Pub Date : 2025-03-01Epub Date: 2024-11-28DOI: 10.1016/j.jmacro.2024.103658
Youngjin Hwang
This study explores the information content of yield curve dynamics in the context of monetary policy using time-varying macro VARs augmented with three yield curve factors (i.e., level, slope, and curvature). By utilizing contemporaneous co-movements between short-term interest rates and these factors, we identify multiple shocks related to monetary policy: two news shocks (supply and demand), a forward guidance shock, and an inflation-targeting shock. We find distinct differences in the dynamic responses of output and prices across shocks as well as over time. We highlight the role of each yield curve factor, in particular the curvature factor in a forward guidance shock, in generating the results across shocks.
{"title":"Information content in yield curve dynamics: Implications for monetary policy","authors":"Youngjin Hwang","doi":"10.1016/j.jmacro.2024.103658","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jmacro.2024.103658","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study explores the information content of yield curve dynamics in the context of monetary policy using time-varying macro VARs augmented with three yield curve factors (i.e., level, slope, and curvature). By utilizing contemporaneous co-movements between short-term interest rates and these factors, we identify multiple shocks related to monetary policy: two news shocks (supply and demand), a forward guidance shock, and an inflation-targeting shock. We find distinct differences in the dynamic responses of output and prices across shocks as well as over time. We highlight the role of each yield curve factor, in particular the curvature factor in a forward guidance shock, in generating the results across shocks.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47863,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Macroeconomics","volume":"83 ","pages":"Article 103658"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142759816","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-03-01Epub Date: 2025-01-04DOI: 10.1016/j.jmacro.2024.103662
Seunghoon Na , Hyunseung Oh
We quantitatively assess the cyclical importance of technology shocks to consumer durables in light of the widespread adoption of consumer electronics such as smartphones and tablets. By estimating a business-cycle model of consumer durables with IT-specific technology, we find that technology shocks accounted for more than half of the variation in consumer IT goods and were a key driver of the 2001–2007 boom in consumer durable expenditures. Our estimation results suggest a larger role for technology shocks in household expenditures on consumer durables than previously recognized. In standard models, however, these shocks have a more limited impact on GDP dynamics, as consumer durables do not contribute to productive capital.
{"title":"Computerizing households and the role of technology shocks in consumer durables","authors":"Seunghoon Na , Hyunseung Oh","doi":"10.1016/j.jmacro.2024.103662","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jmacro.2024.103662","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We quantitatively assess the cyclical importance of technology shocks to consumer durables in light of the widespread adoption of consumer electronics such as smartphones and tablets. By estimating a business-cycle model of consumer durables with IT-specific technology, we find that technology shocks accounted for more than half of the variation in consumer IT goods and were a key driver of the 2001–2007 boom in consumer durable expenditures. Our estimation results suggest a larger role for technology shocks in household expenditures on consumer durables than previously recognized. In standard models, however, these shocks have a more limited impact on GDP dynamics, as consumer durables do not contribute to productive capital.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47863,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Macroeconomics","volume":"83 ","pages":"Article 103662"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143173691","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-03-01Epub Date: 2025-01-06DOI: 10.1016/j.jmacro.2024.103663
Ryoji Hiraguchi , Keiichiro Kobayashi
In this study, we construct a variant of the Lagos–Wright monetary model in which both buyers and sellers optimally decide whether to enter decentralized market by paying fixed entry costs. In the decentralized market, the sellers produce the intermediate inputs which are necessary to produce the general good traded in the centralized market. We show that the Friedman rule of setting nominal interest rate to zero may not be optimal. The optimal inflation rate is derived explicitly for specific functional forms. It is shown that the optimal inflation rate is lower for lower buyer entry costs, because the lower entry costs generate the buyer’s congestion leading to lower benefit from holding money, which must be balanced by lower cost of money holdings. It is also shown that the optimal inflation is lower for higher seller entry costs.
{"title":"Inflation and entry costs in a monetary search model","authors":"Ryoji Hiraguchi , Keiichiro Kobayashi","doi":"10.1016/j.jmacro.2024.103663","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jmacro.2024.103663","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In this study, we construct a variant of the Lagos–Wright monetary model in which both buyers and sellers optimally decide whether to enter decentralized market by paying fixed entry costs. In the decentralized market, the sellers produce the intermediate inputs which are necessary to produce the general good traded in the centralized market. We show that the Friedman rule of setting nominal interest rate to zero may not be optimal. The optimal inflation rate is derived explicitly for specific functional forms. It is shown that the optimal inflation rate is lower for lower buyer entry costs, because the lower entry costs generate the buyer’s congestion leading to lower benefit from holding money, which must be balanced by lower cost of money holdings. It is also shown that the optimal inflation is lower for higher seller entry costs.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47863,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Macroeconomics","volume":"83 ","pages":"Article 103663"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143173788","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-03-01Epub Date: 2025-01-07DOI: 10.1016/j.jmacro.2024.103659
Vlad Skovorodov , Rui Silva
We study the impact of the Public Sector Purchase Programme (PSPP) between 2015 and 2018 on lending volumes in the Eurozone. We find a connection between purchases under the PSPP and: (i) lending volumes on types of loans mainly obtained by SMEs; (ii) loans below 1 million euros during the expansion phase of the program until the end of 2016, and loans above 1 million euros in its contraction phase; (iii) substantial changes in lending volumes in economies with high levels of public debt and distressed financial systems, and; (iv) types of loans mainly obtained by SMEs in more resilient economies. These findings point to the effectiveness of the credit channel as a transmission mechanism of unconventional monetary policy and support the decision of the ECB to reactivate the program at the end of 2019.
{"title":"The impact of the Public Sector Purchase Programme on lending to SMEs","authors":"Vlad Skovorodov , Rui Silva","doi":"10.1016/j.jmacro.2024.103659","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jmacro.2024.103659","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We study the impact of the Public Sector Purchase Programme (PSPP) between 2015 and 2018 on lending volumes in the Eurozone. We find a connection between purchases under the PSPP and: (i) lending volumes on types of loans mainly obtained by SMEs; (ii) loans below 1 million euros during the expansion phase of the program until the end of 2016, and loans above 1 million euros in its contraction phase; (iii) substantial changes in lending volumes in economies with high levels of public debt and distressed financial systems, and; (iv) types of loans mainly obtained by SMEs in more resilient economies. These findings point to the effectiveness of the credit channel as a transmission mechanism of unconventional monetary policy and support the decision of the ECB to reactivate the program at the end of 2019.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47863,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Macroeconomics","volume":"83 ","pages":"Article 103659"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143173688","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-03-01Epub Date: 2024-11-19DOI: 10.1016/j.jmacro.2024.103646
K. Peren Arin , Samuel Kaplan , Efstathios Polyzos , Nicola Spagnolo
Using a firm-level data set for the U.S., we investigate the stock price responses to unanticipated and unconventional monetary policy shocks. Our results show that indebtedness/leverage is more important than size or age in explaining the cross-firm variation in responses to monetary policy. We also show that the magnitude of the indebtedness is important while the debt structure is not, and the third quartile of firms drives our results. We assess the robustness of our empirical findings across several dimensions.
{"title":"Stock market responses to monetary policy shocks: Firm-level evidence","authors":"K. Peren Arin , Samuel Kaplan , Efstathios Polyzos , Nicola Spagnolo","doi":"10.1016/j.jmacro.2024.103646","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jmacro.2024.103646","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Using a firm-level data set for the U.S., we investigate the stock price responses to unanticipated and unconventional monetary policy shocks. Our results show that indebtedness/leverage is more important than size or age in explaining the cross-firm variation in responses to monetary policy. We also show that the magnitude of the indebtedness is important while the debt structure is not, and the third quartile of firms drives our results. We assess the robustness of our empirical findings across several dimensions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47863,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Macroeconomics","volume":"83 ","pages":"Article 103646"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142700018","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-03-01Epub Date: 2025-01-18DOI: 10.1016/j.jmacro.2024.103660
Amaia Iza, Ibai Ostolozaga
The aim of this paper is to analyze the effect of relaxing borrowing constraints taking into account that firms may be facing either earnings-based or asset-based borrowing constraints on some aggregates such GDP per worker or TFP. We also analyze the impact on those aggregates of increasing the proportion of firms with earnings-based borrowing constraints. Using the World Bank Enterprise Survey, we show that the proportion of firms whose loans require collateral is lower in those countries whose bankruptcy laws facilitate reorganization. In addition, we show that there are no significant differences in the median/average contract-enforcement scores between countries where bankruptcy laws facilitate reorganization and countries where they do not, and that there is a significant negative link between the contract-enforcement score and the collateral-to-loan ratio. Furthermore, we also show that there is a significant positive correlation between the average proportion of firms in a country whose credit does not require collateral (with cash flow-based debt) with GDP per worker and TFP, but not with the debt-to-GDP ratio. We build a model that takes into account country characteristics in the proportion of firms whose loans require collateral and also in the average collateral-to-loan ratio. We find that policies aimed at increasing the proportion of firms that face borrowing constraints based on earnings rather than on assets, so as to reduce the misallocation of debt, may be as important as those aimed at reducing the collateral-to-loan ratio.
{"title":"Borrowing constraints, financial frictions, misallocation and GDP per worker","authors":"Amaia Iza, Ibai Ostolozaga","doi":"10.1016/j.jmacro.2024.103660","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jmacro.2024.103660","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The aim of this paper is to analyze the effect of relaxing borrowing constraints taking into account that firms may be facing either earnings-based or asset-based borrowing constraints on some aggregates such GDP per worker or TFP. We also analyze the impact on those aggregates of increasing the proportion of firms with earnings-based borrowing constraints. Using the World Bank Enterprise Survey, we show that the proportion of firms whose loans require collateral is lower in those countries whose bankruptcy laws facilitate reorganization. In addition, we show that there are no significant differences in the median/average contract-enforcement scores between countries where bankruptcy laws facilitate reorganization and countries where they do not, and that there is a significant negative link between the contract-enforcement score and the collateral-to-loan ratio. Furthermore, we also show that there is a significant positive correlation between the average proportion of firms in a country whose credit does not require collateral (with cash flow-based debt) with GDP per worker and TFP, but not with the debt-to-GDP ratio. We build a model that takes into account country characteristics in the proportion of firms whose loans require collateral and also in the average collateral-to-loan ratio. We find that policies aimed at increasing the proportion of firms that face borrowing constraints based on earnings rather than on assets, so as to reduce the misallocation of debt, may be as important as those aimed at reducing the collateral-to-loan ratio.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47863,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Macroeconomics","volume":"83 ","pages":"Article 103660"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143173687","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-03-01Epub Date: 2024-11-15DOI: 10.1016/j.jmacro.2024.103645
Laura E. Jackson, Ezgi Kurt
This paper provides industry-level evidence on the presence of downward real wage rigidity and asymmetric effects of monetary policy in the US labor market. Focusing on industry-level data from 1975q1 to 2020q4, we find strong heterogeneity in the trade-off between wage rigidity and employment. Specifically, we show that service-sector industries show downward-flexible wages and muted employment losses in response to monetary contractions. On the other hand, we find that a trade-off between wage rigidity and employment exists only weakly in the manufacturing sector. We examine this in the context of unionization and trade integration policies of recent decades and show that factors such as low unionization or high exposure to import competition weakens the wage-employment link. Among these, high exposure to trade seems to be the more important channel for manufacturing industries.
{"title":"Downward wage rigidity and asymmetric effects of monetary policy","authors":"Laura E. Jackson, Ezgi Kurt","doi":"10.1016/j.jmacro.2024.103645","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jmacro.2024.103645","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper provides industry-level evidence on the presence of downward real wage rigidity and asymmetric effects of monetary policy in the US labor market. Focusing on industry-level data from 1975q1 to 2020q4, we find strong heterogeneity in the trade-off between wage rigidity and employment. Specifically, we show that service-sector industries show downward-flexible wages and muted employment losses in response to monetary contractions. On the other hand, we find that a trade-off between wage rigidity and employment exists only weakly in the manufacturing sector. We examine this in the context of unionization and trade integration policies of recent decades and show that factors such as low unionization or high exposure to import competition weakens the wage-employment link. Among these, high exposure to trade seems to be the more important channel for manufacturing industries.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47863,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Macroeconomics","volume":"83 ","pages":"Article 103645"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142699478","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-12-01Epub Date: 2024-10-10DOI: 10.1016/j.jmacro.2024.103643
Joshua Brault, Hashmat Khan
We present novel stylized facts on the declining cyclicality of labour productivity for large firms. Changes in their output-labour productivity correlations mirror those in aggregate US data. Large firms account for 88% of the aggregate labour productivity-output correlation post-1985. The decline in cyclicality aligns with their increased use of extensive margin adjustments, such as hiring more workers. For a 1% output increase, large firms hire 75 additional workers pre-1985, compared to 90 post-1985. Our findings are relevant to the literature on the role of large firms in US business cycles.
{"title":"Large firms and the cyclicality of US labour productivity","authors":"Joshua Brault, Hashmat Khan","doi":"10.1016/j.jmacro.2024.103643","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jmacro.2024.103643","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We present novel stylized facts on the declining cyclicality of labour productivity for large firms. Changes in their output-labour productivity correlations mirror those in aggregate US data. Large firms account for 88% of the aggregate labour productivity-output correlation post-1985. The decline in cyclicality aligns with their increased use of extensive margin adjustments, such as hiring more workers. For a 1% output increase, large firms hire 75 additional workers pre-1985, compared to 90 post-1985. Our findings are relevant to the literature on the role of large firms in US business cycles.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47863,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Macroeconomics","volume":"82 ","pages":"Article 103643"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142442078","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-12-01Epub Date: 2024-09-11DOI: 10.1016/j.jmacro.2024.103639
Matthew Greenwood-Nimmo , Daan Steenkamp , Rossouw van Jaarsveld
We study the pass-through of policy rate hikes and cuts to household and corporate lending and deposit interest rates in South Africa over the period January 2009 to December 2020. We show that rate hikes are typically passed through to mortgage interest rates completely while rate cuts are not. This asymmetry is more prevalent for household than corporate mortgages. Pass-through to household and corporate call deposit interest rates is typically complete, but cheque account interest rates are highly sticky and experience weak pass-through. Our results indicate that banks’ pass-through decisions often impose greater costs on households than firms, and may blunt the stimulatory effect of rate cuts by weakening their impact on debt servicing costs and the remuneration of deposit balances.
{"title":"A bank-level analysis of interest rate pass-through in South Africa","authors":"Matthew Greenwood-Nimmo , Daan Steenkamp , Rossouw van Jaarsveld","doi":"10.1016/j.jmacro.2024.103639","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jmacro.2024.103639","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>We study the pass-through of policy rate hikes and cuts to household and corporate lending and deposit interest rates in South Africa over the period January 2009 to December 2020. We show that rate hikes are typically passed through to mortgage interest rates completely while rate cuts are not. This asymmetry is more prevalent for household than corporate mortgages. Pass-through to household and corporate call deposit interest rates is typically complete, but cheque account interest rates are highly sticky and experience weak pass-through. Our results indicate that banks’ pass-through decisions often impose greater costs on households than firms, and may blunt the stimulatory effect of rate cuts by weakening their impact on debt servicing costs and the remuneration of deposit balances.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":47863,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Macroeconomics","volume":"82 ","pages":"Article 103639"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142233687","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-12-01Epub Date: 2024-10-04DOI: 10.1016/j.jmacro.2024.103644
Qichun He
This paper studies the effect of consumption subsidies on long-run growth and welfare in a Schumpeterian model with the spirit of capitalism (SOC)—wealth in the utility function. It finds that consumption subsidy promotes (reduces) long-run growth and welfare when the spirit of capitalism is weak (strong). By contrast, consumption subsidy has no effect on long-run growth in the Ramsey model of capital accumulation, whereas its effect on the level of consumption and capital stock also depends on the strength of the SOC. Consumption subsidy decreases growth in the AK model with the SOC. In quantitative analysis, we find that when the ratio of consumption subsidy to total consumption increases from 0 to 10%, long-run growth increases by about 0.044 (0.1) percentage points in China (the U.S.), and this effect decreases with the strength of the SOC. Moreover, labor tax, capital tax, and income tax are also studied and compared.
{"title":"Wealth in the utility function, consumption subsidy, and long-run growth and welfare","authors":"Qichun He","doi":"10.1016/j.jmacro.2024.103644","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jmacro.2024.103644","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper studies the effect of consumption subsidies on long-run growth and welfare in a Schumpeterian model with the spirit of capitalism (SOC)—wealth in the utility function. It finds that consumption subsidy promotes (reduces) long-run growth and welfare when the spirit of capitalism is weak (strong). By contrast, consumption subsidy has no effect on long-run growth in the Ramsey model of capital accumulation, whereas its effect on the level of consumption and capital stock also depends on the strength of the SOC. Consumption subsidy decreases growth in the AK model with the SOC. In quantitative analysis, we find that when the ratio of consumption subsidy to total consumption increases from 0 to 10%, long-run growth increases by about 0.044 (0.1) percentage points in China (the U.S.), and this effect decreases with the strength of the SOC. Moreover, labor tax, capital tax, and income tax are also studied and compared.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47863,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Macroeconomics","volume":"82 ","pages":"Article 103644"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2024-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142421980","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}