Academic literature on the topic 'E Macroeconomics and monetary economics'

- Answering the round table participants, the author illustrates the project of this book and its main findings. While the book implies a focus on social policy, the contributors have brought to it their expertise not only in welfare economics but also in macroeconomic and monetary policy. This article outlines how social policy relates to these economic issues, and adopts an international political economy approach both in explaining hierarchies among countries, and in calling into question the "efficiency/equality trade off" as a useful instrument in comparing the economic performance of Europe and the US. Finally, the article discusses the issue of a possible convergence between the social models of Europe towards those of the best performing countries.EconLit Classification: D600, E120, F300, F400, F500Keywords: Welfare Economic, Growth, Globalization, Open Economy Macroeconomics, European Monetary UnionParole chiave: Welfare state, Crescita, Globalizzazione, Macroeconomia delle economie aperte, Unione monetaria europea

Macroeconomics is the basis of monetary policy analysis in most researches. At the same time a new cross disciplinary approach has emerged - at the crossroad of macroeconomics and behavioral economics. Alternative theories describe the impact of personnel independence of monetary authorities, career incentives, staff properties and the gender diversity of central bank governors on monetary policy results. They shed the light on personnel policy characteristics and the staff profile in a central bank.

This paper examines the implementation of monetary policy during the interest rates targeting in a small-open economy (i.e. Malaysia) by using an open-economy structural VAR (SVAR) study. It tests the effect of foreign shocks upon domestic macroeconomic fluctuations and monetary policy, and examines how effective monetary policy is in influencing macroeconomic variables. The results show that during interest rates targeting, monetary policy plays a significant role in affecting macroeconomics variables. This finding suggests that monetary policy has an important role as a stabilization policy in a small-open economy.

Recent developments in macroeconomics and macroeconomic policy, what has come to be known as ?New Consensus in Macroeconomics?, downgrades the role of fiscal policy and upgrades that of monetary policy. This contribution aims to consider this particular contention by focusing on fiscal policy. We consider fiscal policy within the current ?new consensus? theoretical framework, which views fiscal policy as ineffective, and argue that it deserves a great deal more attention paid to it than it has been recently. We review and appraise recent and not so recent theoretical and empirical developments on the fiscal policy front. The possibility of fiscal and monetary policy coordination is proposed and discussed to conclude that it deserves a great deal more attention and careful consideration than it has been given to in the past. Our overall conclusion is that discretionary application of fiscal and monetary policy in a coordinated and focused manner as a tool of macroeconomic policy deserves serious attention paid to it than hitherto.

This paper is a critical review of and a reader's guide to a collection of papers by Robert E. Lucas, Jr. about fruitful ways of using general equilibrium theories to understand measured economic aggregates. These beautifully written and wisely argued papers integrated macroeconomics, microeconomics, finance, and econometrics in ways that restructured big parts of macroeconomic research. (JEL A31, E00, E13, E50)

The Strategic Market Game (SMG) is the general equilibrium mechanism of strategic reallocation of resources. It was suggested by Shapley and Shubik in a series of papers in the 70s and it is one of the fundamentals of contemporary monetary macroeconomics with endogenous demand for money. This survey highlights features of the SMG and some of the most important current applications of SMGs, especially for monetary macroeconomic analysis.

We append a retail trade sector to the industrial sector of an economy. The macroeconomic model is a variant of the circuit approach to monetary macroeconomics. The conclusion is that an increase in the size of the ‘unproductive’ sector, employment in the ‘productive’ sector remaining constant, leads to a rise in the price level and interest rates.

This paper discusses empirical approaches macroeconomists use to answer questions like: What does monetary policy do? How large are the effects of fiscal stimulus? What caused the Great Recession? Why do some countries grow faster than others? Identification of causal effects plays two roles in this process. In certain cases, progress can be made using the direct approach of identifying plausibly exogenous variation in a policy and using this variation to assess the effect of the policy. However, external validity concerns limit what can be learned in this way. Carefully identified causal effects estimates can also be used as moments in a structural moment matching exercise. We use the term “identified moments” as a short-hand for “estimates of responses to identified structural shocks,” or what applied microeconomists would call “causal effects.” We argue that such identified moments are often powerful diagnostic tools for distinguishing between important classes of models (and thereby learning about the effects of policy). To illustrate these notions we discuss the growing use of cross-sectional evidence in macroeconomics and consider what the best existing evidence is on the effects of monetary policy.

Most macroeconomic models for monetary policy analysis are approximated around a zero inflation steady state, but most central banks target an inflation rate of about 2 percent. Many economists have recently proposed even higher inflation targets to reduce the incidence of the zero lower bound constraint on monetary policy. In this survey, we show that the conduct of monetary policy should be analyzed by appropriately accounting for the positive trend inflation targeted by policymakers. We first review empirical research on the evolution and dynamics of U.S. trend inflation and some proposed new measures to assess the volatility and persistence of trend-based inflation gaps. We then construct a Generalized New Keynesian model that accounts for a positive trend inflation. In this model, an increase in trend inflation is associated with a more volatile and unstable economy and tends to destabilize inflation expectations. This analysis offers a note of caution regarding recent proposals to address the existing zero lower bound problem by raising the long-run inflation target. (JEL E12, E31, E32, E52, E58)

Chapter 1.—This chapter addresses model specification uncertainty using the Bayesian Generalized Method of Moments (GMM). Employing Canadian data, I estimate 64 hybrid New Keynesian models which differ in their lag specification, and use a modified GMM quadratic function to produce model posteriors. I compute optimal discretionary policies for each model and then derive a posterior-weighted policy and loss. My results show that i) policy should respond more to the output gap than inflation, ii) a more aggressive policy is prescribed for the period of stagflation in the 1970s and early 1980s and iii) a relatively light-touch policy is recommended during the Great Moderation, and produces better outcomes. This last result supports the hypothesis of ‘good luck’ over ‘good policy’. Chapter 2.—In this chapter I develop an inverse control procedure to recover the under- lying preferences of a monetary authority engaged in discretionary policymaking. I adjoin the first-order condition (FOC) of the optimal interest rate rule-setting derived under discretion to the usual least squares moment conditions during the GMM procedure. Using Monte Carlo simulations, I show that the preferences on output gap stabilization and interest rate smoothing may be recovered. Robustness reveals that recovering the preference on the output gap is dependent upon policy actions having sufficient effect on the macroeconomy. Further testing indicates that the procedure functions for alternative starting values, may be adapted to different lag specifications of the underlying model, and is able to recover different sets of policy preferences. Chapter 3.—This chapter tests the hypothesis that the monetary authorities of Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom have exhibited similar preferences over stabilizing the output gap and smoothing the interest rate, by way of an inverse control algorithm (FOC- based GMM) for a discretionary policymaker. For the sample period covering 1968:1-2006:4, the FOC-based provides comparable structural estimates to a benchmark specification using an instrument-based GMM. The data suggest no role for output stabilization in any country, but a large and significant concern for interest rate smoothing is observed in Canada. Measures of fit reject optimality in the United States for baseline specification sample, but do not preclude it in any country when sample periods are restricted to the current man- dates. Policymakers’ reaction functions are shown to be sensitive to the underlying policy preferences, though decreasingly so at high levels of interest rate smoothing. Robustness is seen with respect to starting values and fixed policy coefficients.

This thesis consists of three essays in monetary economics and international macroeconomics.
Chapter one uses Canadian data to evaluate the performance of money growth targeting and inflation targeting policy rules, especially when they react to asset price changes. There are three important findings. First, estimates of the policy rules consistent with both regimes provide evidence that the Bank of Canada has systematically reacted to stock price bubbles and exchange rate changes. Second, a counterfactual experiment reveals that, the high inflation of the 1970s and early 1980s could have been avoided if the Bank of Canada had responded more strongly to inflation and growth in aggregate demand. Third, simulation experiments yielded two important results: For both the money growth targeting and inflation targeting policy rules, it is always desirable to react to changes in exchange rates and stock price bubbles: Contrary to established findings, the results indicate that the money growth targeting policy rules are more efficient than the inflation targeting policy rules.
Chapter two uses data on Ghana to test the validity of the intertemporal model of current account that allows for external shocks in the form of variable interest rates and exchange rates, and the existence of capital controls. We find that, irrespective of the degree of capital control, the basic model fails to predict the dynamics of the actual current account. However, we find that extending the model to capture variations in interest rates and exchange rates better explains the path of the actual current account balances only during the liberalized regime. When the model was adjusted to allow for credit constraints, there was some support for the proposition that the presence of capital controls prevented economic agents in Ghana to smooth their consumption path during the control regime.
Chapter three investigates the effect of trading block on Tanzania's bilateral trade. Using a fixed effects estimation technique, the results revealed that the East African Community (EAC) and the European Union (EU) have had significant positive effects on Tanzania's bilateral trade. We also find that there is a significant intra-trade relationship between Tanzania and its major trading partners in the manufacturing sector.

This thesis consists three chapters on topics in monetary economics and applied macroeconomics. In the first chapter, I consider a framework where the central bank has private information about future economic conditions. Agents update their beliefs according to Bayes’ theorem. Policy actions play a signaling role, and may therefore have an impact on both short and long-term interest rates. I discuss the implications of information frictions for the design of optimal simple rule. In the second chapter, I explore the role of market power for the optimal choice of infla-tion index for a central bank to stabilize In a framework with cross-sector heterogeneities in both nominal rigidity and market power. The optimal weight attached to inflation in a sector is increasing in this sector’s: i)price stickiness (stickiness channel) and ii) degree of market competition (competition channel). Moreover, if firms in a more competitive sector adjust their price more frequently as predicted by costly price adjustment models, the competition channel offsets the stickiness channel. In the third chapter, I show that for short horizon exchange rate predictability, the simple random walk model outperforms professional forecasts. A new puzzle arises: why do professional forecasters not adopt the simple random walk model to provide a more accurate estimate? I provide an explanation based on ambiguity averse forecasters.
Aquesta tesi està compresa per tres capítols que tracten temes en economia monetària i macroeconomia aplicada. En el primer capítol considero un marc teòric en el qual el banc central té informació privada respecte les condicions econòmiques futures. Els agents econòmics actualitzen les seves creences en base al teorema de Bayes. Les accions del banc tenen un paper senyalador, i poden tenir un impacte en els tipus d’interès a curt i llarg termini. En aquest marc, discuteixo el paper de les friccions de la informació a l’hora de dissenyar una regla monetària simple. En el segon capitol exploro el paper del poder de mercat en l’elecció òptima de l’índex de preus a ser estabilitzat. En aquest cas considero un marc teòric en el qual les rigideses nominals i el poder de mercat difereixen entre sectors. El pes òptim assignat a la inflació d’un sector és creixent en la rigidesa dels preus (efecte rigidesa) i en el nivell de competició (efecte competició) d’aquest sector. Si les empreses en un sector competitiu ajusten els preus més freqüentment, tal com prediuen els models que consideren un ajust de preus costós, l’efecte competició contrarestarà` l’efecte rigidesa. Finalment, en el tercer capítol , demostro que per a predir els tipus de canvi a curt termini, un simple model random walk supera les prediccions professionals. D’aquesta observació sorgeix una nova incògnita: per què els professionals no adopten un model random walk per oferir unes prediccions mées encertades? En aquest capítol mostro com tal incògnita es pot explicar en base a l’aversió a l’ambigïitat dels professionals.

Thesis advisor: Susanto Basu
Thesis advisor: Ryan Chahrour
This dissertation consists of three independent chapters analyzing the sources of business cycles and the role of monetary policy. Taking both closed- and open-economy perspectives, I study the importance of expectations for the empirical identification of economic and policy shocks, the nature of business cycle fluctuations, and the optimal conduct of monetary policy. The first chapter is titled ``International Spillovers and the Exchange Rate Channel of Monetary Policy,'' and is joint work with Vito Cormun. Motivated by the observation that exchange rate fluctuations largely influence small open economies, we propose a novel approach to separately identify the effects of domestic and external shocks on exchange rates and other macroeconomic variables, thereby uncovering a set of new empirical findings. A first finding is that external shocks account for most of exchange rate fluctuations. Relatedly, the bulk of external shocks is strongly correlated with measures of global risk aversion and uncertainty (e.g. the VIX), and a country’s net foreign asset position largely explains the exposure of its exchange rate to external disturbances. A second finding is that domestic and external disturbances generate very different comovement patterns between interest rates and exchange rates. In particular, unlike domestic shocks, external shocks are associated with large and significant deviations from uncovered interest parity. As a result, an econometrician that fails to properly distinguish between sources of exchange rate fluctuations is bound to obtain puzzling estimates of the exchange rate effects of domestic monetary policy shocks. These empirical findings have profound implications for models of small open economy and exchange rate determination. In particular, they favor theories in which exchange rates are jointly determined by the risk-bearing capacity in financial markets as well as the extent of a country’s financial imbalances. For this reason, we develop a model of the international financial sector that satisfies these features, and embed it in an otherwise standard general equilibrium two-country small open economy model. The key mechanism of the model consists of risk averse traders in the foreign exchange markets that require a premium to hold the currency risk of the small open economy. We show that the proposed model is able to reproduce all the empirical findings documented in the empirical analysis, including the cross-country differences in exposure to external shocks, the role of a country’s net foreign asset position, the different responses of interest rates, exchange rates, and currency excess returns across different shocks, as well as the emergence and resolution of the so-called exchange rate response puzzle across different identification approaches. The second chapter is titled ``Should Central Banks Target Investment Prices?'' and is joint work with Susanto Basu. The question posed in the title is motivated by the observation that central banks nearly always state explicit or implicit inflation targets in terms of consumer price inflation. To address the question, we develop an otherwise standard dynamic general equilibrium model with two production sectors. One sector produces consumption goods, while the other produces investment goods. In this context, we show that if there are nominal rigidities in the pricing of both consumption and investment goods and if the shocks to the two sectors are not identical, then monetary policy faces a tradeoff between targeting consumption price inflation and investment price inflation. In a model calibrated to replicate the estimated processes of sectoral total factor productivities as well as a set of unconditional business cycle moments, ignoring investment prices typically leads to substantial welfare losses because the intertemporal elasticity of substitution in investment is much higher than in consumption. Based on the model's predictions, we argue that a shift in monetary policy to targeting a weighted average of consumer and investment price inflation may produce significant welfare gains, although this would constitute a major change in current central banking practice. The third chapter is titled ``Information Acquisition and Self-Fulfilling Business Cycles,'' and is sole-authored work. To study the implications of imperfect information on economic fluctuations, I develop an otherwise standard Real Business Cycle model with endogenous information acquisition, which generates countecyclical firm-level uncertainty and endogenously procyclical productivity, as empirically documented in the literature. The main contribution of this chapter is the observation that this model displays aggregate increasing returns to scale and, potentially, an indeterminate dynamic equilibrium. In fact, an aggregate representation of the model is observationally equivalent to earlier theories of endogenous fluctuations based on increasing returns to scale, but its microeconomic foundations are consistent with empirically observed firm-level returns to scale. In a model calibrated to replicate a set of moments of the empirical distribution of firm-level productivity, self-fulfilling fluctuations are possible. In addition, a Bayesian estimation of the model suggests that non-fundamental shocks explain a significant fraction of aggregate fluctuations
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2019
Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: Economics

This dissertation investigates whether criticisms of standard economic models can be addressed with only minimal modifications to the assumptions. In the first essay, the Real Business Cycle (RBC) model is studied, though it is well known that it cannot match the data on money. My solution is to retain the RBC framework but add money as a sunspot variable. This leaves all the main elements of the RBC model intact and successfully replicates many features of the monetary data. The second essay examines rational choice, the foundation of economics. Laboratory experiments have exposed small violations of the theory. I introduce preference discovery costs as a way to accommodate minor violations of revealed preference while retaining rationality and optimization. An experiment tested my idea. For several subjects, my model explained their behavior while standard theory could not. However, there were many other subjects whose behavior was incompatible with both theories. The last essay is about the equity premium puzzle. The standard framework in macroeconomics predicts that the equity premium will be quite small, but this prediction is off by an order of magnitude. However, I demonstrate that the problem can be resolved if there is no market for insurance against idiosyncratic income shocks. Though it is very realistic to relax the complete markets assumption and this suffices to solve the puzzle, it is debatable if this modification is truly minimal, given the prevalence of models that rely on market completeness.
10000-01-01

Esta Tese é composta por dois ensaios sobre Política Monetária. O primeiro ensaio trata da demanda por recursos intradiários e over. Com base no comportamento intradiário, são realizadas simulações para estimar a distribuição do saldo em reservas bancárias ao final do dia. A hipótese principal é de que o saldo em reservas ao longo do dia é um Processo de Levy composto por três componentes: um movimento browniano, um processo de Poisson composto com intensidade negativa e outro com intensidade positiva. Para determinar os parâmetros das simulações foram consideradas as situações em que processo é apenas um movimento browniano, ou apenas um processo de Poisson composto, ou ambos. Os parâmetros foram estimados pelos métodos convencionais e pelo modelo Tweedie, sendo feitas algumas ressalvas com relação às correlações entre defasagens. Além dos procedimentos de simulação tradicionais, foi utilizado o Bootstrap e sugerida uma forma alternativa. O modelo que apresentou melhor desempenho foi o que considera que o processo é um processo de Poisson composto. O segundo ensaio tem como tema a taxa natural de juros. Foram implementados três modelos e duas formas de estimá-los (Filtro de Kalman e estimação bayesiana). O modelo com melhor desempenho foi o modelo sugerido em Kirker (2008) estimado por procedimentos bayesianos. Como resultado, a taxa natural de juros está menor do que a taxa de juros real de curto prazo desde junho de 2009, o que sugere uma política monetária contracionista
This Thesis is composed of two essays on Monetary Policy. The first is about intraday and over reserve balances demand. Based on reserves intraday behavior, simulations are made to estimate reseve balances distribution at the end of the day. The main hypothesis is that reserve balaces along the day are Levy processes, with three components: a Brownian motion and two compound Poisson processes, one with negative and the other with a positive intensity. To determine simulation parameters, the process was alternatively considered a brownian motion, a compound Poisson process, or both. The parameters were estimeted by conventional methods and by the Tweedie model, when there is no autocorrelation. After these procedures of traditional simulation, a Bootstrap was used and an alternative procedure was proposed. The model with the best performance is the compound Poisson Process. The second essay is about natural interest rate. Three models are implementated and estimated by two methods (Kalman Filter e bayesian estimation). The best performance was obtained by the model based on Kirker (2008) and estimated through Kalman Filter. As a result, the natural interest rate was found to be above short run real interest rate since June 2009, sugesting expansionary Monetary Policy.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2002.
Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 161-169). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis advisor: Susanto Basu
This dissertation consists of three essays that study macroeconomic modeling and its application with a particular focus on monetary economics. In Chapter 1, I develop a New Keynesian model with heterogeneous workers whose wage settings are subject to downward nominal wage rigidity (DNWR) to address two puzzles of inflation dynamics: the missing deflation during the Great Recession and the excessive disinflation afterward. I demonstrate that DNWR introduces a time-varying wedge between the output gap and the marginal cost of producing one unit of output, which makes the observed Phillips curve flatter during recessions. Endogenous evolution of cross-sectional wage distribution generates various dimensions of non-linearities, while the presence of the zero lower bound (ZLB) of the nominal interest rate further reinforces the mechanism. Consequently, the model can quantitatively account for the inflation dynamics during and after the Great Recession under plausible parameter values that are consistent with micro evidence. In Chapter 2, I study welfare-maximizing monetary policy rule in the heterogeneous agent New Keynesian model with DNWR that is developed in Chapter 1. The optimal monetary policy rule responds strongly to output to address the inefficiency generated by DNWR, while responsiveness to inflation plays a minor role in welfare. Moreover, monetary policy can improve social welfare by responding more aggressively to a contractionary shock than to an expansionary one to offset the asymmetry stemming from DNWR. In the presence of the ZLB, on the other hand, alternative policy rules such as forward guidance and price-level targeting can partly offset the adverse effects of it by committing to a future low interest rate policy. I also investigate the optimal steady-state inflation rate. In Chapter 3, which is coauthored with Dongho Song and Jenny Tang, we propose a method of introducing theory-driven priors into the estimation of the vector autoregression (VAR). Our methodology is more flexible than existing methods in that it allows a researcher to incorporate prior beliefs on a subset of variables in theoretical models that are of key interest while remaining agnostic about other variables in the VAR. We apply to the problem of exchange rate forecasting for the British pound versus the US dollar. By imposing different combinations of priors informed by uncovered interest rate or purchasing power parity, we find that substantial gains are realized at longer forecast horizons
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2018
Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: Economics

Central banks fulfill missions like financing governments, contributing the improvement of the financial market and implement monetary policy. Because of these important functions, instruments of the central bank has become a subject of ongoing debate over the years. The Central Bank's monetary policies instruments are important in terms of achieving the set macroeconomics targets. In recent years to become a major focus of attention of the interest rate corridor instrument has led to examine the structure of the central banks. The interest rate corridor primarily, provides flexibility advantages through interest rate to the central banks. The opinion that the central banks which have a flexible structure are more successful on ensuring the price stability and implementing macro policies with evading the political effects became stronger. In this context, in this study to examine the contributions of a flexible central bank to price stability and financial stability. In this bulletin different policy instruments of central banks are compared and critically assessed various determinants of central bank flexibility. In addition, comparing of the legislation of major central banks and various interest rate corridor implementations are examined.

The world, very different from the 1929 Economic Crisis, the global economy faced a new epidemic health crisis with Covid-19 in China's Wuhan Province in December 2019.This crisis, unlike any other, still continues. The epidemic was originally detected in those found in the seafood and animal market in this region. Later, it threatens the whole world by transmitting from person to person. Countries were quick to stop the economic life with the great global lockdown in order to overcome the Health Emergency. Great uncertainty has overshadowed the future of the global economy as international financial institutions (such as the WB and IMF) are moving fast to help people and countries. Governments have been able to hold back some of the free fall of global growth with exceptional monetary and financial support to individuals and firms. This financial support reached a global level of $ 11.5 trillion as of September 2020. The purpose of our study; Covid-19 Global Crisis; Its Effects on Macroeconomics on Production, Employment, Trade and Tourism Incomes will be investigated. In addition, WHO and countries have been accelerated in search of a solution to the epidemic.

A well-established theory in macroeconomics is that governments running persistent deficits have sooner or later to finance those deficits with money creation, thus producing inflation. The fiscal view of inflation has been especially prominent in the developing country literature, which has long recognized that less efficient tax collection, political instability, and more limited access to external borrowing tend to lower the relative cost of seigniorage and increase dependence on the inflation tax. For this reason, the main factors which affecting inflation rate in developing countries are extremely important for policy makers as when the causes of inflation are correctly specified the appropriate policy change can be easily diagnosed and effectively implemented. The purpose of this study is to test the empirical relationship between inflation and the budget deficit for the Turkish economy by an autoregressive distributed lag model (ARDL) analysis for the period 1970–2010. The data is taken from Republic of Turkey Ministry of Development and World Bank’s Database. The empirical findings indicates that fiscal deficit is one of the important variables of the price level along with other variables like interest rates, exchange rate, per capita income, trade of GDP. The short-run analysis captured from error correction model (ECM). The results of the bounds test suggest that there is a long run relationship between fiscal deficit and inflation. These findings drive important inferences for implications of monetary and fiscal policies.

Adam Smith is known as the founder of economics as a social science and also of economic liberalism (or termed as capitalism after Karl Marx) based on principles of non-intervention and non-protection by the governments to perfectly competitive markets. Over time, economic theory and resulting economic regime evolved: Interventions to improve the welfare of workers; infant-industry argument for limited trade protection; and most importantly, following the 1929 Great Depression, John Maynard Keynes and his macroeconomic system giving rise to less-than-full- employment equilibrium, hence the need for macro-economic level state interventions by means of monetary and fiscal policies. Evidently, liberal economic regime was modified but remained in essence; hence, it proved to be flexible and resilient. On the other hand, Marxist socialism, the doctrinaire challenge to capitalism, had virtually collapsed in the 1990's. The move of even the developing countries towards outward orientation and market economy at the national level is in line with Adam Smith's views; so is the establishment of the European Union and the like at the regional level, as well as the more recent move towards globalisation.

In this article, we will cover the main anti-Keynesian views and macroeconomic systems that arose in the post Keynes period as well as their fiscal and monetary policy guidelines. As is known, the early Classical economists introduced a macroeconomic system based on the Quantity Theory and Say’s Law resulting in automatic full-employment equilibrium; and finally after 1929-1934 Great World Depression, the Keynesian System was introduced as a “revolution” (Keynesian Revolution) in theory and practice. As a result of the Keynesian policies implemented, European countries and the United States not only got over the Great World Depression but also in the years following the World War II, they have observed a fast and stable growth for a long time. Moreover, cyclical fluctuations have been controlled to a great extent. Even so, at the stage when the Keynesian System was introduced, anti-Keynesian views and macroeconomic systems were immediately introduced. Intense academic discussions between advocates of these views and the Keynesian economists have continued up until today. Meanwhile, many economists such as J.R. Hicks, R.F. Harrod, N. Kaldor, M. Kalesci, A.W. Philips, A. Hansen, P.A. Samuelson, E. Domar, J. Tobin, R. Solow, A.M. Okun, W. Helier, G. Ackler, F. Modigliani, and R. Musgrave and many others have developed and defended the Keynesian System from different aspects. We can characterize significant anti-Keynesian views and macroeconomic systems as the “Counter-Revolution”.

COVID-19 has shut down the real economy since its outbreak by assaulting the society and its system, which was affected directly or indirectly, including the significant decrease of demand, huge shock of supplies, highly nervous and volatile of the financial market and the overall deterioration of the economic index. With the spread of the epidemic around the world, major economies have continuously introduced extraordinary economic policies to respond. This paper attempts to systematically sort out and analyze the characteristics and development of the epidemic, its impact mechanism, transmission path and actual impact on the global economy, as well as the response models, main goals and measures of macroeconomic policies of EU and China. It compares the macroeconomic policies by China and EU fighting against the COVID-19 and promoting the economy horizontally and vertically.

As a result of recent changes in traditional risk perception accompanying industrialization and technology, global economic risks are increasingly based on the climate. While risks are considered using a two-dimensional approach in traditional risk perception, risk structures occur in a chain under globalization. In the concept of sustainability, environmental degradation and economic growth establish the link between environmental degradation and other macroeconomic variables. Monetary transmission channels—including the interest, exchange rate, asset price, credit, and expectation channels—impact the real economy and productivity by enabling capital accumulation, the orientation of small funds, and technological diffusion. In this context, the evaluation of the efficiency of monetary transmission channels and environmental degradation policy recommendations need to be addressed, especially, within the industrial sector. Although the cointegration approach is based on the fact that linear combinations of non-stationary series are stationary, cointegration analyses in which structural breaks are defined as dummy variables should be performed since the linear combination may change at a certain point in the sample. This study aims to reveal the effect of industrial production index and energy consumption on greenhouse gas emissions using a structural break approach with cointegration methods. Policy suggestions within the scope of sustainability are evaluated considering the long-term structural results among the variables.

Bank Indonesia has been implementing Enhanced Inflation Targeting Framework (EITF) since few years ago. The main monetary instrument is short term policy interest rate. The policy interest rate, in this regard, may also have significant role in driving the exchange rate to its desired level. Setting appropriate the interest rate to drive the exchange rate is important to drive the actual inflation to its official target. In order to see the response of policy interest rate to exchange rate dynamics as well as the impact of exchange-rate dynamics to macroeconomic indicators, Structural Co-integrating Vector Auto Regression (SC-VAR) in an open economy model, is implemented. Its finding shows that exchange rate dynamic of USD/IDR has significantly positive relationship with domestic interest rate. The increase of the USD/IDR (depreciation) will then push domestic interest rate to increase.

Economic growth in Latin America and the Caribbean was stronger than expected in 2021 but waned at the start of 2022. High commodity prices due to the war between Russia and Ukraine will provide a boost to exporters, while imposing significant costs on commodity importers and pushing up inflation across countries. The ongoing conflict, together with policy normalization in advanced economies, carries significant risks for the region. Volatility in financial markets could depress investment and bring down growth further. Policymakers need to take urgent measures to boost inclusive growth. As minor fixes are unlikely to result in notable benefits, governments should consider more fundamental resets of policy frameworks. This report analyzes growth prospects, monetary policy, and external and financial sectors. The recommendations stress the need for a new architecture for both fiscal and labor market policies. Policymakers should seize the window of opportunity provided by the COVID-19 crisis and global security concerns to improve the outlook for the region.

This paper discusses the role of sterilized foreign exchange (FX) interventions as a monetary policy instrument for emerging market economies in response to external shocks. We develop a model for a commodity-exporting small open economy in which FX intervention is considered as a balance sheet policy induced by a financial friction in the form of an agency problem between banks and their creditors. The severity of banks agency problem depends directly on a bank-level measure of currency mismatch. Endogenous deviations from the standard UIP condition arise at equilibrium. In this context, FX interventions moderate the response of financial and macroeconomic variables to external shocks by leaning against the wind with respect to real exchange rate pressures. Our quantitative results indicate that, conditional on external shocks, the FX intervention policy successfully reduces credit, investment, and output volatility, along with substantial welfare gains when compared to a free-floating exchange rate regime. Finally, we explore distinct generalizations of the model that eliminate the presence of endogenous UIP deviations. In those cases, FX intervention operations are considerably less effective for the aggregate equilibrium.

1.1 Macroeconomic summary Economic recovery has consistently outperformed the technical staff’s expectations following a steep decline in activity in the second quarter of 2020. At the same time, total and core inflation rates have fallen and remain at low levels, suggesting that a significant element of the reactivation of Colombia’s economy has been related to recovery in potential GDP. This would support the technical staff’s diagnosis of weak aggregate demand and ample excess capacity. The most recently available data on 2020 growth suggests a contraction in economic activity of 6.8%, lower than estimates from January’s Monetary Policy Report (-7.2%). High-frequency indicators suggest that economic performance was significantly more dynamic than expected in January, despite mobility restrictions and quarantine measures. This has also come amid declines in total and core inflation, the latter of which was below January projections if controlling for certain relative price changes. This suggests that the unexpected strength of recent growth contains elements of demand, and that excess capacity, while significant, could be lower than previously estimated. Nevertheless, uncertainty over the measurement of excess capacity continues to be unusually high and marked both by variations in the way different economic sectors and spending components have been affected by the pandemic, and by uneven price behavior. The size of excess capacity, and in particular the evolution of the pandemic in forthcoming quarters, constitute substantial risks to the macroeconomic forecast presented in this report. Despite the unexpected strength of the recovery, the technical staff continues to project ample excess capacity that is expected to remain on the forecast horizon, alongside core inflation that will likely remain below the target. Domestic demand remains below 2019 levels amid unusually significant uncertainty over the size of excess capacity in the economy. High national unemployment (14.6% for February 2021) reflects a loose labor market, while observed total and core inflation continue to be below 2%. Inflationary pressures from the exchange rate are expected to continue to be low, with relatively little pass-through on inflation. This would be compatible with a negative output gap. Excess productive capacity and the expectation of core inflation below the 3% target on the forecast horizon provide a basis for an expansive monetary policy posture. The technical staff’s assessment of certain shocks and their expected effects on the economy, as well as the presence of several sources of uncertainty and related assumptions about their potential macroeconomic impacts, remain a feature of this report. The coronavirus pandemic, in particular, continues to affect the public health environment, and the reopening of Colombia’s economy remains incomplete. The technical staff’s assessment is that the COVID-19 shock has affected both aggregate demand and supply, but that the impact on demand has been deeper and more persistent. Given this persistence, the central forecast accounts for a gradual tightening of the output gap in the absence of new waves of contagion, and as vaccination campaigns progress. The central forecast continues to include an expected increase of total and core inflation rates in the second quarter of 2021, alongside the lapse of the temporary price relief measures put in place in 2020. Additional COVID-19 outbreaks (of uncertain duration and intensity) represent a significant risk factor that could affect these projections. Additionally, the forecast continues to include an upward trend in sovereign risk premiums, reflected by higher levels of public debt that in the wake of the pandemic are likely to persist on the forecast horizon, even in the context of a fiscal adjustment. At the same time, the projection accounts for the shortterm effects on private domestic demand from a fiscal adjustment along the lines of the one currently being proposed by the national government. This would be compatible with a gradual recovery of private domestic demand in 2022. The size and characteristics of the fiscal adjustment that is ultimately implemented, as well as the corresponding market response, represent another source of forecast uncertainty. Newly available information offers evidence of the potential for significant changes to the macroeconomic scenario, though without altering the general diagnosis described above. The most recent data on inflation, growth, fiscal policy, and international financial conditions suggests a more dynamic economy than previously expected. However, a third wave of the pandemic has delayed the re-opening of Colombia’s economy and brought with it a deceleration in economic activity. Detailed descriptions of these considerations and subsequent changes to the macroeconomic forecast are presented below. The expected annual decline in GDP (-0.3%) in the first quarter of 2021 appears to have been less pronounced than projected in January (-4.8%). Partial closures in January to address a second wave of COVID-19 appear to have had a less significant negative impact on the economy than previously estimated. This is reflected in figures related to mobility, energy demand, industry and retail sales, foreign trade, commercial transactions from selected banks, and the national statistics agency’s (DANE) economic tracking indicator (ISE). Output is now expected to have declined annually in the first quarter by 0.3%. Private consumption likely continued to recover, registering levels somewhat above those from the previous year, while public consumption likely increased significantly. While a recovery in investment in both housing and in other buildings and structures is expected, overall investment levels in this case likely continued to be low, and gross fixed capital formation is expected to continue to show significant annual declines. Imports likely recovered to again outpace exports, though both are expected to register significant annual declines. Economic activity that outpaced projections, an increase in oil prices and other export products, and an expected increase in public spending this year account for the upward revision to the 2021 growth forecast (from 4.6% with a range between 2% and 6% in January, to 6.0% with a range between 3% and 7% in April). As a result, the output gap is expected to be smaller and to tighten more rapidly than projected in the previous report, though it is still expected to remain in negative territory on the forecast horizon. Wide forecast intervals reflect the fact that the future evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic remains a significant source of uncertainty on these projections. The delay in the recovery of economic activity as a result of the resurgence of COVID-19 in the first quarter appears to have been less significant than projected in the January report. The central forecast scenario expects this improved performance to continue in 2021 alongside increased consumer and business confidence. Low real interest rates and an active credit supply would also support this dynamic, and the overall conditions would be expected to spur a recovery in consumption and investment. Increased growth in public spending and public works based on the national government’s spending plan (Plan Financiero del Gobierno) are other factors to consider. Additionally, an expected recovery in global demand and higher projected prices for oil and coffee would further contribute to improved external revenues and would favor investment, in particular in the oil sector. Given the above, the technical staff’s 2021 growth forecast has been revised upward from 4.6% in January (range from 2% to 6%) to 6.0% in April (range from 3% to 7%). These projections account for the potential for the third wave of COVID-19 to have a larger and more persistent effect on the economy than the previous wave, while also supposing that there will not be any additional significant waves of the pandemic and that mobility restrictions will be relaxed as a result. Economic growth in 2022 is expected to be 3%, with a range between 1% and 5%. This figure would be lower than projected in the January report (3.6% with a range between 2% and 6%), due to a higher base of comparison given the upward revision to expected GDP in 2021. This forecast also takes into account the likely effects on private demand of a fiscal adjustment of the size currently being proposed by the national government, and which would come into effect in 2022. Excess in productive capacity is now expected to be lower than estimated in January but continues to be significant and affected by high levels of uncertainty, as reflected in the wide forecast intervals. The possibility of new waves of the virus (of uncertain intensity and duration) represents a significant downward risk to projected GDP growth, and is signaled by the lower limits of the ranges provided in this report. Inflation (1.51%) and inflation excluding food and regulated items (0.94%) declined in March compared to December, continuing below the 3% target. The decline in inflation in this period was below projections, explained in large part by unanticipated increases in the costs of certain foods (3.92%) and regulated items (1.52%). An increase in international food and shipping prices, increased foreign demand for beef, and specific upward pressures on perishable food supplies appear to explain a lower-than-expected deceleration in the consumer price index (CPI) for foods. An unexpected increase in regulated items prices came amid unanticipated increases in international fuel prices, on some utilities rates, and for regulated education prices. The decline in annual inflation excluding food and regulated items between December and March was in line with projections from January, though this included downward pressure from a significant reduction in telecommunications rates due to the imminent entry of a new operator. When controlling for the effects of this relative price change, inflation excluding food and regulated items exceeds levels forecast in the previous report. Within this indicator of core inflation, the CPI for goods (1.05%) accelerated due to a reversion of the effects of the VAT-free day in November, which was largely accounted for in February, and possibly by the transmission of a recent depreciation of the peso on domestic prices for certain items (electric and household appliances). For their part, services prices decelerated and showed the lowest rate of annual growth (0.89%) among the large consumer baskets in the CPI. Within the services basket, the annual change in rental prices continued to decline, while those services that continue to experience the most significant restrictions on returning to normal operations (tourism, cinemas, nightlife, etc.) continued to register significant price declines. As previously mentioned, telephone rates also fell significantly due to increased competition in the market. Total inflation is expected to continue to be affected by ample excesses in productive capacity for the remainder of 2021 and 2022, though less so than projected in January. As a result, convergence to the inflation target is now expected to be somewhat faster than estimated in the previous report, assuming the absence of significant additional outbreaks of COVID-19. The technical staff’s year-end inflation projections for 2021 and 2022 have increased, suggesting figures around 3% due largely to variation in food and regulated items prices. The projection for inflation excluding food and regulated items also increased, but remains below 3%. Price relief measures on indirect taxes implemented in 2020 are expected to lapse in the second quarter of 2021, generating a one-off effect on prices and temporarily affecting inflation excluding food and regulated items. However, indexation to low levels of past inflation, weak demand, and ample excess productive capacity are expected to keep core inflation below the target, near 2.3% at the end of 2021 (previously 2.1%). The reversion in 2021 of the effects of some price relief measures on utility rates from 2020 should lead to an increase in the CPI for regulated items in the second half of this year. Annual price changes are now expected to be higher than estimated in the January report due to an increased expected path for fuel prices and unanticipated increases in regulated education prices. The projection for the CPI for foods has increased compared to the previous report, taking into account certain factors that were not anticipated in January (a less favorable agricultural cycle, increased pressure from international prices, and transport costs). Given the above, year-end annual inflation for 2021 and 2022 is now expected to be 3% and 2.8%, respectively, which would be above projections from January (2.3% and 2,7%). For its part, expected inflation based on analyst surveys suggests year-end inflation in 2021 and 2022 of 2.8% and 3.1%, respectively. There remains significant uncertainty surrounding the inflation forecasts included in this report due to several factors: 1) the evolution of the pandemic; 2) the difficulty in evaluating the size and persistence of excess productive capacity; 3) the timing and manner in which price relief measures will lapse; and 4) the future behavior of food prices. Projected 2021 growth in foreign demand (4.4% to 5.2%) and the supposed average oil price (USD 53 to USD 61 per Brent benchmark barrel) were both revised upward. An increase in long-term international interest rates has been reflected in a depreciation of the peso and could result in relatively tighter external financial conditions for emerging market economies, including Colombia. Average growth among Colombia’s trade partners was greater than expected in the fourth quarter of 2020. This, together with a sizable fiscal stimulus approved in the United States and the onset of a massive global vaccination campaign, largely explains the projected increase in foreign demand growth in 2021. The resilience of the goods market in the face of global crisis and an expected normalization in international trade are additional factors. These considerations and the expected continuation of a gradual reduction of mobility restrictions abroad suggest that Colombia’s trade partners could grow on average by 5.2% in 2021 and around 3.4% in 2022. The improved prospects for global economic growth have led to an increase in current and expected oil prices. Production interruptions due to a heavy winter, reduced inventories, and increased supply restrictions instituted by producing countries have also contributed to the increase. Meanwhile, market forecasts and recent Federal Reserve pronouncements suggest that the benchmark interest rate in the U.S. will remain stable for the next two years. Nevertheless, a significant increase in public spending in the country has fostered expectations for greater growth and inflation, as well as increased uncertainty over the moment in which a normalization of monetary policy might begin. This has been reflected in an increase in long-term interest rates. In this context, emerging market economies in the region, including Colombia, have registered increases in sovereign risk premiums and long-term domestic interest rates, and a depreciation of local currencies against the dollar. Recent outbreaks of COVID-19 in several of these economies; limits on vaccine supply and the slow pace of immunization campaigns in some countries; a significant increase in public debt; and tensions between the United States and China, among other factors, all add to a high level of uncertainty surrounding interest rate spreads, external financing conditions, and the future performance of risk premiums. The impact that this environment could have on the exchange rate and on domestic financing conditions represent risks to the macroeconomic and monetary policy forecasts. Domestic financial conditions continue to favor recovery in economic activity. The transmission of reductions to the policy interest rate on credit rates has been significant. The banking portfolio continues to recover amid circumstances that have affected both the supply and demand for loans, and in which some credit risks have materialized. Preferential and ordinary commercial interest rates have fallen to a similar degree as the benchmark interest rate. As is generally the case, this transmission has come at a slower pace for consumer credit rates, and has been further delayed in the case of mortgage rates. Commercial credit levels stabilized above pre-pandemic levels in March, following an increase resulting from significant liquidity requirements for businesses in the second quarter of 2020. The consumer credit portfolio continued to recover and has now surpassed February 2020 levels, though overall growth in the portfolio remains low. At the same time, portfolio projections and default indicators have increased, and credit establishment earnings have come down. Despite this, credit disbursements continue to recover and solvency indicators remain well above regulatory minimums. 1.2 Monetary policy decision In its meetings in March and April the BDBR left the benchmark interest rate unchanged at 1.75%.