A Note on the Money-Output Causality Tests

This study suggests that some empirical findings against money-output causality can be the consequence of ignoring autoregressive conditional heteroskedastic (ARCH) errors. Monte Carlo results confirm that ARCH effects drastically reduce the power of the standard causality test. The maximum likelihood approach allowing for ARCH effects, on the other hand, provides a good power performance. Using different specifications and sample periods, Friedman and Kuttner (1993) and Thoma (1994) report limited evidence of money causing output. We detect significant ARCH effects in the models considered by these studies. Once ARCH effects are explicitly accounted for, we find that the monetary effect is significant though its magnitude is quite small