Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T00:05:52.188Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

CREDIT MARKET DISTORTIONS, ASSET PRICES AND MONETARY POLICY

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 September 2012

Damjan Pfajfar*
Affiliation:
CentER EBC and University of Tilburg
Emiliano Santoro
Affiliation:
Catholic University of Milan and University of Copenhagen
*
Address correspondence to: Damjan Pfajfar, Department of Economics, Tilburg School of Economics and Management, P.O. Box 90153, NL-5000 LE Tilburg, the Netherlands; e-mail: [email protected].

Abstract

We study the conditions that ensure rational expectations equilibrium (REE) determinacy and expectational stability (E-stability) in a standard sticky-price model augmented with the cost channel. We allow for varying degrees of pass-through of the policy rate to bank-lending rates. Strong cost-side effects limit the size of the policy rate response to inflation that is consistent with determinacy, so that inflation-targeting policies may not be capable of ensuring REE uniqueness. In this case it is advisable to combine policy rate responses to inflation with an appropriate reaction to the output gap and/or firm profitability. The negative reaction of real activity and asset prices to inflationary shocks adds a negative force to inflation responses that counteracts the borrowing cost effect and prevents expectations of higher inflation from becoming self-fulfilling.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Barth, Marvin J. III and Ramey, Valerie A. (2000) The cost channel of monetary transmission. NBER working paper 7675.Google Scholar
Bernanke, Ben S. and Gertler, Mark (1999) Monetary policy and asset price volatility. Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Economic Review (Q IV), 17–51.Google Scholar
Bernanke, Ben S. and Gertler, Mark (2001) Should central banks respond to movements in asset prices? American Economic Review 91, 253257.Google Scholar
Bernanke, Ben S., Gertler, Mark, and Gilchrist, Simon (1999) The financial accelerator in a quantitative business cycle framework. In Taylor, John B. and Woodford, Michael (eds.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, vol. 1, ch. 21, pp. 13411393. Amsterdam: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Brückner, Matthias and Schabert, Andreas (2003) Supply-side effects of monetary policy and equilibrium multiplicity. Economics Letters 79, 205211.Google Scholar
Bullard, James B. and Mitra, Kaushik (2002) Learning about monetary policy rules. Journal of Monetary Economics 49, 11051129.Google Scholar
Bullard, James B. and Schaling, Eric (2002) Why the fed should ignore the stock market. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review (March), 35–42.Google Scholar
Calvo, Guillermo A. (1983) Staggered prices in a utility-maximizing framework. Journal of Monetary Economics 12, 383398.Google Scholar
Carlstrom, Charles T. and Fuerst, Timothy (2007) Asset prices, nominal rigidities, and monetary policy. Review of Economic Dynamics 10, 256275.Google Scholar
Cecchetti, Steven, Genberg, Hans, Lipsky, John, and Wadhwani, Sushil (2000) Asset Prices and Central Bank Policy. Geneva Reports on the World Economy 2. London: Centre for Economic Policy Research.Google Scholar
Chowdhury, Ibrahim, Hoffmann, Mathias, and Schabert, Andreas (2006) Inflation dynamics and the cost channel of monetary transmission. European Economic Review 50, 9951016.Google Scholar
Christiano, Lawrence J., Eichenbaum, Martin, and Evans, Charles L. (1997) Sticky price and limited participation models of money: A comparison. European Economic Review 41, 12011249.Google Scholar
Evans, George W. and Honkapohja, Seppo (2001) Learning and Expectations in Macroeconomics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Evans, George W. and McGough, Bruce (2005) Monetary policy, indeterminacy and learning. Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control 29, 18091840.Google Scholar
Hannan, Timothy H. and Berger, Allen N. (1991) The rigidity of prices: Evidence from the banking industry. American Economic Review 81, 938945.Google Scholar
Honkapohja, Seppo and Mitra, Kaushik (2004) Are non-fundamental equilibria learnable in models of monetary policy? Journal of Monetary Economics 51, 17431770.Google Scholar
Ireland, Peter N. (2004) Technology shocks in the new keynesian model. Review of Economics and Statistics 86, 923936.Google Scholar
Llosa, Gonzalo and Tuesta, Vincente (2009) Learning about monetary policy rules when the cost channel matters. Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control 33, 18801896.Google Scholar
McCallum, Bennett T. (1999) Issues in the design of monetary policy rules. In Taylor, John B. and Woodford, Michael (eds.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, vol. 1, ch. 23, pp. 14831530. Amsterdam: Elsevier.Google Scholar
McCallum, Bennett T. (2007) E-stability vis-a-vis determinacy results for a broad class of linear rational expectations models. Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control 31, 13761391.Google Scholar
McCallum, Bennett T. and Nelson, Edward (1999) Performance of operational policy rules in an estimated semi-classical model. In Taylor, J. (ed.), Monetary Policy Rules, pp. 1545. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Pfajfar, Damjan and Santoro, Emiliano (2011) Determinacy, stock market dynamics and monetary policy inertia. Economics Letters 112, 710.Google Scholar
Pfajfar, Damjan and Santoro, Emiliano (2012) Credit Market Distortions, Asset Prices and Monetary Policy. Discussion paper 2012-010, CentER, Tilburg University.Google Scholar
Ravenna, Federico and Walsh, Carl E. (2006) Optimal monetary policy with the cost channel. Journal of Monetary Economics 53, 199216.Google Scholar
Rigobon, Roberto and Sack, Brian (2003) Measuring the reaction of monetary policy to the stock market. Quarterly Journal of Economics 118, 639669.Google Scholar
Steinsson, Jon (2003) Optimal monetary policy in an economy with inflation persistence. Journal of Monetary Economics 50, 14251456.Google Scholar
Stiglitz, Joseph E. and Weiss, Andrew (1981) Credit rationing in markets with imperfect information. American Economic Review 71, 393410.Google Scholar
Surico, Paolo (2008) The cost channel of monetary policy and indeterminacy. Macroeconomic Dynamics 12, 724735.Google Scholar
Tillmann, Peter (2008) Do interest rates drive inflation dynamics? An analysis of the cost channel of monetary transmission. Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control 32, 27232744.Google Scholar
Woodford, Michael (1999) Optimal monetary policy inertia. Manchester School 67, 135.Google Scholar