Testing long-run neutrality using intra-year data

Previous tests of the long-run neutrality hypothesis have generally relied on annual time series data. This paper analyses the long-run neutrality of money in Australia using different sources of intra-year data, which permits an examination of the effects of seasonality and the robustness of previous empirical results. A reduced form ARIMA model is used with both quarterly seasonally unadjusted and adjusted Australian real GDP and nominal money supply to test the neutrality hypothesis. Using two measures of money stock, namely M1 and M3, it is shown that the hypothesis is supported using M1 as the measure of money supply, while it is rejected using M3. Recent trends and developments in the money and credit markets in Australia provide a possible explanation of the sensitivity of the outcome to the measure of money stock employed in the analysis.