Akito Matsumoto

Portfolio Choice in a Monetary Open-Economy DSGE Model

This paper develops a two-country monetary DSGE model in which households choose a portfolio of home and foreign equities, and a forward position in foreign exchange. Some goods prices are set without full information of the state. We show that temporarily sticky nominal goods prices can have large effects on equity portfolios. Home and foreign portfolios are not identical in equilibrium. In response to technology shocks, sticky prices generate a negative correlation between labor income and the profits of domestic firms, biasing portfolios in favor of home equities. In contrast, under flexible prices, labor income and the profits of the domestic firms are positively correlated. Even a small amount of nominal price stickiness can generate these portfolio differences, depending on the diversification role played by the terms of trade. Returns on human capital and equities may be positively correlated under sticky prices when the source of shocks is monetary, but this risk is hedged through nominal assets rather than through equities.

International Risk Sharing During the Globalization Era

Though theory suggests financial globalization should improve international risk sharing, empirical support has been limited. We develop a simple welfare-based measure that captures how far countries are from the ideal of perfect risk sharing. We then take it to data and find international risk sharing has, indeed, improved during globalization. Improved risk sharing comes mostly from the convergence in rates of consumption growth among countries rather than from synchronization of consumption at the business cycle frequency. Our finding explains why many existing measures fail to detect improved risk sharing-they focus only on risk sharing at the business cycle frequency.

Real Exchange Rate Persistence and Systematic Monetary Policy Behaviour

This paper estimates forward-looking monetary policy rules for Germany over the 1979-98 period and for the United Kingdom for the periods 1979-90 and 1992-98. The estimation results indicate that there were substantial differences between systematic monetary policy in Germany and in the United Kingdom, as well as shifts in systematic monetary policy in the United Kingdom, over this period. The paper analyses the implications of these estimated policy rules for real exchange rate behaviour in an open economy dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model. The analysis shows that real exchange rate persistence could be attributed to the persistence of real shocks and interest rate smoothing behaviour of central banks. However, the observed cross-country asymmetry in systematic monetary policy behaviour elevates real exchange rate persistence to realistic levels, whereas changes in asymmetric policy behaviour alter the character of real exchange rate persistence.

International risk sharing during the globalization era

Though financial globalization should improve international risk sharing, empirical support is lacking. We develop a simple welfare-based measure that captures how far countries are from the ideal of perfect risk sharing. Applying it to data, we find some evidence that international risk sharing has improved during globalization. Improved risk sharing comes mostly from the convergence in rates of consumption growth among countries rather than from synchronization of consumption at the business cycle frequency.

International Risk Sharing During the Globalization Era - Le Partage International Du Risque Dans Une Ère De Mondialisation

Though financial globalization should improve international risk sharing, empirical support is lacking. We develop a simple welfare-based measure that captures how far countries are from the ideal of perfect risk sharing. Applying it to data, we find some evidence that international risk sharing has improved during globalization. Improved risk sharing comes mostly from the convergence in rates of consumption growth among countries rather than from synchronization of consumption at the business cycle frequency.

International Risk Sharing; Through Equity Diversification or Exchange Rate Hedging?

Well-known empirical puzzles in international macroeconomics concern the large divergence of equilibrium outcomes for consumption across countries from the predictions of models with full risk sharing. It is commonly believed that these risk-sharing puzzles are related to another empirical puzzle-the home-bias in equity puzzle. However, we show in a series of dynamic models that the full risk sharing equilibrium may not require much diversification of equity portfolios when there is price stickiness of the degree typically calibrated in macroeconomic models. This conclusion holds under a range of assumptions about home bias in preferences, price setting as PCP or LCP, and with or without nominal wage stickiness as long as there is some price rigidity.

Oil Prices and the Global Economy

This paper presents a simple macroeconomic model of the oil market. The model incorporates features of oil supply such as depletion, endogenous oil exploration and extraction, as well as features of oil demand such as the secular increase in demand from emerging-market economies, usage efficiency, and endogenous demand responses. The model provides, inter alia, a useful analytical framework to explore the effects of: a change in world GDP growth; a change in the efficiency of oil usage; and a change in the supply of oil. Notwithstanding that shale oil production today is more responsive to prices than conventional oil, our analysis suggests that an era of prolonged low oil prices is likely to be followed by a period where oil prices overshoot their long-term upward trend.

New Shocks, Exchange Rates and Equity Prices

We study exchange rate and equity price dynamics, in general equilibrium, in the presence of news shocks about future productivity and monetary policy. We identify a condition under which these asset prices become more volatile without affecting the volatility of the underlying processes - a positive correlation between news and current shocks. This condition also explains why persistent underlying processes generate volatile asset prices. In addition, we show that the correlation between exchange rate and equity returns depends critically on the currency denomination of the equity return and the monetary policy reaction to productivity shocks. The model we set up does well at matching second moments of exchange rate and equity returns for major floating currencies.

Shifting Commodity Markets in a Globalized World

We have tracked developments in energy, metals, and food markets since the early 2000s, when a “commodities super cycle” began. The super cycle was first marked by a decade-long increase in commodity prices, as rapid urbanisation and a strong surge in infra​structure spending, especially in China, boosted demand for nearly all commodities. Then prices began to decline, in part due to short-term factors such as the global financial crisis. But longer-term issues were important to both the rise and fall in prices.