Monetary Policy Effectiveness in China: Evidence from a FAVAR Model

43 Pages Posted: 30 Sep 2014 Last revised: 26 Jul 2023

See all articles by John G. Fernald

John G. Fernald

Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco

Mark M. Spiegel

Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco - Economic Research Department

Eric T. Swanson

University of California, Irvine - Department of Economics

Date Written: September 2014

Abstract

We use a broad set of Chinese economic indicators and a dynamic factor model framework to estimate Chinese economic activity and inflation as latent variables. We incorporate these latent variables into a factor-augmented vector autoregression (FAVAR) to estimate the effects of Chinese monetary policy on the Chinese economy. A FAVAR approach is particularly well-suited to this analysis due to concerns about Chinese data quality, a lack of a long history for many series, and the rapid institutional and structural changes that China has undergone. We find that increases in bank reserve requirements reduce economic activity and inflation, consistent with previous studies. In contrast to much of the literature, however, we find that central-bank-determined changes in Chinese interest rates also have substantial impacts on economic activity and inflation, while other measures of changes in credit conditions, such as shocks to M2 or lending levels, do not once other policy variables are taken into account. Overall, our results indicate that the monetary policy transmission channels in China have moved closer to those of Western market economies.

Suggested Citation

Fernald, John G. and Spiegel, Mark M. and Swanson, Eric T., Monetary Policy Effectiveness in China: Evidence from a FAVAR Model (September 2014). NBER Working Paper No. w20518, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2502680

John G. Fernald (Contact Author)

Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco ( email )

101 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
United States
415-974-2135 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.frbsf.org/economics/economists/jfernald.html

Mark M. Spiegel

Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco - Economic Research Department ( email )

101 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
United States
415-974-3184 (Phone)
415-974-2168 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.frbsf.org/economics/economists/mspiegel.html

Eric T. Swanson

University of California, Irvine - Department of Economics ( email )

University of California, Irvine
3151 Social Science Plaza
Irvine, CA 92697-5100
United States
(949) 824-8305 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.ericswanson.org

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