Search Results
Working Paper
The usefulness of P* measures for Japan and Germany
This paper develops measures of long-run equilibrium price levels (P*) for Japan and Germany following the approach used for the United States by Hallman, Porter, and Small [1991]. Under this approach, P* is detemined by potential output, equilibrium velocity, and the amount of money in the economy. Constructing P* for these foreign countries is more complicated than in the U.S. case because the velocities of the broad monetary aggregates (M2+CDs in Japan and M3 in Germany) exhibit clear downward trends in contrast to the relatively flat trend of U.S. M2 velocity. We utilize dynamic ...
Journal Article
German monetary targeting: a retrospective view
Conference Paper
Monetary transmission channels in major foreign industrial countries
Working Paper
What makes investors over or underweight? explaining international appetites for foreign equities
Using data from the IMF Coordinated Portfolio Investment Surveys conducted in 2001, we analyze the determinants of 31 countries' international equity holdings. We show that investors in all countries underweight U.S. equities in their portfolios, many by more than they underweight foreign equities in general. Such behavior is surprising given the common perception of the United States as a desirable investment destination due to its well-developed legal and regulatory environment. Instead we find that investors in some countries are overweight in equities from other countries with which they ...
Working Paper
European monetary arrangements: implications for the dollar, exchange rate variability and credibility
This paper uses the recent history of the ERM to gain insights into what might happen to exchange rates on the road to EMU. To do this, the paper examines the variability of exchange rates, the transmission of monetary policy between countries, the role of the dollar in ERM exchange rate crises, and ERM members' credibility as measured by the realignment probabilities prior to the September 1992 crisis. We find that behavior of exchange rates has changed over time and differs between ERM and non-ERM currencies. We identify two factors that might have contributed to the September 1992 crisis: ...
Working Paper
Monetary policy and house prices: a cross-country study
This paper examines periods of pronounced rises and falls of real house prices since 1970 in eighteen major industrial countries, with particular focus on the lessons for monetary policy. We find that real house prices are pro-cyclical?co-moving with real GDP, consumption, investment, CPI inflation, budget and current account balances, and output gaps. House price booms are typically preceded by a period of easing monetary policy, but then diminishing slack and rising inflation lead monetary authorities to begin tightening policy before house prices peak. In a careful reading of official ...