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Voluntary Provision of Public Goods and Cryptocurrency
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to show how the mechanism of the reward structure for cryptocurrency mining (known as “Proof of Work”) is applicable to alleviation of the free rider problem for voluntary public goods provision. This paper presents the following results. First, if each individual reports preferences honestly, then the Samuelson condition can hold. It is possible to set an appropriate level of mining. Second, if the scheme (mechanism) offered by our manuscript is introduced, public goods can theoretically be provided at a Pareto optimal level under certain conditions because each rational individual reports true preferences to the government. -
Did BOJ’s Negative Interest Rate Policy Increase Bank Lending?
Abstract
We investigate the effects of the negative interest rate policy (NIRP) in Japan on bank lending using regression discontinuity design (RDD). On January 29, 2016, the Bank of Japan announced the beginning of the NIRP from February 16, 2016. Since the financial market did not anticipate this policy, we use the event as a natural experiment. For a few months, starting from February 2016, a negative interest rate was levied on banks that held reserves exceeding the average monthly reserves of 2015. This allows us to employ RDD. The results suggest the average treatment effect on the banks to which a negative interest was levied was approximately -1.5% to -3.5%. In other words, the loan rates of banks to which negative interest rates were levied declined compared to those of the banks that were not subject to NIRP. -
Generational War on Inflation: Optimal Inflation Rates for the Young and the Old
Abstract
How does a grayer society affect the political decision making regarding inflation rates? Is deflation preferred as society ages? In order to answer these questions, we compute the optimal inflation rates for the young and the old respectively and explore how they change with demographic factors, by using a New Keynesian model with overlapping generations. According to our simulation results, there indeed exists a tension between the young and the old on the optimal inflation rates. The optimal inflation rates are different between the young and the old. Also, they can be significantly different from zero, in particular, when heterogeneous impacts from inflation via nominal asset holdings are considered. The optimal inflation rates for the old can be largely negative, reflecting their positive nominal asset holdings as well as lower effective discount factor. Societal aging may exert downward pressure on inflation rates through a politico-economic mechanism. -
The Weak Rupiah: Catching the tailwinds and avoiding the shoals
Abstract
The Indonesian rupiah depreciated 50 percent between July 2011 and January 2019. Blanchard et al. (2015) showed that capital outflows from emerging markets can reduce output by increasing the cost of financial intermediation and can increase output by increasing net exports. Regression results indicate that Indonesian banks are exposed to depreciations, but that exports are not stimulated by depreciations. The findings also indicate that Indonesia’s export price index is positively correlated with commodity prices and negatively correlated with manufactured goods prices. Exporting more manufactured goods would reduce Indonesia’s exposure to volatile commodity prices and allow depreciations to stimulate exports. This paper considers several steps that Indonesia could take to increase its manufacturing exports.