US Monetary Policy Shocks Research Articles

Set-Identified Structural Vector Autoregressions and the Effects of a 100 Basis Point Monetary Policy Shock

Abstract I estimate impulse responses to a 100 basis point US monetary policy shock using setidentified structural vector autoregressions. Identified sets for these responses may be unbounded when the identifying restrictions admit zero impact response of the federal funds rate following a standard-deviation shock. Such a zero response is always admissible when there are fewer sign and zero restrictions than endogenous variables. This is the case under existing restrictions on the systematic component of monetary policy, which consequently yield uninformative identified sets. Additional sign and narrative restrictions yield informative identified sets and imply smaller output responses than some previous estimates.

Monetary policy spillovers between the US and African Central Banks: A time- and frequency-varying connectedness study

This study investigates time and frequency connectedness between monetary policy in the US and 7 African countries to determine the extent to which US monetary policy influences policy conduct amongst African Central Banks. We use a time-varying parameter vector autoregressive (TVP-VAR) framework with frequencies to extract the spectral representation of the forecast error variance decompositions of the TVP-VAR and form 3 bands of frequency strata corresponding to long-run, medium-run and short-run. The results of the study are as follows: firstly, the static analysis shows that the US is the dominant transmitter of systemic shocks across all frequencies and the vulnerability of African countries as recipients of these shocks varies across frequency bands. Secondly, the dynamic analysis further reveals stronger short- and medium-run systemic connectedness during the periods of the Large Scale Asset Purchase programme and forward guidance policies whereas long-run connectedness is prominent during periods of US conventional monetary policy particularly in the COVID-19 era. The findings from the country-by-country dynamic spillover specifically show that countries which are more (less) responsive to US monetary policy shocks have lower (higher) inflation rates averages since the start of the pandemic. The findings suggest that African Central Banks can be benefit from higher coordination with the US Federal Reserve and we further propose that Central Banks worldwide in setting similar inflation targets.

Global Spillovers from Fed Hikes and a Strong Dollar: The Risk Channel

We study the international transmission of US monetary policy shocks and a strong US dollar. We show that monetary tightening is linked to a higher risk premium, only in emerging markets, measured by deviations from uncovered interest parity. An appreciation of the US dollar, on the other hand, does not lead to higher risk premia anywhere, even though countries' currencies depreciate vis-a-vis the dollar. Our interpretation is that monetary policy shocks are a better proxy for global financial conditions than the exchange rate movements that may be capturing more fundamental shocks.

Debt vulnerabilities and house price responses to external shocks

This paper investigates whether the responses of house prices to external shocks, including US monetary policy and global geopolitical risk shocks vary, depending on country-specific vulnerabilities. We find that the responses of emerging market economies’ housing prices to both US monetary policy shocks and geopolitical risk shocks are higher in magnitude and duration than those of advanced economies. We also demonstrate that emerging market economies’ housing price responses to both shocks are much more robust in more vulnerable economies. In contrast, advanced economies’ responses are relatively less affected by debt level.

Spillovers from US monetary policy: Role of policy drivers and cyclical conditions

We provide new evidence on the spillover effects from US monetary policy for a large group of emerging market and advanced economies, focusing on the nature of the shocks driving movements in US interest rates. With an SVAR-IV model used to identify monetary policy, demand, and supply shocks, we find that an increase in US interest rates driven by demand shocks engenders a positive spillover to economic activity in the near-term, while an exogenous tightening of monetary policy has a large negative spillover effect, highlighting the importance of the trade channel. Furthermore, spillovers from US monetary policy shocks depend on the state of the business cycle, exerting larger effects when growth is weak outside the US. Finally, tighter US monetary policy affects the left tail of the growth distribution disproportionately: the fat left tail highlights the salience of growth at risk.

Global impacts of US monetary policy uncertainty shocks

We build a new empirical model, which admits time-varying variances of local structural shocks, to estimate the global impact of an increase in the volatility of US monetary policy shocks. By allowing for rich dynamic interaction between the endogenous variables and time-varying volatility in the global setting, we find that US interest rate uncertainty not only drives local output and inflation volatility, but also causes declines in output, inflation, and the interest rate. Moreover, we document strong global impacts, making the world move in a very synchronous way. Crucially, spillback effects are found to be significant even for the US economy.

Identifying exchange rate effects and spillovers of US monetary policy shocks in the presence of time‐varying instrument relevance

SummaryWe propose a novel econometric approach to estimating time‐varying policy effects using external instruments in the presence of time‐varying instrument relevance in a factor‐augmented VAR model with data on the United States, Canada, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom. We find that US monetary policy shocks are an important driver of the exchange rate movements, with no delayed overshooting. We show that estimates of spillover effects of US monetary policy shocks on the inflation and real economic activity would be distorted without considering time variation in instrument relevance, and time variation in policy effects reflects primarily varying shock size, not their transmission.

A new posterior sampler for Bayesian structural vector autoregressive models

We develop an importance sampler for sign restricted Bayesian structural vector autoregressive models. The algorithm nests as a special case the sampler associated with the popular Normal inverse Wishart Uniform prior, while allowing to move beyond such prior in medium sized models. We then propose a prior on contemporaneous impulse responses that provides flexibility on the magnitude and shape of the impact responses. We illustrate the quantitative relevance of the choice of the prior in an application to US monetary policy shocks. We find that the real effects of monetary policy shocks are stronger under our proposed prior than in the Normal inverse Wishart Uniform setup.

US monetary policy and BRICS stock market bubbles

We use the multi-scale Log-Periodic Power Law Singularity (LPPLS) confidence indicator approach to detect both positive and negative bubbles at short-, medium- and long-run for the stock markets of the BRICS countries. Then, we utilize impulse responses obtained from the local projection method (LPM) framework to capture the effect of US monetary policy shocks on the BRICS bloc equity market. The effect of these shocks on the bubble indicators for each country is limited, with a strong positive impact observed under the medium-term negative bubble indicator of Brazil, China and South Africa. Given the findings, associated policy implications are discussed.

What goes around comes around: How large are spillbacks from US monetary policy?

Spillovers from US monetary policy entail spillbacks to the domestic economy. Applying counterfactual analyses in a Bayesian proxy structural vector-autoregressive model we find that spillbacks account for a non-trivial share of the slowdown in domestic real activity following a contractionary US monetary policy shock. Spillbacks materialise as a monetary policy tightening depresses foreign sales and valuations of US firms so that Tobin’s q/cash flow and stock market wealth effects impinge on investment and consumption. Net trade does not contribute to spillbacks because US monetary policy affects exports and imports similarly. Geographically, spillbacks materialise through advanced rather than emerging market economies.

Monetary policy shocks and Bitcoin prices

This paper investigates the impact of US monetary policy shocks on Bitcoin prices. On the day of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, a hypothetical unexpected monetary tightening by 1 basis point of two-year Treasury yield is associated with a 0.25% drop in the price of Bitcoin, comparable in magnitude to the effect on the gold price. The cumulative effect is much stronger in the next few days following the FOMC meeting. Impulse response analysis shows that this effect is very persistent. According to quantile regression, monetary policy surprises have a greater impact on Bitcoin prices during a market boom.

Practical Applications of Financial Globalization and Its Implications for Diversification and Portfolio Risk

In <b><i>Financial Globalization and Its Implications for Diversification and Portfolio Risk</i></b>, from the October 2021 issue of <b><i>The Journal of Investing</i></b>, authors <b>Ramu Thiagarajan</b>, <b>Jiho Han</b>, <b>Aaron Hurd</b>, <b>Hanbin Im</b>, and <b>Gaurav Mallik</b> (all of <b>State Street Global Advisors</b>) explore why global stock investing has become less effective as a diversification strategy. From the 1980s until 2008, international markets became steadily more interconnected through trade and financial exchange. But starting in 2008, the global financial crisis, trade wars, and the COVID pandemic have caused a slowdown in international trade that some call “deglobalization.” However, financial globalization has continued to increase, due to increased worldwide use of the US dollar in transactions. The authors focus on how increasing financial globalization impacts foreign stock markets and find that US monetary policy shocks (such as unexpected US interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve) that cause US stocks to drop also cause foreign stocks to drop. They assert that financial globalization causes greater interconnectedness among financial markets in different countries, resulting in higher correlation of stock price movements across national boundaries. The upshot is that portfolios containing a mix of US and foreign stocks are becoming less diversified. The authors therefore suggest that investors explore diversification through alternative investments like commodities and currencies.

Financial Globalization and Its Implications for Diversification of Portfolio Risk

Trade disputes and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global supply chains have drawn much attention to the notion of “deglobalization.” The common concern is that the steady trend of globalization and its many benefits may reverse. But the globalization trend is not a monolith. In this article, we show that although <i>trade</i> globalization has stalled since the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), <i>financial</i> globalization has continued to increase. We further show that financial globalization has a much more significant impact on portfolios than trade globalization. The primary mechanism of this impact, US dollar hegemony, impacts portfolios primarily through increased spillover of US monetary policy shocks. The two implications for investors are: (1) global equity markets have become increasingly correlated and are likely to stay that way, and (2) this increased correlation reduces the benefits of portfolio diversification and leads to a more concentrated exposure to US monetary policy shocks. <b>Key Findings</b> ▪ Financial globalization has increased steadily even as trade globalization has stalled over the past decade. ▪ Increased financial globalization amplified by increased US Dollar hegemony raises the correlation of global equity markets, reduces efficacy of geographic diversification, and concentrates exposure to US monetary policy shocks. ▪ Therefore, investors must step beyond the simple equity/fixed income paradigm to consider other opportunities to diversify equity risk such as commodities, currencies, alternatives, or low volatility strategies.

The global financial cycle: Notion, empirical evidence and policy implications

The article deals with the notion of the global financial cycle proposed by H. Rey and her co-authors. The driving forces of the global financial cycle are discussed along with the findings of the empirical papers testing this concept. It is shown that recognizing US monetary policy shocks as a major driver of the global financial cycle does not undermine the validity of the well-known “trilemma”: using the floating exchange rate regime still partly cushions developing and emerging market economies from external shocks. Its effect can be reinforced if macroprudential policy measures or partial restrictions on capital mobility are also applied. The review concludes by discussing possible extensions to the concept of global financial cycle.

The Global Financial Cycle and US monetary policy in an interconnected world

We assess the international spillovers of US monetary policy with a large-scale global VAR which models the world economy as a network of interdependent countries. An expansionary US monetary policy shock contributes to the emergence of a Global Financial Cycle, which boosts macroeconomic activity worldwide. We also find that economies with floating exchange rate regimes are not fully insulated from US monetary policy shocks and, even though they appear to be relatively less affected by the shocks, the differences in responses across exchange rate regimes are not statistically significant. The role of US monetary policy in driving these macro-financial spillovers gets even reinforced by the complex network of interactions across countries, to the extent that network effects roughly double the direct impacts of US monetary policy surprises on international equity prices, capital flows, and global growth. This amplification increases as countries get more globally integrated over time, suggesting that the evolving network is an important driver for the increasing role of US monetary policy in shaping the Global Financial Cycle.

The puzzling change in the international transmission of U.S. macroeconomic policy shocks

We demonstrate a dramatic change over time in the international transmission of US monetary policy shocks. International spillovers from US interest rate policy have had a different nature since the 1990s than they did in post-Bretton Woods period. Our analysis is based on a panel of 21 high income and emerging market economies. Prior to the 1990s, the US dollar appreciated, and ex-US industrial production declined, in response to increases in the US Federal Funds Rate, as predicted by textbook open economy models. The past decades have seen a shift, whereby increases in US interest rates depreciate the US dollar but stimulate the rest of the world economy. Results are robust to several identification methods. We sketch a simple theory of exchange rate determination in face of interest-elastic risk aversion that rationalizes these findings.

What Goes Around Comes Around: How Large Are Spillbacks From US Monetary Policy?

We quantify spillbacks from US monetary policy based on structural scenario analysis and minimum relative entropy methods applied in a Bayesian proxy structural vector-autoregressive model for the time period from 1990 to 2019. We find that spillbacks account for up to half of the overall slowdown in domestic real activity in response to a contractionary US monetary policy shock. Moreover, spillbacks materialise as stock market wealth effects impinge on US consumption, and as Tobin's q effects impinge on US investment. In particular, a contractionary US monetary policy shock depresses global equity prices, weighing on the value of US households' portfolios; and it depresses earnings of US firms through declines in foreign sales inducing them to cut back investment. Net trade does not contribute to spillbacks because US monetary policy shocks affect exports and imports similarly. Finally, spillbacks materialise through advanced rather than through emerging market economies, consistent with their relative importance in US foreign equity holdings and US firms' foreign demand.

The Time-Varying Effect of US Monetary Policy Shocks on Asset Prices and the Macroeconomy

The Time-Varying Effect of US Monetary Policy Shocks on Asset Prices and the Macroeconomy

Global Impacts of Us Monetary Policy Uncertainty Shocks

We build a new empirical model to estimate the global impact of an increase in the volatility of US monetary policy shocks. Specifically, we admit time-varying variances of local structural shocks from a stochastic volatility specification. By allowing for rich dynamic interaction between the endogenous variables and time-varying volatility in the global setting, we find that US interest rate uncertainty not only drives local output and inflation volatility, but also causes declines in output, inflation, and the interest rate. Moreover, we document strong global impacts, making the world move in a very synchronous way. Crucially, spillback effects are found to be significant even for the US economy. JEL Classification: C32, C54, E52, E58, F44

What Goes Around Comes Around: How Large are Spillbacks from US Monetary Policy?

We quantify spillbacks from US monetary policy based on structural scenario analysis and minimum relative entropy methods applied in a Bayesian proxy structural vector-autoregressive model estimated on data for the time period from 1990 to 2019. We find that spillbacks account for a non-trivial share of the overall slowdown in domestic real activity in response to a contractionary US monetary policy shock. Our analysis suggests that spillbacks materialise as Tobin’s q/cash flow and stock market wealth effects impinge on US investment and consumption. Contractionary US monetary policy depresses foreign sales of US firms, which reduces their valuations/cash flows and thereby induces cutbacks in investment. Similarly, as contractionary US monetary policy depresses US and foreign equity prices, the value of US households’ portfolios is reduced, which triggers a drop in consumption. Net trade does not contribute to spillbacks because US monetary policy affects exports and imports similarly. Finally, spillbacks materialise through advanced rather than emerging market economies, consistent with their relative importance in US firms’ foreign demand and US foreign equity holdings.