• Selected
• Entire List

Abstract:
In this paper we study the role of the stock market in the transmission mechanism in the euro area and evaluate whether price stability and financial stability are mutually consistent and complementary objectives. Four major conclusions can be drawn from our work. First, stock prices and, more generally, relative asset prices seem to play an important role in the transmission mechanism in the euro area. Second, we do not find any significant, direct impact of stock prices on inflation. Third, permanent productivity shocks are the driving force of the stock market in the long-run and contribute significantly to its cyclical behaviour. Nevertheless, the bulk of cyclical dynamics in the stock market is explained by transitory shocks. Fourth, a monetary policy focused on maintaining price stability in the long-run can contribute also to stock market stability.

Monetary policy transmission mechanism; price stability; financial stability

Abstract:
In this paper we show that a two-factor constant volatility model provides an adequate description of the dynamics and shape of the German term structure of interest rates from 1972 up to 1998. The model also provides reasonable estimates of the volatility and term premium curves. Following the conjecture that the two factors driving the German term structure of interest rates represent the ex-ante real interest rate and the expected inflation rate, the identification of one factor with expected inflation is discussed. Our estimates are obtained using a Kalman filter and a maximum likelihood procedure including in the measurement equation both the yields and their volatilities.

expectations hypothesis, term premiums, pricing kernels, affine model

Abstract:
Interest rate derivatives are among the most actively traded financial instruments in the main currency areas. With values of positions reacting immediately to the underlying index of daily interbank rates, manipulation has become an increasing challenge for the operational implementation of monetary policy. To address this issue, we study a microstructure model in which a commercial bank may have strategic recourse to central bank standing facilities. We characterise an equilibrium in which market rates will be manipulated with strictly positive probability. Our findings have an immediate bearing on recent developments in the Sterling and Euro money markets.

Manipulation, Money markets, SWAPS

Abstract:
This paper estimates the factors underlying the volatility of the euro overnight interest rate and its transmission along the euro area money market yield curve. A new multivariate unobserved components model is proposed allowing for both long-memory and stationary cyclical dynamics. Using hourly data the estimates show repetitive intradaily and monthly patterns that can be explained by the microstructure of the money market and the institutional features of the Eurosystem's operational framework for monetary policy implementation. Strong persistence is detected in all log-volatility processes and two common long-memory factors are extracted. The first factor explains the long-memory dynamics of the shortest maturity. The second factor explains the transmission of volatility along the money market yield curve. We find evidence that most liquidity effects are cyclical, confined to the end of reserve maintenance periods, and are not transmitted along the money market yield curve.

Money market microstructure; money market interest rates; liquidity effect; stochastic volatility; fractional integration and cointegration

Abstract:
In order to assess the importance of monetary and financial developments for key macroeconomic variables in the euro area a money demand system for M3 is estimated adopting a structural cointegrating VAR approach. While maintaining a good statistical representation of the data, long-run relationships are based on economic theory. By using generalised response profiles the dynamics of the money demand system is investigated without any further identifying assumptions. Error bounds of the profiles are derived using bootstrap simulations.

Money Demand, Fisher Hypothesis, Term Structure, Structural Cointegrated VAR, Response Profiles

Abstract:
We model the interbank market for overnight credit with heterogeneous banks and asymmetric information. An unsophisticated bank just trades to compensate its liquidity imbalance, while a sophisticated bank will exploit its private information about the liquidity situation in the market. It is shown that with positive probability, the liquidity effect (Hamilton, 1997) is reversed, i.e., a liquidity drainage from the banking system may generate an overall decrease in the market rate. The phenomenon does not disappear when the number of banks increases. We also show that private information mitigates the effect of an unexpected liquidity shock on the market rate, suggesting a conservative information policy from a central bank perspective.

Liquidity effect, asymmetric information, monetary policy implementation

Abstract:
In certain market environments, a large investor may benefit from building up a futures position first and trading subsequently in the spot market (Kumar and Seppi, 1992). The present paper identifies a variation of this type of manipulation that might occur in money markets with an interest rate corridor. We show that manipulation involving the use of central bank facilities would be observable only sporadically. The probability of manipulation decreases when the central bank uses an active liquidity management. Manipulation can also be reduced by widening the interest rate corridor.

Money market, corridor system, manipulation

Abstract:
This paper assesses the sources of volatility persistence in Euro Area money market interest rates and the existence of linkages relating volatility dynamics. The main findings of the study are as follows. Firstly, there is evidence of stationary long memory, of similar degree, in all series. Secondly, there is evidence of fractional cointegration relationships relating all series, except the overnight rate. Two common long memory factors are found to drive the temporal evolution of the volatility processes. The first factor shows how persistent volatility shocks are trasmitted along the term structure, while the second factor points to excess persistent volatility at the longer end of the yield curve, relative to the shortest end. Finally, impulse response analysis and forecast error variance decomposition point to forward transmission of shocks only, involving the closest maturities.

Money market interest rates, liquidity effect, realized volatility, fractional integration and cointegration, fractional vector error correction model

Abstract:
In the framework of a new money market econometric model, we assess the degree of precision achieved by the European Central Bank ECB) in meeting its operational target for the short-term interest rate and the impact of the U.S. sub-prime credit crisis on the euro money market during the second half of 2007. This is done in two steps. Firstly, the long-term behaviour of interest rates with one-week maturity is investigated by testing for co-breaking and for homogeneity of spreads against the minimum bid rate (MBR, the key policy rate). These tests capture the idea that successful steering of very short-term interest rates is inconsistent with the existence of more than one common trend driving the one-week interest rates and/or with nonstationarity of the spreads among interest rates of the same maturity (or measured against the MBR). Secondly, the impact of several shocks to the spreads (e.g. interest rate expectations, volumes of open market operations, interest rate volatility, policy interventions, and credit risk) is assessed by jointly modelling their behaviour. We show that, after August 2007, euro area commercial banks started paying a premium to participate in the ECB liquidity auctions. This puzzling phenomenon can be understood by the interplay between, on the one hand, adverse selection in the interbank market and, on the other hand, the broad range of collateral accepted by the ECB. We also show that after August 2007, the ECB steered the "risk-free" rate close to the policy rate, but has not fully off-set the impact of the credit events on other money market rates.

money market interest rates, euro area, sub-prime credit crisis, credit risk, liquidity risk, long memory, structural change, fractional co-integration, co-breaking, fractionally integrated factor vector autoregressive model

Abstract:
On several occasions during the period 2001-2003, the European Central Bank (ECB) decided to deviate from its "neutral" benchmark allotment rule, with the effect of not alleviating a temporary liquidity shortage in the banking system. This is remarkable because it implied the possibility of short-term interest rates raising significantly above the main policy rate. In the present paper, we show that when the monetary authority cares for both liquidity and interest rate conditions, the optimal allotment policy may entail a discontinuous reaction to initial conditions. More precisely, we prove that there is a threshold level for the accumulated aggregate liquidity position in the banking system prior to the last operation in a given maintenance period, so that the benchmark allotment is optimal whenever liquidity conditions are above the threshold, and a tight allotment is optimal whenever liquidity conditions are below the threshold.

Euro, monetary policy instruments, operational framework, refinancing operations

Abstract:
The theory of liquidity management under uncertainty predicts that, under certain conditions, commercial banks will accumulate minimum reserve requirements linearly over the reserve maintenance period. This prediction is empirically tested using daily data (from March 2004 until February 2007) on the current accounts and minimum reserve requirements of a panel of 79 commercial banks from the euro area. The linear accumulation hypothesis is not rejected by the data with the exception of small banks which build-up excess reserves. The empirical analysis suggest that idiosyncratic liquidity uncertainty is much higher than aggregate liquidity uncertainty. Nevertheless, on the penultimate day in the reserve maintenance period, the inverse demand schedule of the representative bank is relatively flat around the middle of the interest rate corridor set by the standing facilities. This suggests that liquidity effects on the overnight inter-bank rate should be very muted on this day. Our calibration exercise suggests that the probability of an individual bank's daily overdraft in the euro area is very low (less than 1.0 %). This is confirmed by the analysis of the daily recourses to the marginal lending facility by the panel banks.

Monetary policy implementation, Reserve requirements, Rate corridor, Liquidity management, Panel data

Abstract:
Among the most puzzling observations for the euro money market are the bid shading in the weekly refinancing operations and the development of interest rate spreads. To explain these observations, we consider a standard divisible-good auction à la Klemperer and Meyer (1989) with uniform or discriminatory pricing, and place it in the context of a secondary market for interbank credit. The analysis links the observations for the euro area to the endogenous choice of collateral in credit transactions. We also discuss the Eurosystem's apparent preference for the discriminatory pricing rule.

Open market operations, uniform price auction, discriminatory, Eurosystem, discriminatory auction, bid shading, collateral

Abstract:
The fixed rate tender is one of the main procedural formats relied upon by central banks in their implementation of monetary policy. This fact stands in a somewhat puzzling contrast to the prevalent view in the theoretical literature that the procedure, by fixing interest rate and quantity at the same time, does not allow a strategic equilibrium. We show that an equilibrium exists under general conditions even if bidders expect true demand to exceed supply on average. The outcome is typically inefficient. It is argued that the fixed rate tender, in comparison to other tender formats, may be an appropriate instrument for central bank liquidity management when market conditions are sufficiently calm.

Fixed rate tenders, rationing, equilibrium, inefficiency

Abstract:
This paper contributes to the existing literature on central bank repo auctions. It is based on a structural econometric approach, whereby the primitives of bidding behavior (individual bid schedules and bid-shading components) are directly estimated. With the estimated parameters we calibrate a theoretical model in order to illustrate some comparative static results. Overall the results suggest that strategic and optimal behavior is prevalent in ECB tenders. We find evidence of a statistically significant bid-shading component, even though the number of bidders is very large. Bid-shading increases with liquidity uncertainty and decreases with the number of participants.

Repo auctions, monetary policy implementation, primary money market market, multi unit auctions, discriminatory auctions, collateral, central bank, nonparametric estimation

Abstract:
In this paper we study European banks' demand for short-term funds (liquidity) during the summer 2007 subprime market crisis. We use bidding data from the European Central Bank's auctions for one-week loans, their main channel of monetary policy implementation. Through a model of bidding, we show that banks' behavior reflects their cost of obtaining short-term funds elsewhere (i.e., in the interbank market) as well as a strategic response to other bidders. We find considerable heterogeneity across banks in their willingness to pay for short-term funds supplied in these auctions. Accounting for the strategic component is important: while a naive interpretation of the raw bidding data may suggest that virtually all banks suffered a dramatic increase in the cost of obtaining funds in the interbank market, we find that for about one third of the banks, the change in bidding behavior was simply a strategic response. Using a complementary data set, we also find that banks' pre-turmoil liquidity costs, as estimated by our model, are predictive of their post-turmoil liquidity costs, and that there is considerable heterogeneity in these costs with respect to the country-of-origin. Finally, among the publicly traded banks, the willingness to pay for short-term funds in the second half of 2007 are predictive of stock prices in late 2008.

Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at www.nber.org.

Abstract:
This paper contributes to the existing literature on central bank repo auctions. It is based on a structural econometric approach, whereby the primitives of bidding behavior (individual bid schedules and bid-shading components) are directly estimated. With the estimated parameters we calibrate a theoretical model in order to illustrate some comparative static results. This exercise sheds light on the debate about the reversed winner's curse found in the empirical literature on ECB auctions by showing that it may be related to an identification problem. Overall the results suggest that strategic and optimal behavior is prevalent in ECB tenders. We find evidence of a statistically significant bid-shading component, even though the number of bidders is very large. Bid-shading increases with liquidity uncertainty and decreases with the number of participants and with price uncertainty. We argue that a sufficient condition for the latter effect to appear in the data is that the residual supply facing an individual bidder does not change much ex-post when very short-term market rates increase.

repo auctions, monetary policy implementation, primary money market market, multi unit auctions, discriminatory auctions, collateral, central bank, nonparametric estimation