spanish banks, we find that securitization has a slightly negative impact on the soundness of the issuing entity. An unbalanced dynamic panel model was estimated using the forward orthogonal deviations GMM method and used to analyse 537 traditional securitizations issued by 61 banks between 1998 and 2012. The analysis revealed that the entities’ soundness became weaker immediately prior to the crisis, but this effect became insignificant after 2007. Securitization has facilitated a process of regulatory capital arbitrage leading to lower capital requirements while, at the same time, giving rise to a slight worsening of the quality of the originators’ portfolios. It was found that profitability, liquidity and inflation positively affect solvency, while changes in short-term interest rates affect it negatively.

Does Keynesian Theory Explain Indian Government Bond Yields?

John Maynard Keynes held that the central bank’s actions determine long-term interest rates through short-term interest rates and various monetary policy measures. His conjectures about the determinants of long-term interest rates were made in the context of advanced capitalist economies, and were based on his views on ontological uncertainty and the formation of investors’ expectations. Are these conjectures valid in emerging markets, such as India? This paper empirically investigates the determinants of changes in Indian government bonds’ nominal yields. Changes in short-term interest rates, after controlling for other crucial variables such as changes in the rates of inflation and economic activity, take a lead role in driving changes in the nominal yields of Indian government bonds. This vindicates Keynes’s theories, and suggests that his views on long-term interest rates are also applicable to emerging markets. Higher fiscal deficits do not appear to raise government bond yields in India. It is further argued that Keynes’s conjectures about investors’ outlooks, views, and expectations are fairly robust in a world of ontological uncertainty.

Monetary policy and interest rates under inflation targeting in Australia and New Zealand

One advantage cited for formal inflation targeting is that by anchoring inflationary expectations this policy framework would aid in the pricing of long-term securities. Long-term interest rates would become less sensitive to temporary shocks to the economy including policy-induced changes in short-term interest rates. This paper examines the experience in this regard of New Zealand and Australia, two countries that have been inflation targeters for many years. Our results are consistent with inflationary expectations having become more firmly anchored after the move to inflation targeting in each country. There is no evidence that the credibility of the inflation-targeting regime in either country weakened during the recent world financial crisis.

Credit Cycles: Econometric Analysis and Evidence for Russia

One of the principal problem in contemporary macroeconomics is concerned with factors increasing or decreasing economic dynamics. The mainstream approach is based on neoclassical assumptions, but recently new approaches appear mostly based on new Keynesian concepts. In present time the influence of monetary market and credit instruments become more and more significant. Credit resources of banking and financial structures can affect and distort to reallocation of resources for national and even for global economic. In present paper an empiric and econometric analysis for some macroeconometric and monetary indices for Russian Federation is done. An econometrical models describing the influence of credit variables onto real GDP is estimated. It is shown that in short-term periods changes in credit variables do influence significantly onto GDP. It is shown that on short-term periods changes in money aggregate M2 brings influence (through credit variables) onto national output. As well it is shown that changes in short-term interest rate brings significant negative influence onto real output. Impulse response functions for GDP on shocks of credit variables, monetary base and short-term interest rate are evaluated. For the present study of credit cycles and their impact to real business cycles statistical data (quarterly time series) on the following factors for Russian Federation are collected: nominal and real GDP, monetary base M2, short-term interest rate, long-term interest rate (10-year treasuries bill rate), total debt outstanding. All time series are seasonally adjusted and collected for the period 2004 Q1 - 2013 Q2. All interest rates are adjusted for inflation (i.e. we deal with real interest rates). The investigation of long-term relationship for the factors under consideration are based on integration. It is important to note that in the present paper all econometric models are estimated on "pure" statistical data, while in many research papers on business and credit cycles all evaluations and inferences are based on "filtered" time series (mostly filtered by Hodrick-Prescott's method). In present paper "causality" always means "Granger causality". All estimations are made in gretl, an open-source multiplatform econometric software.

"A Monetary Conditions Index For Albania "

The goal of the construction of a Monetary Conditions Index (MCI) is to analyze both the interest rate channel and the exchange rate channel. The construction is based on standard open economy macroeconomic models. MCI is the weighted sum of the change in short-term interest rate and the exchange rate with the base period, with weights that are usually taken from empirical econometric models and that reflect the estimated impact of these variables to the product or to inflation. MCI change, gives in a single number the degree of narrowing or release (expansion) of monetary conditions. In this paper is proposed a MCI for Albania. Based in the calculations done by the author and after the comparison of this type of MCI with the type of MCI calculated from Bank of Albania, the author recommends to Bank of Albania the use of the MCI calculated in this paper. The reason of this recommendation is the more accurate description and explanation of monetary policy stance obtained from the use of MCI calculated in this paper.

Interest-rate and calendar-time effects in money market fund and bank deposit cash flows

We examine the sensitivities of aggregate balances of retail and institutional money market funds (MMFs) and their potential substitutes, bank deposits, to changes in short-term interest rates while controlling for calendar-time effects. We find that institutional MMF and time deposit cash flows are sensitive to recent changes in short-term interest rates. Institutional MMF investors appear to take advantage of arbitrage opportunities created by MMFs using the amortized cost technique. Retail MMF investors are much less responsive to changes in interest rates.