Search Options
Home Media Explainers Research & Publications Statistics Monetary Policy The €uro Payments & Markets Careers
Suggestions
Sort by

Benoît Mojon

19 February 2007
WORKING PAPER SERIES - No. 729
Details
Abstract
An aggregation exercise is proposed that aims at investigating whether the fast average adjustment of the disaggregate inflation series of the euro area CPI translates into the slow adjustment of euro area aggregate inflation. We first estimate a dynamic factor model for 404 inflation sub-indices of the euro area CPI. This allows to decompose the dynamics of inflation sub-indices in two parts: one due to a common "macroeconomic" shock and one due to sector specific "idiosyncratic" shocks. Although "idiosyncratic" shocks dominate the variance of sectoral prices, one common factor, which accounts for 30 per cent of the overall variance of the 404 disaggregate inflation series, is the main driver of aggregate dynamics. In addition, the heterogeneous propagation of this common shock across sectoral inflation rates, and in particular its slow propagation to inflation rates of services, generates the persistence of aggregate inflation. We conclude that the aggregation process explains a fair amount of aggregate inflation persistence.
JEL Code
E31 : Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics→Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles→Price Level, Inflation, Deflation
E32 : Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics→Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles→Business Fluctuations, Cycles
Network
Eurosystem inflation persistence network
20 December 2005
WORKING PAPER SERIES - No. 564
Details
Abstract
This paper first shows that the forecast error incurred when assuming that future inflation will be equal to the inflation target announced by the central bank is typically at least as small and often smaller than forecast errors of model-based and published inflation forecasts. It then shows that there are substantial benefits in having rule-of-thumb agents who simply trust that the central bank will deliver its pre-announced inflation objective.
JEL Code
E5 : Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics→Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit
Network
Eurosystem inflation persistence network
14 December 2005
WORKING PAPER SERIES - No. 559
Details
Abstract
An important stylized fact to emerge from the VAR estimates is that exogenous monetary policy shocks (also labelled unsystematic monetary policy) have a delayed, persistent, hump shaped effect on inflation. I argue that this empirical pattern is fragile. In particular it disappears when one corrects for the effects of large shifts (breaks) in average inflation or examines periods without such shifts (such as the 1984-2004 period). An important consequence is that the hump shaped VAR estimated response of inflation is not appropriate to fit stylised models of the response of inflation around a stable steady state inflation level.
JEL Code
E52 : Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics→Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit→Monetary Policy
31 October 2005
WORKING PAPER SERIES - No. 537
Details
Abstract
This paper shows that inflation in industrialized countries is largely a global phenomenon. First, inflations of (22) OECD countries have a common factor that alone account for nearly 70% of their variance. This large variance share that is associated to Global Inflation is not only due to the trend components of inflation (up from 1960 to 1980 and down thereafter) but also to fluctuations at business cycle frequencies. Second, Global Inflation is, consistently with standard models of inflation, a function of real developments at short horizons and monetary developments at longer horizons. Third, there is a very robust "error correction mechanism" that brings national inflation rates back to Global Inflation. This model consistently beats the previous benchmarks used to forecast inflation 1 to 8 quarters ahead across samples and ountries.
JEL Code
E31 : Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics→Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles→Price Level, Inflation, Deflation
E37 : Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics→Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles→Forecasting and Simulation: Models and Applications
F42 : International Economics→Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance→International Policy Coordination and Transmission
9 September 2005
WORKING PAPER SERIES - No. 518
Details
Abstract
This paper analyses the pricing of bank loans and deposits in euro area countries. We show that retail bank interest rates adjust not only to changes in short term interest rates but also to long-term interest rates. This result, which is arguably intuitive for long-term retail bank rates, is also confirmed for bank interest rates on short-term instruments. The transmission of changes in short-term market interest rates along the yield curve is found to be a key factor explaining the sluggishness of retail bank interest rates. We also show that in the cases where we cannot reject that the adjustment of retail rates has changed since the introduction of the euro, this adjustment has become faster.
JEL Code
E43 : Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics→Money and Interest Rates→Interest Rates: Determination, Term Structure, and Effects
G21 : Financial Economics→Financial Institutions and Services→Banks, Depository Institutions, Micro Finance Institutions, Mortgages
16 March 2005
WORKING PAPER SERIES - No. 451
Details
Abstract
In most OECD countries, we cannot reject up to three breaks in the mean of inflation: one break in the late 1960's-early 1970's, one in the early-mid 1980's and another break in the early 1990's. These breaks tend to be associated more often to breaks in the mean of nominal variables than to the one of real variables, which reinforces the view that they are monetary phenomena. We also show that ignoring breaks in the mean of inflation clearly lead to overrate inflation persistence in standard bi-variate models of inflation. The response of inflation to shocks in these models is markedly faster with breaks than without breaks. Finally, controlling for breaks in the mean of inflation weakens the effects on inflation of M3 growth and of the real unit labour cost towards insignificance while the effects of the output gaps on inflation are more robust.
JEL Code
E31 : Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics→Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles→Price Level, Inflation, Deflation
E52 : Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics→Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit→Monetary Policy
C32 : Mathematical and Quantitative Methods→Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models, Multiple Variables→Time-Series Models, Dynamic Quantile Regressions, Dynamic Treatment Effect Models, Diffusion Processes
Network
Eurosystem inflation persistence network
1 September 2003
WORKING PAPER SERIES - No. 268
Details
Abstract
We revisit recent evidence on how monetary policy affects output and prices in the U.S. and in the euro area. The response patterns to a shift in monetary policy are similar in most respects, but differ noticeably as to the composition of output changes. In the euro area investment is the predominant driver of output changes, while in the U.S. consumption shifts are significantly more important. We dub this difference the output composition puzzle and explore its implications and several potential explanations for it. While the evidence seems to point at differences in consumption responses, rather than investment, as the proximate cause for this fact, the source of the consumption difference remains a puzzle.
JEL Code
E21 : Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics→Consumption, Saving, Production, Investment, Labor Markets, and Informal Economy→Consumption, Saving, Wealth
E22 : Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics→Consumption, Saving, Production, Investment, Labor Markets, and Informal Economy→Capital, Investment, Capacity
E30 : Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics→Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles→General
E52 : Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics→Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit→Monetary Policy
1 January 2002
WORKING PAPER SERIES - No. 114
Details
Abstract
Drawing on recent Eurosystem research that uses a range of econometric techniques and a number of new data sets, we propose a comprehensive description of how monetary policy affects the euro area economy. We focus mainly on three questions: (1) what are the stylised facts concerning the transmission of monetary policy for the area as a whole and for individual countries? (2) can the 'classic' interest rate channel (IRC) alone, without capital market imperfections, explain these facts? (3) if not, is the bank lending channel a likely candidate to complete the story? We find plausible euro-area wide monetary policy responses for prices and output that are similar to those generally reported for the US. However, investment (relative to consumption) seems to play a larger role in euro area monetary policy transmission than in the US. We cannot reject the hypothesis that the IRC completely characterises transmission in a few countries, and estimate it to be substantial in almost all. Where the IRC is not dominant, there is normally some direct evidence supporting the presence of a bank lending channel (or other financial transmission channel). The cases where financial effects appear important can be further split according to whether they primarily relate to consumption or investment
JEL Code
E52 : Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics→Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit→Monetary Policy
E58 : Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics→Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit→Central Banks and Their Policies
E44 : Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics→Money and Interest Rates→Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy
Network
Eurosystem Monetary Transmission Network
1 December 2001
WORKING PAPER SERIES - No. 95
Details
Abstract
This paper presents stylised facts about the business cycle of the euro area. The results suggest that the stylised facts for the euro area economy and the US are very similar. The magnitude of the fluctuations in consumption, investment, prices, inflation, interest rate, monetary aggregates relative to the fluctuations of GDP are very similar in the two monetary unions. There is also high synchronicity of the national cycles and the euro area aggregate cycle. This synchronicity is observed for the main GDP components as well as for interest rates and it is particularly high for the largest countries of the euro area and for countries of the core ERM. These results are not sensitive to a different aggregation method chosen to build euro area aggregates. However, we do find differences between the euro area and the member countries when looking at what variables are predicting inflation or GDP
JEL Code
E42 : Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics→Money and Interest Rates→Monetary Systems, Standards, Regimes, Government and the Monetary System, Payment Systems
E50 : Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics→Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit→General
Network
Eurosystem Monetary Transmission Network
1 December 2001
WORKING PAPER SERIES - No. 92
Details
Abstract
This paper presents a complete set of results describing the effects of monetary policy in 10 countries of the euro area for the pre-EMU period. For each country, we impose one of three identification schemes depending on its monetary integration with Germany, the nominal anchor of the ERM. The first identification scheme applies to Germany, the second to countries of the core EMS (Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands) and the third to all the other countries. An unexpected rise in the short-term interest rate leads to a decrease in GDP, (with investment and exports falling more than consumption) and a gradual decrease in prices for all countries. We also show that, given the width of the error bands around the estimate, we cannot reject that the effects of monetary policy on GDP and on prices are broadly similar in the individual countries of the euro area
JEL Code
E52 : Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics→Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit→Monetary Policy
Network
Eurosystem Monetary Transmission Network
1 October 2001
WORKING PAPER SERIES - No. 78
Details
Abstract
This paper analyses the effects of a change in monetary policy on firms' investment in Germany, France, Italy and Spain using a data set which provides aggregated balance sheet and profit and loss account data for 17 different industries and 3 different size classes. The main findings are twofold. First, in each of the four countries a change in the user cost of capital, which in turn is affected by interest rates, has both statistically and economically significant effects on investment. Second, while the average interest rate on debt is generally higher for small firms than for large firms, there is little evidence that the effects of monetary policy on small firms are larger
JEL Code
E52 : Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics→Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit→Monetary Policy
1 November 2000
WORKING PAPER SERIES - No. 40
Details
Abstract
This paper analyses persistence differences in financial structure across countries of the euro area and whether they can lead to asymmetries in the transmission of the ECB policy. First, the paper examines the pass-through of money market rates to various bank retail rates and measures how this has evolved over the past two interest rate cycles. An analysis of panel data suggests that current 'country asymmetries' in the response of bank rates to monetary policy should decrease over time by virtue of the implementation of the single monetary policy, money market integration and the growth of debt securities markets and competition among banks. Second, analysis of the balance sheet structure of households and firms shows that the income effects of monetary policy are fairly homogenous in the four largest countries of the euro area, while wealth effects could be stronger in Italy.
JEL Code
E43 : Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics→Money and Interest Rates→Interest Rates: Determination, Term Structure, and Effects
E52 : Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics→Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit→Monetary Policy
G21 : Financial Economics→Financial Institutions and Services→Banks, Depository Institutions, Micro Finance Institutions, Mortgages