When is Bad News Good News? U.S. Monetary Policy, Macroeconomic News, and Financial Conditions in Emerging Markets

43 Pages Posted: 15 Jun 2020

See all articles by Jasper Hoek

Jasper Hoek

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Steven B. Kamin

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Emre Yoldas

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Date Written: January, 2020

Abstract

Rises in U.S. interest rates are often thought to generate adverse spillovers to emerging market economies (EMEs). We show that what appears to be bad news for EMEs might actually be good news, or at least not-so-bad news, depending on the source of the rise in U.S. interest rates. We present evidence that higher U.S. interest rates stemming from stronger U.S. growth generate only modest spillovers, while those stemming from a more hawkish Fed policy stance or inflationary pressures can lead to significant tightening of EME financial conditions. Our identification of the sources of U.S. rate changes is based on high-frequency moves in U.S. Treasury yields and stock prices around FOMC announcements and U.S. employment report releases. We interpret positive comovements of stocks and interest rates around these events as growth shocks and negative comovements as monetary shocks, and estimate the effect of these shocks on emerging market asset prices. For economies with greater macroeconomic vulnerabilities, the difference between the impact of monetary and growth shocks is magnified. In fact, for EMEs with very low levels of vulnerability, a growth-driven rise in U.S. interest rates may even ease financial conditions in some markets.

Keywords: Monetary policy, Spillovers, Emerging markets, Growth shock, monetary shocks, Financial conditions

JEL Classification: E50, F30

Suggested Citation

Hoek, Jasper and Kamin, Steven B. and Yoldas, Emre, When is Bad News Good News? U.S. Monetary Policy, Macroeconomic News, and Financial Conditions in Emerging Markets (January, 2020). International Finance Discussion Paper No. 1269, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3625088 or http://dx.doi.org/10.17016/IFDP.2020.1269

Jasper Hoek (Contact Author)

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ( email )

20th Street and Constitution Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20551
United States

Steven B. Kamin

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ( email )

20th St. and Constitution Ave.
Washington, DC 20551
United States
202-452-3339 (Phone)
202-736-5638 (Fax)

Emre Yoldas

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ( email )

20th Street and Constitution Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20551
United States

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
172
Abstract Views
732
Rank
276,937
PlumX Metrics