European Central Bank

Geopolitical risk shocks: when the size matters

08/07/2024 European Central Bank Central banks

In this paper, we investigate the presence of non-linearities in the transmission of geopolitical risk (GPR) shocks. Our methodology involves incorporating a non-linear function of the identified shock into a VARX model and examining its impulse response functions and historical decomposition. We find that the primary transmission channel of such shocks is associated with heightened uncertainty,which significantly escalates only with substantially large GPR shocks (i.e., above 4 standard deviations).

Macro uncertainty, unemployment risk, and consumption dynamics

08/07/2024 European Central Bank Central banks

Households' income heterogeneity is important to explain consumption dynamics in response to aggregate macro uncertainty: an increase in uncertainty generates a consumption drop that is stronger for income poorer households. At the same time, labor markets are strongly responsive to macro uncertainty as the unemployment rate and the job separation rate rise, while the job finding rate falls. A heterogeneous agent New Keynesian model with search and matching frictions in the labor market can account for these empirical findings.

The not-so-hidden risks of ‘hidden-to-maturity’ accounting: on depositor runs and bank resilience

08/06/2024 European Central Bank Central banks

We build a balance sheet-based model to capture run risk, i.e., a reduced potential to raise capital from liquidity buffers under stress, driven by depositor scrutiny and further fuelled by fire sales in response to withdrawals. The setup is inspired by the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) meltdown in March 2023 and our model may serve as a supervisory analysis tool to monitor build-up of balance sheet vulnerabilities. Specifically, we analyze which characteristics of the balance sheet are critical in order for banking system regulators to adequately assess run risk and resilience.

Climate risk, bank lending and monetary policy

08/06/2024 European Central Bank Central banks

Combining euro-area credit register and carbon emission data, we provide evidence of a climate risk-taking channel in banks’ lending policies. Banks charge higher interest rates to firms featuring greater carbon emissions, and lower rates to firms committing to lower emissions, controlling for their probability of default. Both effects are larger for banks committed to decarbonization.

The pass-through to inflation of gas price shocks

08/05/2024 European Central Bank Central banks

This paper uses a Bayesian Structural Vector Autoregressive (BSVAR) framework to estimate the pass-through of unexpected gas price supply shocks on HICP inflation in the euro area and its four largest economies. In comparison to oil price shocks, gas price shocks have approximately one-third smaller pass-through to headline inflation. Country-specific results indicate gas price increases matter more for German, Spanish and Italian inflation than for French inflation, hinging on the reliance on energy commodities in consumption, production, and different electricity prices regulation.

Energy price shocks, monetary policy and inequality

08/02/2024 European Central Bank Central banks

We study how monetary policy shapes the aggregate and distributional effects of an energy price shock. Based on the observed heterogeneity in consumption exposures to energy and household wealth, we build a quantitative small open-economy HANK model that matches salient features of the Euro Area data. Our model incorporates energy as both a consumption good for households with non-homothetic preferences as well as a factor input into production with input complementarities. Independently of policy energy price shocks always reduce aggregate consumption.

The central bank’s balance sheet in the long run: a macro perspective

08/02/2024 European Central Bank Central banks

We study whether it is desirable for the central bank to supply reserves abundantly, i.e. beyond the level that satisfies financial institutions’ aggregate liquidity needs. Using a theoretical framework, we demonstrate that abundant reserves would help fulfil the private sector’s demand for safe and liquid assets, because reserves affect financial institutions’ leverage constraints.

Risk-to buﬀer: setting cyclical and structural banks capital requirements through stress test

08/01/2024 European Central Bank Central banks

In this paper, we propose a new framework to jointly calibrate cyclical and structural capital requirements. For this, we integrate a non-linear macroeconomic model and a stress test model. In the macroeconomic model, the severity of the scenarios depends on the level of cyclical risk. Risk-related scenarios are used as inputs for the stress test model. Banks’ capital losses derived from a scenario based on a reference level of risk are used to set the structural requirement. Additional losses associated with the current risk scenario are used to set the cyclical requirement.

ECB-(RE)BASE: Heterogeneity in expectation formation and macroeconomic dynamics

07/31/2024 European Central Bank Central banks

This paper introduces ECB-(RE)BASE as the model-consistent, or rational expectation version of the ECB-BASE model. It brings new analytical capabilities to consider varying degrees of heterogeneity in expectation formation across the agents of the model. While the original version of ECB-BASE features VAR-based expectations, we examine two alternative versions either with full model-consistent expectations or with hybrid expectations. The paper provides a didactic exposition of the changes in the model properties brought by the various expectation settings.

Inflation (de-)anchoring in the euro area

07/31/2024 European Central Bank Central banks

This article measures the degree of potential de-anchoring of inflation expectations in the euro area vis-à-vis the inflation objective of the European Central Bank (ECB). A no-arbitrage term structure model that allows for a time-varying long-term mean of inflation expectations, π∗t , is applied to inflation-linked swap (ILS) rates, while taking into account survey-basedinflation forecasts. Estimates of π∗t have been close to 2% since the mid-2000s, indicating that long-term inflation expectations have overall remained well anchored to the ECB’s inflation objective.

European Central Bank

Pages