Interest Rate Target Research Articles

Central bank intervention, public debt and interest rate target zones

The euro area crisis has been characterized by speculative attacks reflecting the market fear that some high indebted countries could go bankrupt. What is puzzling, however, is that non-euro area countries with an equally large – and in some cases even larger – public debt-to-GDP ratios have not been subject to attacks. This fact, together with the convex non-linear behavior exhibited by interest rates have been explained by observing that euro area countries could not rely on a lender of last resort, and this made possible the occurrence of self-fulfilling speculative attacks.The model proposed in this article applies the target zones methodology relative to exchange rates, developed in the late 1980s–early 1990s, to the case of the interest rate, given that public debt stability will only be assured if the former does not exceed a given upper bound. The novelty of the paper is that, by considering the presence of a public debt demand stochastic shock – that may originate from different sources – it is possible to endogenize the determinants of the credibility of the interest rate target zone and, as a result, of public debt stability, something that in a previous paper, still based on the idea of interest rate target zones, had to be taken exogenously. Public debt stability, then, is shown to depend on the potential liquidity that the central bank can create thanks to its role of lender of last resort. Full/partial credibility is obtained when such liquidity is expected to be sufficient/insufficient to absorb completely the demand shock. The expected absence of liquidity determines the non-credibility of the interest rate target, while the expectation of a public debt increase produces a destabilizing non-credibility determining the convex interest rate non-linearity that characterized the euro area crisis.

INTEREST RATE TARGETS AND SPECULATIVE ATTACKS ON PUBLIC DEBT

The application of exchange rate target zones modeling to interest rates allows interpreting the puzzles that emerged with the public debt euro area crisis, namely the nonlinear behavior of the interest rates and the fact that some stand-alone countries, not belonging to the euro area, have not been subject to speculative attacks in spite of equally large public debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratios. As a matter of fact, this model shows that in the case of a noncredible upper threshold for the interest rate (that may be due to both the lack of room for increasing further the required government primary surplus and/or the absence of a monetary authority acting as a lender of last resort), the resulting public debt unsustainability determines an interest rate nonlinearity and makes the crisis possible for public debt levels that would be stable in the presence of a credible interest rate target.

Stop-Go Monetary Policy

We propose and estimate several discrete choice models of monetary policy decision-making that feature time-varying inertia. The models permit us to account for three stylized facts characterizing monetary policymaking in the United States: (1) target interest rates are gradually adjusted in small discrete movements, (2) there are some long stretches of time in which rates are repeatedly moved, and (3) there are other long stretches in which the policy rate does not change. The proposed models perform well in predicting in-sample policy choices of the Federal Reserve and can explain the presence of policy inertia without including multiple lagged dependent variables in a monetary policy reaction function.

A comparison of monetary and fiscal policy interaction under ‘sound’ and ‘functional’ finance regimes

AbstractThe interest rate and the fiscal balance can be thought of as two independent instruments to be assigned to two targets, the path of output and the path of public debt. Under what we term a ‘sound finance rule’ the interest rate targets output while the fiscal balance targets public debt; under a ‘functional finance rule’ the budget balance targets the output gap and the interest rate targets the debt ratio. The same unique combination of interest rate and fiscal balance will be consistent with output at potential and a constant debt‐GDP ratio regardless of which instrument is assigned to which target. The stability characteristics of the two rules differ, however. At low levels of debt, both rules converge to the targets, but there is a threshold debt level above which only the functional finance rule converges. Contrary to conventional wisdom, therefore, the case for countercyclical fiscal policy becomes stronger, not weaker, when the ratio of public debt to GDP is already high. We apply our framework to describe the possibility of policy‐generated cycles in the United States over the past five decades.

Inflation Control: Do Central Bankers Have It Right?

Neo-Fisherites argue that conventional central banking wisdom has inflation control wrong, in that the way to increase (reduce) inflation is to increase (reduce) the central bank?s nominal interest rate target.

Возможности процентной политики центральных банков

After the Bank of Russia had switched to inflation targeting, its key rate became the main instrument of monetary policy. Based on the experience of both developed and developing countries, the authors conclude that besides regulating the key interest rate monetary authorities have a wide range of interest rate policy instruments. By regulating the width of the interest rate corridor and the location of the key rate within the corridor, monetary authorities get the opportunity to manage not only the level of the target interest rate and its volatility, but also to influence transnational capital flows. Interest rate instruments known since early 1990s were widely used by inflationtargeting monetary authorities during the crisis of 2008–2009 and the post-crisis period, when many of them experienced an increase of short-term foreign capital inflows and exchange rate volatility, which entailed increased risks for price and financial stability. The authors also confirm the significant role of such a traditional instrument of monetary policy as required reserves. Monetary authorities of developing countries use them to regulate monetary conditions in order to eliminate imbalances in the structure of credit organizations’ liabilities and, first of all, for the purpose of dedollarization and stimulation of the attractiveness of long-term deposits in national currency. According to the authors, widening the spectrum of interest rate instruments used by the regulator will help increase the flexibility and effectiveness of the Bank of Russia’s monetary policy.

“WAIT-AND-SEE” MONETARY POLICY

This paper develops a model of the optimal timing of interest rate changes. With fixed adjustment costs and ongoing uncertainty, changing the interest rate involves the exercise of an option. Optimal policy therefore has a “wait-and-see” component, which can be quantified using option pricing techniques. We show that increased uncertainty makes the central bank more reluctant to change its target interest rate, and argue that this helps explain recent observed deviations from the Taylor Rule. An optimal wait-and-see policy fits the target interest rates of the Fed and Bank of Canada better than the Taylor Rule.

Stepping on a rake: The fiscal theory of monetary policy

The fiscal theory of the price level can describe monetary policy. Governments can set interest rate targets and thereby affect inflation, with no change in fiscal surpluses. The same basic mechanism describes interest rate targets, forward guidance, open market operations, and quantitative easing. It does not require any monetary, pricing, or other frictions. In the presence of long-term debt, higher interest rates lead to temporarily lower inflation, a challenging sign. I derive and replicate the results of the Sims (2011) “stepping on a rake” model, which first produced this negative sign, and produces realistic impulse-response functions. I show that Sims’ result is robust to many model features, but essentially requires long-term debt.

ANALISIS INTEREST RATE PASS-THROUGH PADA MEKANISME TRANSMISI KEBIJAKAN MONETER INDONESIA

This reseach aimed to evaluate the performance of monetary policy, toexamine and test the magnitude of the response rates on deposits and bank loans to the money market interest rate, and how fast adjustment of the interest rate of deposits and loans in response to changes in money market interest rates. The performance evaluation of the level of adjustment of interest rate pass-through is done by testing the coefficient of adjustment of the interest rate deposits and loans in response to changes in money market interest rates. The object of this reseach is reported in interest rates interbank money market (rPUAB) and bank interest rates (loans and deposits) of all commercial banks in Indonesia, the data used in the form of a row of monthly time (monthly time series) of the annual report of Bank Indonesia and SEKI ( Economic and Financial statistics Indonesia), in the period 2005-2016. The method used in this research is the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) for calculating the amount of long-term coefficients and Error Correction Model (ECM) -ARDL for calculating the amount of short-term coefficients. We find of the analysis indicate a change of monetary policy in the short term through the interest rate channel with its operational targets interest rates interbank money market (interbank) did not respond in full by the rates on deposits and loans in commercial banks in Indonesia, represented by the value of the degree of pass- through which less than 1 and there is a tendency that the longterm interest rates on loans and deposits experienced incomplete pass-through, then interest rates on consumer loans and deposits of 24 months has the speed of the slowest, which means consumer loans and deposits of 24 months in Indonesia unresponsive to changes in interbank rates. keywords: ARDL, ECM, Interest Rate pass-through, PUAB.

FFT network for interest rate derivatives with Lévy processes

This paper extends the fast Fourier transform (FFT) network to interest derivative valuation under the Hull–White model driven by a Levy process. The classical trinomial tree for the Hull–White model is a widely adopted approach in practice, but fails to accommodate the change in the driving stochastic process. Recent finance research supports the use of a Levy process to replace Brownian motion in stochastic modeling. The FFT network overcomes the drawback of the trinomial approach but maintains its advantages in super-calibration to the term structure of interest rate and efficient computation to various kinds of interest rate derivatives under Levy processes. The FFT network only requires knowledge of the characteristic function of the Levy process driving the interest rate process, but not of the interest rate process itself. The numerical comparison between the closed-form solutions of interest rate caps and swaptions and those from FFT network confirms that the proposed network is accurate and efficient. We also demonstrate its use in pricing Bermudan swaptions and other American-style options. Finally, the FFT network is expanded to accommodate path-dependent variables, and is applied to interest rate target redemption notes and a range of accrual notes.

Do the central bank actions reduce interest rate volatility?

This paper investigates how Central Bank of Brazil (CBB) actions influence market uncertainty. We consider two kinds of actions: the monetary policy decision about the interest rate target and the pure communication event of this decision published one week later. Unlike related papers, we measure the market uncertainty by the implied volatility extracted from interest rate options. Implied volatility is more suitable than physical volatility to assess economic effects since it encompass market beliefs adjusted by risk. We use an event study approach to evaluate the impact of CBB actions. The results show that both the decisions about the target rate and the communication event reduce the interest rate volatility.

Estimating Monetary Policy Rules When Nominal Interest Rates Are Stuck at Zero

Did the Federal Reserve's response to economic fundamentals change with the onset of the Global Financial Crisis? Estimation of a monetary policy rule to answer this question faces a censoring problem since the interest rate target has been set at the zero lower bound since late 2008. Surveys by forecasters allow us to sidestep the problem and to use conventional regressions and break tests. We find that, in the opinion of forecasters, the Fed's inflation response has decreased and the unemployment response has increased, which suggests that the Federal Reserve's commitment to stable inflation has become weaker in the eyes of the professional forecasters.

Impacts of household loan regulation on financial stability: evidence from Korea

The paper examines whether banking regulations and monetary policy contributed to controlling the fragility of household debt in Korea. The results show that housing loan regulations such as debt to income regulation contributed to a lower household debt delinquency ratio. Lowering the target interest rate provided additional stabilisation of the delinquency ratio. It is recommended that the government adopt an appropriate mix of regulation and monetary policy to control household financial fragility. The financial supervisory services need to be involved in managing debt to income regulation and minimising financial instability and financial market distortions. Further, the monetary authority has to adopt a more effective position in controlling the real lending interest rate and the delinquency ratio of household loans. Such a policy mix will improve effectiveness in controlling financial fragility, especially at a time of financial crisis.

The interest rate effects of government bond purchases away from the lower bound

I analyze the recent experience of unconventional monetary policy in Sweden to study the interest rate transmission mechanisms of government bond purchases when interest rates are away from the lower bound. Using dynamic term structure models and event study regressions I find that government bond purchases have important portfolio balance and signaling effects. The signaling channel operates mainly by lowering short-rate expectations in the intermediate segment of the yield curve, while the portfolio balance channel is effective in lowering longer maturity term premia. In addition, I find that target interest rate policy and government bond purchases operate in different segments of the yield curve. This suggests that a combination of the two policies can be used to lower interest rates across the whole maturity spectrum, making monetary policy more expansionary.

Rethinking monetary theory in light of Keynes and the crisis

The purpose of the present paper is to examine the main changes that have occurred or that need to occur in monetary economics, and to do this in light of what Keynes told us 80 years ago in his General Theory, or even more than 85 years ago when he wrote the Treatise on Money. Inflation targeting and central bank independence are re-examined, as are the standard views of the money multiplier and of the fractional-reserve system. Unconventional monetary policies, although previously suggested by Keynes, appear to be a disguised return to Monetarism and the actual impact of quantitative easing must be understood in light of a theory of endogenous money with monetary implementation occurring within a framework where the target interest rate is set at the floor of the corridor.

Stepping on a Rake: Replication and Diagnosis

This paper replicates Sims (2011) “stepping on a rake” model. It derives the model, shows how to solve it, offers some extensions, and boils the paper down to its central ingredient. Sims’ article is important: it is a simple modern economic model that produces a temporary decline in inflation when the central bank persistently raises interest rates. Inflation then rises. The model’s essential feature is long term debt. When interest rates increase, the nominal market value of long-term government debt falls. If fiscal surpluses are unchanged, the price level must fall so that the real value of government debt matches the unchanged real present value of surpluses. The model offers a unified treatment of interest rate targets, quantitative easing and forward guidance that works even in a frictionless setup.

Assessing the effects of unconventional monetary policy and low interest rates on pension fund risk incentives

This study quantifies the effects of persistently low interest rates near to the zero lower bound and unconventional monetary policy on pension fund risk incentives in the United States. Using two structural vector autoregressive (VAR) models and a counterfactual scenario analysis, the results show that monetary policy shocks, as identified by changes in Treasury yields following changes in the central bank's target interest rates, lead to a substantial increase in pension funds’ allocation to equity assets. Notably, the shift from bonds to equity securities is greater during the period where the US Federal Reserve launched unconventional monetary policy measures. Additional findings show a positive correlation between pension fund risk-taking, low interest rates and the decline in Treasury yields across both well-funded and underfunded public pension plans, which is thus consistent with a structural risk-shifting incentive.

Reasserting Monetary Policy: Sumner’s Nominal GDP Targeting and Beyond

Sumner’s (2016) article in Foreign Affairs reasserts the potential of monetary policy to influence economic conditions – following years of suboptimal growth in the US and elsewhere and an unraveling of consensus about central bank practice. This review provides theoretical and economic history context. From the 1960s onward, consideration of money quantity variables was prominent in monetary policy discussion. By the 1990s, central bankers had transferred focus to interest rate or inflation targeting, and sometimes to a combination of the two. Central bankers have proved effective at meeting, or approaching, inflation objectives – and doing so helps to stabilize market expectations for what the future price level will be. Sumner argues that if central bankers can stabilize inflation expectations, then they could also meet nominal GDP (NGDP) targets – and thereby stabilize expectations regarding future growth, unemployment, and interest rates. Also, NGDP targeting is counter-cyclical in its essence. The depth and length of the Great Recession were largely a result of contractionary monetary conditions from the third quarter of 2008 onward. But financial crises, including in that of 2007-2008 in the US, can trigger or contribute to downturns. NGDP trends are not a good predictor of such crises, which often have origins in compromised capital structure. A further limitation is that NGDP targeting emphasizes internal balance (domestic prices and employment) almost to the exclusion of external stability as an aim of monetary policy. Even if the primary goal remains internal balance, data from foreign exchange markets and from non-domestic price changes provide important information about the stance of monetary policy.

The Fed’s Yield-Curve-Control Policy

The recent global financial crisis left governments in many advanced countries with very heavy debt burdens and their central banks with huge portfolios of government bonds. With many central banks today still facing policy rates that are uncomfortably close to zero, some may follow the example of Japan, which recently added a new long-term interest-rate target to its short-term target to give itself "yield-curve control." The Federal Reserve's foray into similar territory around the Second World War suggests that combining yield-curve control with quantitative easing when government borrowing needs are substantial can create constraints on monetary policy that are not easily removed.

FAKTOR-FAKTOR YANG MEMPENGARUHI INFLASI DI INDONESIA

This study aims to analyze the effect of interest rate, money supply,exchange rate and inflation targeting framework policy on inflation in Indonesia.The type of this research are descriptive and associative using time series data fromthe first quarter of 1997 until the fourth quarter of 2015 with documentation datacollected technique. Data were analyzed with multiple linear regression model, theprerequisite test (multicolinearity, autocorrelation and heteroscedasticity), t test, andF test. The result shows that (1) Interest Rates has positive and significant effect oninflation in Indonesia. (2) Money Supply has positive and not significant effect oninflation in Indonesia. (3) Exchange rate has negative and not significant effect oninflation in Indonesia. (4) Inflation Targeting Framewrok Policy has positive andsignificant effect on inflation in Indonesia.