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Monetary policy, capital inflows and the housing boom

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  • Sa, Filipa

    (Trinity College, University of Cambridge; IZA)

  • Wieladek, Tomasz

    (Bank of England)

Abstract

A range of hypotheses have been put forward to explain the boom in house prices that occurred in the United States from the mid-1990s to 2007. This paper considers the relative importance of two of these hypotheses. First, global imbalances increased liquidity in the US financial system, driving down long-term real interest rates. Second, the Federal Reserve kept interest rates low in the first half of the 2000s. Both factors reduced the cost of borrowing and may have encouraged the boom in house prices. This paper develops an empirical framework to separate the relative contributions of these two factors to the US housing market. The results suggest that capital inflows to the United States played a bigger role in generating the increase in house prices than monetary policy loosening. Using VAR methods, we find that compared to monetary policy, the effect of a capital inflows shock on US house prices and residential investment is about twice as large and substantially more persistent. Results from variance decompositions suggest that, at a forecast horizon of 20 quarters, capital flows shocks explain 15% of the variation in real house prices, while monetary policy shocks explain only 5%. In a simple counterfactual exercise, we find that if the ratio of the current account deficit to GDP had remained constant since the end of 1998, real house prices by the end of 2007 would have been 13% lower. Similar exercises with constant policy rates and the path of policy rates implied by the Taylor rule deliver smaller effects.

Suggested Citation

  • Sa, Filipa & Wieladek, Tomasz, 2010. "Monetary policy, capital inflows and the housing boom," Bank of England working papers 405, Bank of England.
  • Handle: RePEc:boe:boeewp:0405
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    Cited by:

    1. Merrouche, Ouarda & Nier, Erlend, 2017. "Capital inflows, monetary policy, and financial imbalances," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 117-142.
    2. Mendicino, Caterina & Punzi, Maria Teresa, 2014. "House prices, capital inflows and macroprudential policy," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 337-355.
    3. Filipa Sa & Pascal Towbin & Tomasz Wieladek, 2011. "Low interest rates and housing booms: the role of capital inflows, monetary policy and financial innovation," Globalization Institute Working Papers 79, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
    4. Andrey Pavlov & Tsur Somerville, 2020. "Immigration, Capital Flows and Housing Prices," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 48(3), pages 915-949, September.
    5. Georgiadis, Georgios, 2014. "Towards an explanation of cross-country asymmetries in monetary transmission," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 39(PA), pages 66-84.
    6. Taipalus, Katja, 2012. "Detecting asset price bubbles with time-series methods," Scientific Monographs, Bank of Finland, number 2012_047.
    7. Deniz Igan & Zhibo Tan, 2017. "Capital Inflows, Credit Growth, and Financial Systems," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(12), pages 2649-2671, December.
    8. repec:zbw:bofism:2012_047 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Taipalus, Katja, 2012. "Detecting asset price bubbles with time-series methods," Bank of Finland Scientific Monographs, Bank of Finland, volume 0, number sm2012_047.
    10. Mark A. Wynne, 2012. "Five Years of Research on Globalization and Monetary Policy: What Have We Learned?," Annual Report, Globalization and Monetary Policy Institute, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, pages 2-17.
    11. Agnieszka Stążka-Gawrysiak, 2011. "Poland on the road to the euro: How serious is the risk of boom-bust cycles after the euro adoption? An empirical analysis," NBP Working Papers 103, Narodowy Bank Polski.
    12. Aylin Soydan & Serap Bedir Kara, 2020. "Implications of Capital Flows for Domestic Credit Growth: Evidence from Panel Data Analysis," Eurasian Journal of Economics and Finance, Eurasian Publications, vol. 8(4), pages 231-245.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    house prices; capital inflows; monetary policy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E50 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - General
    • F30 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - General

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