Monetary Shocks in the G-6 Countries: Is There a Puzzle?

This paper attempts to reduce the uncertainty about the dynamics of the monetary transmission mechanism. Central to this attempt is the identification of monetary policy shocks. Recently, VAR approaches that use over-identifying restrictions have shown success in isolating such shocks. This paper examines monetary shocks identified by long-run cointegration restrictions and the assumption of long-run money neutrality in exactly identified VAR models across six industrialized countries. The short-run dynamics corresponding to a monetary shock can be interpreted as a monetary policy shock. The results suggest that the stock of money has an active role in the transmission mechanism.

Also published as:

Journal of Monetary Economics (0304-3932)
October 1998. Vol. 42, Iss. 3, pp. 575-92