Many explanations of the stylized facts concerning real exchange rate movements focus on monetary shocks, but it is often found empirically that monetary shocks are unimportant. I provide evidence that is contrary to this empirical finding. Using over 100 years of data, I estimate the contribution of various shocks to explaining variation in the real pound-dollar exchange rate. Monetary shocks ...

ISSATISFACTION with persistent and volatile inflation since the mid-1960s has led to numem’ous calls for a different approach to monetary policy. In some cases, people have suggested that monetary policy decisions be made more explicitly political, for example, subject to greater control by Congress via congressionally mandated monetary growth targets. In the same vein, Milton Friedman has prop...

In the aftermath of the nancial crisis, the role of monetary policy and macro-prudential regulation in promoting nancial stability is under discussion. The old debate concerning whether monetary policy should respond to credit and asset price bubbles was revived, whereas macro-prudential regulation is being assessed as an alternative macroeconomic tool to deal with nancial imbalances. The paper...

Should central banks respond to asset price bubbles? This paper explores this monetary policy question in a hypothetical economy subject to asset price bubbles. Despite the highly stylized structure of the model, the results reveal several practical monetary policy lessons. First, a monetary authority should generally respond to asset prices as long as asset prices contain reliable information ...

Membership in a monetary union reduces the possibilities to counteract fluctuations in productivity by monetary policy. One condition for entrance not to lead to adverse unemployment performance is that wages are flexible with respect to productivity. Here I show that, depending on workers’ risk aversion, the incentive for workers to choose more nominal wages flexibility may increase after entr...

HOULD MONETARY POLICY be determined by a legislated rule or by a monetary authority’s discretion? Henry Simons (1936) first raised this issue as a choice between rules and authorities, terms little different than those used in recent discussions. He stresses the value of a rule, such as a law, instead of reliance on an authority’s discretion because “definite, stable, legislative rules of the g...

Money's ability to enhance memory has received increased attention in recent research. However, previous studies have not directly addressed the time-dependent nature of monetary effects on memory, which are suggested to exist by research in cognitive neuroscience, and the possible detrimental effects of monetary rewards on learning interesting material, as indicated by studies in motivational ...

This paper argues that the primary objective of monetary policy should be long run price stability or at least a low average rate of in°ation. But there is also a welfare improving role for monetary policy in helping the economy adjust to nonpolicy shocks. This gives rise to a fundamental tension in the conduct of monetary policy. Understanding this tension is central to interpreting the qualit...

a r t i c l e i n f o JEL classification: C22 E44 F31 Keywords: Monetary shocks Asymmetric effects MSVAR–EGARCH In this paper, we study the effect of monetary shocks on the Chinese stock market over the period of 2005 to 2011 with the MSVAR–EGARCH model. The evidence suggests that Chinese monetary policies have significantly asymmetric effects on the stock market in different time periods and m...

In May 2000, the Treasurer/Minister of Finance invited me to review the operation of monetary policy in New Zealand and provided me with the Terms of Reference. In undertaking the review, I have read the wide range of submissions provided to me and have met with a number of submitters and other interested parties. I visited New Zealand for two weeks in November 2000 in order to observe the oper...