Japan has experienced stagnation, deflation, and low interest rates for decades. It is caught in a liquidity trap. This paper examines Japan's liquidity trap in light of the structure and performance of the country's economy since the onset of stagnation. It also analyzes the country's liquidity...

This paper econometrically models Japanese yen (JPY)-denominated interest rate swap yields. It examines whether the short-term interest rate exerts an influence on the long-term JPY swap yield after controlling for several key macroeconomic variables, such as core inflation, the growth of...

This paper reviews the rationale for quantitative easing when central bank policy rates reach near zero levels in light of recent announcements regarding direct asset purchases by the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank. Empirical evidence...

The bursting of the Japanese bubble economy in the early 1990s put the stage for a lasting lowzero-, and negative-interest rate environment, which fundamentally changed the business environment for the Japanese commercial banks. On the income side, with interest margins becoming increasingly...

This paper investigates how monetary policy can help to avoid the liquidity trap by studying the experience of Japan. First, I analyze how the Bank of Japan conducted interest rate policy over the 1990s as the economy entered a deflationary slump. I use a new method of estimating the policy rule...

It is standard to model the output-inflation trade-off as a linear relationship with a time-invariant slope. We assess empirical evidence for three types of nonlinearity in the short-run Phillips curve. At an empirical level, we aim to discover why large negative output gaps in Japan during the...

»Deflation«, »Kreditklemme« und »Bankenkrise« waren die Schlagworte in derFinanzpresse des Jahres 2003. Insbesondere hier zu Lande wurde über Monate in den Medien davon gesprochen, dass sich Deutschland in der japanischen Malaise befände. In ihrem Beitrag gehen Prof. Dr. Stephan Paul,...

Beginnt die japanische Notenbank mit ihrer lockeren Geldpolitik einen Abwertungswettlauf? Jürgen Matthes, Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft Köln, vertritt die These, dass derzeit nicht von einem echten Währungskrieg die Rede sein kann, dass es jedoch gewisse Anzeichen für eine mögliche...

Studies of central bank intervention are complicated by the fact that we typically observe intervention only during periods of turbulent exchange markets. Furthermore, entering the market during these particular periods is a conscious self-selection" choice made by the intervening central bank....

This paper sets up a simple model for interventions and interest rate setting assuming that the policy maker cares about deviations in inflation from a target level. Under a quadratic cost of interest rate adjustments and interventions the policy maker should use a combination of interest rate...