Stefan Gerlach

Contagious Speculative Attacks

During the European exchange market turmoil in 1992-93 it was evident that speculative attacks tended to spread across currencies. Using a twocountry version of the model developed by Flood and Garber (1984) we show how a speculative attack against one currency may accelerate the warranted collapse of a second parity. More importantly, even if the parity of the second currency is viable in the absence of a collapse of the first one, it might be subjected to a speculative attack if the reserves available to defend the parity are small.

Money and Inflation in the Euro Area: A Case for Monetary Indicators?

This paper studies the relationship between inflation, output, money and interest rates in the euro area, using data spanning 1980-2000. The P model is shown to have considerable empirical support. Thus, the price gap or, equivalently, the real money gap (the gap between current real balances and long-run equilibrium real balances), has substantial predictive power for future inflation. The real money gap contains more information about future inflation than the output gap and the Eurosystems money-growth indicator (the gap between current M3 growth and a reference value). The results suggest that the Eurosystems money-growth indicator is an inferior indicator of future inflation.

The Taylor rule and interest rates in the EMU area

We demonstrate that average interest rates in the EMU countries in 1990-98, with the exception of the period of exchange market turmoil in 1992-93, moved very closely in relation to average output gaps and inflation as suggested by the Taylor rule.

Does the Term Structure Predict Recessions? The International Evidence

Following Estrella and Hardouvelis (1991) and Estrella and Mishkin (1995a, b), we study the ability of the term structure to predict recessions in eight countries. The results are four-fold. First, the yield curve predicts future recessions in all countries. Second, term spreads forecast recessions as much as two years ahead. Third, while German and U.S. spreads are frequently significant in the regressions for the other countries, the added information is limited, except in Japan and the United Kingdom. Fourth, while leading indicators contain information beyond that in term spreads, this information is only useful for forecasting recessions in the immediate future. These findings provide further evidence of the potential usefulness of term spreads as indicators for monetary policy purposes.

Consumption and Credit Constraints: International evidence

Abstract If some consumers are liquidity-constrained, aggregate consumption should be ‘excessively sensitive’ to credit conditions as well as to income. Moreover, the ‘excess sensitivity’ may vary over time. Using data for the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan and France, we find a substantial impact of credit aggregates on consumption in all countries considered. Moreover, the borrowing/lending wedge is a significant determinant of consumption in the United States, Canada and Japan. Using extended Kalman filtering techniques, we show that the excess sensitivity varies over time, with a clear tendency to decline in the United States.

Inflation Targeting in Emerging Market and Transition Economies: Lessons After a Decade

Starting in the early 1990s, several emerging market and transition economies (EMEs) have adopted inflation targeting (IT). In this paper we discuss a number of issues that arise in this context: (a) the definition of IT, (b) the role of preconditions for IT, (c) the use of intermediate exchange rate targets, and (d) the specification of inflation targets. Our overall conclusion is that, suitably modified, IT is a useful policy strategy for EMEs.

Output gaps and monetary policy in the EMU area

Abstract Several considerations suggest that the ECB may respond to EMU-wide output gaps in setting policy: estimated reaction functions indicate that central banks respond to output gaps; a Taylor rule in which the central bank responds to inflation and the gap accounts for recent movements in interest rates in the EMU-area; and optimal control exercises conducted in estimated econometric models suggest that reacting to the gap may be optimal, even if the central bank cares solely about inflation. In this paper, we obtain point estimates with associated confidence bands of the EMU-wide output gap using UC models.

The Monetary Transmission Mechanism: Evidence from the G-7 Countries

In this paper we compare the effects of monetary policy on output and prices in the G-7 countries using a parsimonious macroeconometric model comprising, output, prices and a short-term interest rate. We identify monetary policy shocks by assuming that they do not affect real output instantaneously (within the quarter) or in the long run and implement these restrictions using a sequential instrumental variables technique. We show that the so-called pricepuzzle which has been noticed in the large VAR-literature in which only shortrun restrictions are used, disappears. This suggests that the puzzle is due to the fact that the use of only short-run identifying restrictions does not properly discriminate between contractionary aggregate supply shocks and monetary policy shocks. We conclude that the effects of a standardised monetary policy action are very similar across countries.

The Inflation Bias Revisited: Theory and Some International Evidence

The Kydland-Prescott, Barro-Gordon inflation bias result relies on the presumption that policymakers aim at achieving a level of employment above potential. Both academics and policymakers have recently questioned this presumption on the ground of realism. We show that even if policymakers are content with the normal level of employment there is an inflation bias if the central bank is uncertain about the future state of the economy, and is more sensitive to policy misses leading to employment below the normal level than to policy misses leading to employment above it. This new view of the inflation bias implies that there should be a positive association between average inflation and the variance of shocks to output. Cross sectional empirical evidence from 21 developed economies supports this implication. The Paper also discusses the consequences for the transparency of monetary policy and for central bank reform.

Money and inflation in the euro area: A case for monetary indicators?

Abstract This paper examines inflation indicators for the euro area by studying the relationship between inflation, output, money and interest rates, using data spanning 1980–2001. The central finding is that both the output gap and the real money gap (the difference between the real money stock and the long-run equilibrium real money stock) contain considerable information regarding future inflation. In contrast, the Eurosystems money-growth indicator (the difference between nominal money growth and a reference value), the prominent “first pillar” in its monetary strategy, contains little information about future inflation, and no information beyond that contained in the output and real money gaps. The predictive performance of the output gap has improved compared to that in a previous version of this paper, most likely because of better estimation methods.