Alternative Monetary Policy Rules For India

This paper empirically evaluates the operational performance of the McCallum rule, the Taylor rule and hybrid rules in India over the period 1996-2011 using quarterly data, with a view to analytically informing the conduct of monetary policy. The results show that forward-looking formulations of both rules and their hybrid version - setting a nominal output growth objective for monetary policy with an interest rate instrument - outperform contemporaneous and backward-looking specifications, especially when targeting core components of GDP and inflation, and combine the best parts of efficiency and discretion.

A New Keynesian model estimated for India yields valuable insights. Aggregate demand reacts to interest rate changes with a lag of at least three quarters, with inflation taking seven quarters to respond. Inflation is inertial and persistent when it sets in, irrespective of the source. Exchange rate pass-through to domestic inflation is low. Inflation turns out to be the dominant focus of monetary policy, accompanied by a strong commitment to the stabilization of output. Recent policy actions have raised the effective policy rate, but the estimated neutral policy rate suggests some further tightening to normalize the policy stance.

Over the past two decades, many low- and lower-middle income countries (LLMICs) have improved control over fiscal policy, liberalized and deepened financial markets, and stabilized inflation at moderate levels. Monetary policy frameworks that have helped achieve these ends are being challenged by continued financial development and increased exposure to global capital markets. Many policymakers aspire to move beyond the basics of stability to implement monetary policy frameworks that better anchor inflation and promote macroeconomic stability and growth. Many of these LLMICs are thus considering and implementing improvements to their monetary policy frameworks. The recent successes of some LLMICs and the experiences of emerging and advanced economies, both early in their policy modernization process and following the global financial crisis, are valuable in identifying desirable features of such frameworks. This paper draws on those lessons to provide guidance on key elements of effective monetary policy frameworks for LLMICs.

Consists of over 30 major contributions that explore a range of work on money and finance. The contributions in this handbook cover the origins and nature of money, detailed analyses of endogenous money, surveys of empirical work on endogenous money and the nature of monetary policy when money is endogenous.

Recently, monetary authorities have increasingly focused on implementing policies to ensure price stability and strengthen central bank independence. Simultaneously, in the fiscal area, market development has allowed public debt managers to focus more on cost minimization. This “divorce” of monetary and debt management functions in no way lessens the need for effective coordination of monetary and fiscal policy if overall economic performance is to be optimized and maintained in the long term. This paper analyzes these issues based on a review of the relevant literature and of country experiences from an institutional and operational perspective.

This Second Revised And Enlarged Edition: 2002 Provides A Good Insight Into The Current State Of Indian Economy, Highlighting The Challenges Of The Growth Process And Opportunities Covering The Areas Of The Economy, Banking And Finance, Agriculture, Industry And Infrastructure And The External Sectory.

We examine the strength of monetary transmission in India, using a conventional structural VAR methodology. We find that a tightening of monetary policy is associated with a significant increase in bank lending rates and conventional effects on the exchange rate, though pass-through to lending rates is only partial and exchange rate effects are weak. We could find no significant effects on real output or the inflation rate. Though the message for the effectiveness of monetary transmission in India is therefore mixed, our results for India are more favorable than is often found for other developing countries.

Central banks in emerging and developing economies (EMDEs) have been modernizing their monetary policy frameworks, often moving toward inflation targeting (IT). However, questions regarding the strength of monetary policy transmission from interest rates to inflation and output have often stalled progress. We conduct a novel empirical analysis using Jordà’s (2005) approach for 40 EMDEs to shed a light on monetary transmission in these countries. We find that interest rate hikes reduce output growth and inflation, once we explicitly account for the behavior of the exchange rate. Having a modern monetary policy framework—adopting IT and independent and transparent central banks—matters more for monetary transmission than financial development.

The thought-provoking book presents alternative viewpoints to mainstream macroeconomic theory, questions conventional policy wisdom and suggests a systematic re-orientation of current macroeconomic and financial regulatory policies in India. The New Consensus Macroeconomics (NCM), which established itself in the 1980s as mainstream macroeconomics, essentially represents an “uneasy truce” between two dominant schools of economic thought viz. New Classical and Neo-Keynesian economics. The NCM sets the tone for much of the macroeconomic (especially monetary) policy followed by the advanced economies in the period of the Great Moderation (1990–2005). The recent global crisis has posed a major challenge to the NCM as empirical models based on the NCM failed to anticipate the occurrence of the crisis and later its extent and severity. The above considerations constitute the underpinnings of this book, which addresses the theoretical controversies within a general context and their policy implications for India. The authors’ analysis leads to a somewhat critical assessment of the financial sector policies followed in India since the initiation of reforms in 1991. This makes the book a valuable resource not only for researchers working in this area, but also for policy makers.

The book discusses Indian post-independence monetary history in the context of the country’s development and the global changes of the period. The conceptual framework used is the SIIO (Structure, Ideas, Institutions and Outcomes) paradigm. That is, structure and ideas become embedded in institutions and affect outcomes. Narrative history, data analysis and research reports demonstrate the dialectic between ideas and structure with respect to monetary history, aspects of India’s development, and the global institutions and events that impacted monetary choices. The history of the economy and of the global changes that affected it covers a time when major changes took place both in India and internationally. India’s greater openness is important both for it and for the world, but it occurred at a time of major global crises. How did these impact monetary choices and how did the latter help India navigate the crises while maintaining its trajectory towards greater liberalization? The book explores these and other relevant but under-analyzed questions. The initial combination of ideas and structure created fiscal dominance and made monetary policy procyclical. An aggregate supply-and-demand framework derived from forward-looking optimization subject to Indian structural constraints is able to explain growth and inflation outcomes in the light of policy actions. Using exogenous supply shocks to identify policy shocks and to isolate their effects, demonstrate that policy was sometimes exceedingly strict despite the common perception of a large monetary overhang. Surges and sudden stops in capital flow also constrained policy. But the three factors that cause a loss of monetary autonomy—governments, markets and openness—moderate each other. Markets moderate fiscal profligacy and global crises moderate market freedoms and ensure openness remains a sequenced and gradual process. The book argues greater current congruence between ideas and structure is improving institutions and contributing to India’s potential.