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Conference Paper
Summary panel: Japan's experience with zero interest rates
The current policy stance of the BOJ has an automatic stabilizer element in it despite the fact that we have hit the zero rate bound. That is to say, the promise to "keep the zero rate until deflationary concerns are over" puts downward pressure on long-term interest rates when people see negative signs about the economy because they expect the zero rate to stay for a longer period of time. A similar thing will happen anyway. But the current commitment seems to have strengthened the effect.
Working Paper
Saving and interest rates in Japan: why they have fallen and why they will remain low
This paper quantifies the role of alternative shocks in accounting for the recent declines in Japanese saving rates and interest rates and provides some projections about their future course. We consider three distinct sources of variation in saving rates and real interest rates: changes in fertility rates, changes in survival rates, and changes in technology. The empirical relevance of these factors is explored using a computable dynamic OLG model. We find that the combined effects of demographics and slower total factor productivity growth successfully explain both the levels and the ...
Working Paper
Quantitative monetary easing and risk in financial asset markets
In this paper, we empirically examine the portfolio-rebalancing effects stemming from the policy of "quantitative monetary easing" recently undertaken by the Bank of Japan when the nominal short-term interest rate was virtually at zero. Portfolio-rebalancing effects resulting from the open market purchase of long-term government bonds under this policy have been statistically significant. Our results also show that the portfolio-rebalancing effects were beneficial in that they reduced risk premiums on assets with counter-cyclical returns, such as government and high-grade corporate bonds. ...
Working Paper
Foreign exchange intervention when interest rates are zero: does the portfolio balance channel matter after all?
The Japanese zero-interest rate period provides a "natural experiment" for investigating the effectiveness and transmission channels of sterilized intervention when traditional monetary policy options are constrained. This paper takes advantage of the fact that all interventions in the JPY/USD market during the zero-interest rate period are sterilized sales of JPY and, therefore, none of these interventions can signal a future interest rate decrease. In order to further assess through which transmission channel these interventions work, the analysis integrates official daily Japanese ...
Working Paper
Testing the expectations hypothesis: some new evidence for Japan
The deregulation of the Japanese financial markets and the adoption of an interest rate policy instrument by the Bank of Japan prompted a number of empirical investigations of the expectation hypothesis (EH) of the term structures of interest rates in Japan. This paper is a continuation of this research. It deviates from the previous work on the EH in Japan in two respects. It tests the EH by estimating a general vector autoregression (VAR) of the long-term and short-term rates and testing the restrictions implied by the EH on the VAR using a Lagrange multiplier test. In addition, the issue ...
Journal Article
Testing the expectations hypothesis: some new evidence for Japan
The deregulation of the Japanese financial markets and the adoption of an interest rate policy instrument by the Bank of Japan prompted a number of empirical investigations of the expectation hypothesis (EH) of the term structures of interest rates in Japan. This paper is a continuation of this research. It deviates from the previous work on the EH in Japan in two respects. First, it tests the EH by estimating a general vector autoregression (VAR) of the long-term and short-term rates and testing the restrictions implied by the EH on the VAR using a Lagrange multiplier test. Second, the issue ...
Journal Article
Did quantitative easing by the Bank of Japan "work"?
The success, or lack thereof, of the Bank of Japan's quantitative easing program is of interest not only as an important experience in Japanese economic history, but more generally as an unprecedented experiment in monetary policy under very low nominal interest rates. In this Economic Letter, I review the evidence that has emerged to date concerning the impact of the quantitative easing policy.