IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/30958.html

Loose Monetary Policy and Financial Instability

Author

Listed:
  • Maximilian Grimm
  • Òscar Jordà
  • Moritz Schularick
  • Alan M. Taylor

Abstract

Do periods of persistently loose monetary policy increase financial fragility and the likelihood of a financial crisis? This is a central question for policymakers, yet the literature does not provide systematic empirical evidence about this link at the aggregate level. In this paper we fill this gap by analyzing long-run historical data. We find that when the stance of monetary policy is accommodative over an extended period, the likelihood of financial turmoil down the road increases considerably. We investigate the causal pathways that lead to this result and argue that credit creation and asset price overheating are important intermediating channels.

Suggested Citation

  • Maximilian Grimm & Òscar Jordà & Moritz Schularick & Alan M. Taylor, 2023. "Loose Monetary Policy and Financial Instability," NBER Working Papers 30958, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30958
    Note: AP DAE IFM ME
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w30958.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sepp, Tim Florian & Israel, Karl-Friedrich & Treitz, Benjamin & Hartl, Tom, 2024. "Monetary policy and the resilience of the German banking system: From Deutsche Bundesbank to ECB," Working Papers 180, University of Leipzig, Faculty of Economics and Management Science.
    2. Sangyup Choi & Kimoon Jeong & Jiseob Kim, 2025. "One Size Does Not Fit All: Unveiling Asymmetric Transmission of Monetary Policy in the Euro Area," Working papers 2025rwp-256, Yonsei University, Yonsei Economics Research Institute.
    3. Wifo, 2023. "WIFO-Monatsberichte, Heft 4/2023," WIFO Monatsberichte (monthly reports), WIFO, vol. 96(4), April.
    4. Emmanuel Caiazzo & Alberto Zazzaro, 2025. "Price Stability and Financial Stability: Designing the Central Bank Mandate," Mo.Fi.R. Working Papers 191, Money and Finance Research group (Mo.Fi.R.) - Univ. Politecnica Marche - Dept. Economic and Social Sciences.
    5. Davis, Josh & Fuenzalida, Cristian & Huetsch, Leon & Mills, Benjamin & Taylor, Alan M., 2024. "Global natural rates in the long run: Postwar macro trends and the market-implied r∗ in 10 advanced economies," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    6. Thomas Url, 2023. "Hohe Inflation führt zu Kurswechsel in der Geldpolitik," WIFO Monatsberichte (monthly reports), WIFO, vol. 96(4), pages 269-281, April.
    7. Gächter, Martin & Hasler, Elias & Scharler, Johann, 2023. "Kicking the can down the road: A historical growth-at-risk perspective," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).
    8. Botta, Alberto & Caverzasi, Eugenio & Russo, Alberto, 2024. "Same old song: On the macroeconomic and distributional effects of leaving a Low Interest Rate Environment," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 552-570.
    9. Boissay, Frederic & Collard, Fabrice & Manea, Cristina & Shapiro, Adam, 2023. "Monetary Tightening, Inflation Drivers and Financial Stress," CEPR Discussion Papers 18694, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    10. Fernández-Gallardo, Álvaro & Payá, Iván, 2025. "Public debt burden and crisis severity," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    11. Chavleishvili, Sulkhan & Kremer, Manfred & Lund-Thomsen, Frederik, 2023. "Quantifying financial stability trade-offs for monetary policy: a quantile VAR approach," Working Paper Series 2833, European Central Bank.
    12. Sepp, Tim Florian & Israel, Karl-Friedrich & Treitz, Benjamin & Hartl, Tom, 2024. "Monetary policy and bank-type resilience in Germany from 1999 to 2022," Working Papers 181, University of Leipzig, Faculty of Economics and Management Science.
    13. Ghassan, Hassan Belkacem & Krichene, Noureddine, 2023. "Theoretical and Analytical Approach of Financial Stability: Islamic Perspective," MPRA Paper 122963, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 19 Feb 2024.
    14. Boysen-Hogrefe, Jens & Groll, Dominik & Hoffmann, Timo & Jannsen, Nils & Kooths, Stefan & Sonnenberg, Nils & Stamer, Vincent, 2023. "Deutsche Wirtschaft im Sommer 2023: Konjunktur tastet sich aus der Krise [German Economy in Summer 2023: Crawling out of the crisis]," Kieler Konjunkturberichte 104, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    15. Maximilian Grimm, 2024. "The Effect of Monetary Policy on Systemic Bank Funding Stability," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 341, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    16. Giuzio, Margherita & Kapadia, Sujit & Kaufmann, Christoph & Storz, Manuela & Weistroffer, Christian, 2025. "Macroprudential policy, monetary policy and non-bank financial intermediation," Working Paper Series 3130, European Central Bank.
    17. Kaufmann, Christoph & Leyva, Jaime & Storz, Manuela, 2024. "Insurance corporations’ balance sheets, financial stability and monetary policy," Working Paper Series 2892, European Central Bank.
    18. Guo, Peng & Jiang, Fuwei & Li, Mengru & Liu, Yumin, 2024. "Managerial macroeconomic perception and systemic risk in China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    19. Emmanuel Caiazzo & Alberto Zazzaro, 2025. "Price Stability and Financial Stability: Designing the Central Bank Mandate," CSEF Working Papers 767, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy.
    20. Albertazzi, Ugo & Hooft, James ’t & Ter Steege, Lucas, 2025. "The causal effect of inflation on financial stability, evidence from history," Working Paper Series 3108, European Central Bank.
    21. Li, Xiao-Lin & Zhang, Rong-Jing, 2025. "Effects of credit misallocation on systemic risk of non-financial corporations: The role of monetary policy," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    22. Zakaria Savon, 2025. "Does Monetary Policy Affect the Stability of Islamic Banks?," Post-Print hal-05321401, HAL.
    23. Philipp Roderweis & Jamel Saadaoui & Francisco Serranito, 2023. "The Unintended Consequences of ECB’s Asset Purchases. How Excess Reserves Shape Bank Lending," Working Papers of BETA 2023-34, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E43 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Interest Rates: Determination, Term Structure, and Effects
    • E44 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy
    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy
    • E58 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Central Banks and Their Policies
    • G01 - Financial Economics - - General - - - Financial Crises
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • N10 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - General, International, or Comparative

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30958. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.