Marcelo Savino Portugal

Monetary and fiscal policy interactions in Brazil: an application of the fiscal theory of the price level

The aim of the present paper is to verify the predominance of a monetary or fiscal dominance regime in Brazil in the post-Real period. The analysis is based on a model proposed by Canzoneri, Cumby and Diba (2000). This model proposes that there is a relationship between the public debt/GDP and primary surplus/GDP series by using the vector autoregression (VAR) framework and analyzing the impulse response functions. Another aim is the extension of the article written by Muscatelli et al. (2002) about the interactions between monetary and fiscal policies using the Markov-switching vector autoregressive model (MS-VAR) introduced by Krolzig (1997), since the relationship between these policies may not be constant over time. In conclusion, the macroeconomic coordination between monetary and fiscal policies in Brazil was virtually a substitute policy throughout the study period, with a predominantly monetary regime, in opposition to the non-Ricardian policies of the Fiscal Theory of The Price Level.

Imperfect rationality and inflationary inertia: a new estimation of the Phillips Curve for Brazil

This paper presents some new estimates for the relationship between inflation and unemployment in Brazil based on a new Keynesian hypothesis about the behavior of the economy. Four main hypotheses are tested and sustained throughout the study: i) agents do not have perfect rationality; ii) the imperfection in the agents expectations generating process may be an important factor in explaining the high persistence (inertia) of Brazilian inflation; iii) inflation does have an autonomous inertial component, without linkage to shocks in individual markets; iv) a non-linear relationship between inflation and unemployment is able to provide better explanations for the inflation-unemployment relationship in the Brazilian economy in the last 12 years. While the first two hypotheses are tested using a Markov Switching based model of regime changes, the remaining two are tested in a context of a convex Phillips Curve estimated using the Kalman filter. Despite the methodological and estimation improvements provided in the paper, the impulse-response functions for the monetary policy presented the same properties shown in the literature that uses Brazilian data.

THE NATURAL RATE OF INTEREST IN BRAZIL BETWEEN 1999 AND 2005

The aim of the present study is to estimate the level of the natural rate of interest in Brazil after the implementation of the inflation targeting regime. Miranda and Muinhos (2003), Arida, Bacha and Lara-Resende (2005), Goncalves, Holland and Spacov (2005) and Muinhos and Nakane (2006) investigated the major reasons for the persistently high levels of real interest rates in Brazil. The present study introduces three different estimates for the behavior of long-term interest rates in Brazil. First of all, the definition of the natural rate of interest is analyzed in a time perspective, highlighting the importance of this issue to the conduct of present-day Brazilian monetary policy. In a second moment, statistical filters are used for the ex ante and ex post real interest series, followed by the estimation of a dynamic Taylor rule, which allows obtaining the real interest rate implicit in the monetary policy decisions made by the Brazilian Central Bank after the implementation of the inflation targeting regime. These estimates are eventually compared with the natural rate of interest obtained from a simplified macroeconomic state-space model, as proposed by Laubach and Williams (2003). The results indicate that monetary policy decisions caused the level of the real interest rate to fluctuate around that of the natural rate of interest, showing that the Brazilian monetary authority assumed a policy-neutral stance in most of the analyzed period.

Impactos comerciais da Área de Livre Comércio das Américas: uma aplicação do modelo gravitacional

Este trabalho analisa os efeitos da criacao da Alca sobre o fluxo de comercio de um grupo de paises que farao parte desse bloco, a partir da utilizacao de um modelo gravitacional. Inicialmente sao estimados os efeitos sobre o comercio de tres importantes blocos ja em vigor na regiao (Comunidade Andina, Mercosul e Nafta) a partir do modelo gravitacional. Esse modelo permite identificar os efeitos sobre o comercio que podem ser atribuidos exclusivamente a formacao dos blocos, separando-os dos demais fatores que influenciam o padrao de comercio. Os resultados obtidos a partir da equacao gravitacional servem de base para a criacao de cenarios prospectivos da Alca. No cenario mais otimista, o comercio do Brasil com os principais parceiros da Alca cresceria significativamente, assim como os fluxos comerciais entre os demais paises analisados.

Nonlinearities in Central Bank of Brazil's reaction function: the case of asymmetric preferences

This paper investigates the existence of possible asymmetries in the Central Bank of Brazils objectives. By assuming that the loss function is asymmetric with regard to positive and negative deviations of the output gap and of the inflation rate from its target, we estimated a nonlinear reaction function which allows identifying and checking the statistical significance of asymmetric parameters in the monetary authoritys preferences. For years 2000 to 2007, results indicate that the Central Bank of Brazil showed asymmetric preference over an above-target inflation rate. Given that this behavior may stem from policy decisions in periods of severe crises (e.g., in 2001 and in 2002), we restricted our sample to the 2004-2007 period. We did not find any empirical evidence of any type of asymmetry in the preferences over the stabilization of inflation and of the output gap for this period.

Asymmetric effects of monetary policy in Brazil

In this paper, we check whether the effects of monetary policy actions on output in Brazil are asymmetric. Therefore, we estimate Markov-switching models that allow positive and negative shocks to affect the growth rate of output in an asymmetric fashion in expansion and recession states. In general, results show that: i) the real effects of negative monetary shocks are larger than those of positive shocks in an expansion; ii) in a recession, the real effects of positive and negative shocks are the same; iii) there is no evidence of asymmetry between the effects of countercyclical monetary policies; and iv) it is not possible to assert that the effects of a positive (or negative) shock are dependent upon the phase of the business cycle.

Measuring inflation persistence in Brazil using a multivariate model

We estimate inflation persistence in Brazil in a multivariate framework of unobserved components, accounting for the following sources affecting inflation persistence: Deviations of expectations from the actual policy target; persistence of the factors driving inflation; and the usual intrinsic measure of persistence, evaluated through lagged inflation terms. Data on inflation, output and interest rates are decomposed into unobserved components. To simplify the estimation of a great number of unknown variables, we employ Bayesian analysis. Our results indicate that expectations-based persistence matters considerably for inflation persistence in Brazil.

Testing nonlinearities between Brazilian exchange rate and inflation volatilities

There are few studies, directly addressing exchange rate and inflation volatilities, and lack of consensus among them. However, this kind of study is necessary, especially under an inflation-targeting system where the monetary authority must know well price behavior. This article analyses the relation between exchange rate and inflation volatilities using a bivariate GARCH model, and therefore modeling conditional volatilities, fact largely unexplored by the literature. We find a semi-concave relation between those series, and this nonlinearity may explain their apparently disconnection under a floating exchange rate system. The article also shows that traditional tests, with non-conditional volatilities, are not robust.

Volatilidade e causalidade: evidências para o mercado à vista e futuro de índice de ações no Brasil

The objective of this paper is to evaluate the evidence of causality between the future and spot markets of stocks in Brazil, verifying if the former has unstabilized the latter, thus increasing its volatility. We analyse a period that includes external shocks and changes in the exchange rate policy. Causality from future to spot markets is tested using both the volatilities cross-correlogram and a bivariate GARCH model. The results allow us to state that the spot market leads the information transmission of the market. Thus the future market does not cause increase of volatility in the spot market.

Preferences of the Central Bank of Brazil under the Inflation Targeting Regime: Commitment vs. Discretion

This work aims to estimate the preferences of the Central Bank of Brazil during the inflation targeting regime, using a standard new keynesian model with forward-looking expectations, as proposed by Givens (2010). The presence of rational expectations in the model makes a distinction between two modes of optimization, commitment and discretion, and thus allows us to evaluate which of these specifications is favored by the data. Using quarterly data for the period from 2000-1 to 2010-4, the obtained results allow us to affirm that the data favor a discretionary policy. Estimates of the loss function show that the monetary authority gives great weight to inflation stabilization, followed by interest rate smoothing and stabilization of the output gap.