A Changing Financial Environment and the Implications for Monetary Policy

Paul Mylonas, Sebastian Schich and Gert Wehinger

No 243, OECD Economics Department Working Papers from OECD Publishing

Abstract: Monetary policy affects activity, and ultimately inflation, in a number of ways. The most important of these is generally considered to be through the effect of interest rates directly on the demand for goods by households and firms. However, monetary policy can also influence activity through its impact on the value of assets that, in turn, will influence the behaviour of households and firms; e.g. by changing wealth and, through an impact on balance sheets, borrowing costs. Recent financial market developments may have made these effects of monetary policy more important but at the same time less easy to predict. In particular, the size of financial markets has risen relative to activity and readily tradable assets are becoming increasingly important relative to other financial assets. Prices of such assets tend to be sensitive to shifts in market expectations about the future course of general economic developments and in particular interest rates. With these changing financial ... La politique monétaire influe sur l’activité, et finalement sur l’inflation, de plusieurs manières. On considère généralement que la plus importante est celle qui affecte directement la demande de biens des ménages et des entreprises à travers les taux d'intérêt. Cependant, la politique monétaire peut aussi influencer l’activité par son impact sur la valeur des actifs qui à son tour influencera le comportement des ménages et entreprises ; par exemple en changeant la richesse et, au travers de sa répercussion sur le bilan, les coûts des emprunts. Les récents développements du marché financier peuvent avoir rendu ces effets de la politique monétaire plus importants mais en même temps moins faciles à prévoir. En particulier, la taille des marchés financiers s’est accrue par rapport à l’activité, et des biens facilement négociables ont pris de plus en plus d’importance par rapport aux autres biens financiers. Les prix de tels biens tendent à être sensibles aux changements sur les ...

Keywords: balance sheet effect; effet de bilan; effet de patrimoine; gradualism; gradualisme; monetary transmission mechanism; mécanisme de transmission monétaire; wealth effects (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E44 E52 E58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2000-05-11
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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