The Effectiveness of Monetary Policy in China: Evidence from a Qual VAR

38 Pages Posted: 11 May 2016 Last revised: 5 Aug 2022

Date Written: May 10, 2016

Abstract

This working paper was written by Hongyi Chen (Hong Kong Institute for Monetary Research), Kenneth Chow (Hong Kong Monetary Authority) and Peter Tillmann (Justus Liebig University Giessen).

Analyzing monetary policy in China is not straightforward because the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) implements policy by using more than one instrument. In this paper we use a Qual VAR, a conventional VAR system augmented with binary policy announcements, to extract a latent indicator of tightening and easing pressure, respectively, for China. The model acknowledges that policy announcements are endogenous and summarizes policy by a single indicator. The Qual VAR allows us to study the impact of monetary policy in terms of unexpected changes in these latent variables, which we identify using sign restrictions. We show that the transmission of monetary policy impulses to the rest of the economy is remarkably similar to the transmission process in advanced economies in terms of both output growth and inflation despite a very different monetary policy framework. We find that bank loans are not sensitive to policy changes, which implies that window guidance is still a necessary policy tool. We also find that the impact of monetary policy shocks is asymmetric in terms of asset prices, that is, the asset price reactions differ in their sensitivity to tightening shocks and easing shocks, respectively. In particular, an easing of monetary conditions boosts stock prices while a tightening shock leaves stock prices unaffected. This shows that monetary policy is not a suitable tool to stabilize asset prices, which raises implications for financial stability and macroprudential policy.

Keywords: China, monetary policy, Qual VAR, transmission mechanism, asset prices, financial stability

JEL Classification: E4, E5, C3

Suggested Citation

Institute for Monetary and Financial Research, Hong Kong, The Effectiveness of Monetary Policy in China: Evidence from a Qual VAR (May 10, 2016). Hong Kong Institute for Monetary and Financial Research (HKIMR) Research Paper WP No. 06/2016, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2778404 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2778404

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