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The Effects of Monetary Policy on Housing Prices: Evidence from the Czech Republic
Michalec, Jan ; Havránek, Tomáš (advisor) ; Holub, Tomáš (referee)
This thesis explores the relationship between interest rates, house prices and main macroeconomic variables. In particular, I examine how monetary policy affects house prices in the Czech Republic. The hypotheses assume that an increase in the interest rate that tends to decrease house prices also reduces output and inflation simultaneously. Therefore, the latter would imply that the monetary authority faces a trade-off between macroeconomic and financial stability. The empirical analysis is based on a vector autoregression model and the monetary policy shock is retrieved by the Cholesky decomposition. As for the results, the findings of the thesis conclude that there is a costly trade-off between macroeconomic and financial stability within the Czech economy.
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The ECB, Austerity and the Fiscal Multiplier: A meta-regression analysis of Fiscal Multiplier Estimates in ECB Policy Recommendations
Brüsewitz, Caspar Gerbrandt ; Baxa, Jaromír (advisor) ; Havránek, Tomáš (referee)
The primary aim of this thesis is to examine whether the policy recommendations made by the European Central Bank in response to the financial crisis of 2008 were biased towards fiscal consolidation. It posits that such policies, commonly known as austerity, were underpinned by estimates of the fiscal multiplier that were lower than those of international and independent researchers. To analyse this, it provides a systematic overview of the ECB's fiscal multiplier estimates by performing a meta-regression analysis on all ECB working papers making multiplier estimates published between 1992 and 2012, and comparing the results against those of a larger dataset containing multiplier estimates made. It finds that the multiplier estimates of the ECB are significantly lower than the norm, which is potentially suggestive of bias. This thesis contributes to the literature on ideational bias in economic policy-making by providing a systematic literature review that helps inform the discussion on austerity in the EU. It also servers as a replication and expansion of previous meta-regression studies on the fiscal multiplier, by being the first study that specifically examines the estimates of a specific institution.
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How Can the Czech National Bank Eliminate the Zero Lower Bound on Interest Rates? A Case Study
Katinová, Alexandra ; Havránek, Tomáš (advisor) ; Kolcunová, Dominika (referee)
The thesis provides case study research on the feasibility of the negative in- terest rate policy in the context of the Czech Republic. No major obstacles opposing the policy itself were found in the bases of the Czech legal system, however, a list of acts explicitly affected by the value of policy rates needs to be adjusted to prevent misinterpretations. Moreover, it was identified that tax prepayments held by the Tax Authority and free reserves kept at the Czech National Bank at zero interest rate create room for escaping from the policy. Additionally, debt repayments in cash and interest-free accounts of government and public institutions administrated by the Czech National Bank could lead to undesirable advantages. A complementary VAR model analysis of the interest rate transmission under negative policy rates was performed to evaluate quan- titatively the experience from European countries, however, short data series available provided merely indicative results.
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A Meta-Analysis of FDI Spillovers in China
Herman, Dominik ; Havránek, Tomáš (advisor) ; Semerák, Vilém (referee)
Assessment of the foreign direct investment (FDI) spillovers in the People's Republic of China (PRC) has become a lively area of research in the past decades; nonetheless, the existing primary literature seems to be inconclusive. The present thesis revises the literature through a meta-analytical approach using Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA). Considering that the previous liter- ature reviews are of either inferior quality or incomparable focus, our research is based on a collection of 1081 estimates from 14 primary studies published between 2007 and 2017 comprising data from 1995 to 2012. A variety of 85 characteristics of the observations is coded whilst we employ at least 30 of these within each BMA estimation. Through separate testing of individual spillover measures (horizontal, forward, and backward), an extensive evidence of publication bias is collected for horizontal spillovers in PRC-exaggerating the mean magnitude of the reported estimates. Finally, the thesis identifies that the spillover effect from FDI inflows originating from the area of Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan is systematically different from the others. JEL Classification O1, O3, O4 Keywords FDI, spillover effect, China, PRC, meta- analysis, publication bias, BMA Author's e-mail hermandominik@gmail.com Supervisor's e-mail...
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Estimating the Effective Lower Bound for the Czech National Bank's Policy Rate
Kolcunová, Dominika ; Havránek, Tomáš (advisor) ; Dědek, Oldřich (referee)
The thesis focuses on the estimation of the effective lower bound for the Czech National Bank's policy rate. It is the first attempt of this kind in the Czech context and also one of few in the international scale. The effective lower bound is determined by the value below which holding and using cash would be more favourable than depositing money in a bank account with a negative rate. This bound may be approximated based on costs of storage, insurance and transportation of cash and also based on the loss of convenience associated with cashless payments. We estimate that costs of the former lie in the interval from 0.2% to 0.6%. The latter, costs of loss of convenience, are relatively high in the Czech market as they attain around 1%. The estimate based on interest charges which present a direct cost and decrease in the bank profitability asserts slightly lower values, in particular with respect to a high share of deposits and repo operations at the CNB. Altogether we get a value below -1%, in the interval (-1.5%, -1.0%), under shorter term duration possibly lower, in the interval (-2.0%, -1.0%). The second part of the thesis offers modelling of transmission of interest rates. The results state that under the assumption of the average transmission over the past years it would be necessary to decrease...
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Estimating Tax Revenue Elasticities in Slovakia
Ďurovčíková, Edita ; Havránek, Tomáš (advisor) ; Janský, Petr (referee)
1 Abstract To study the effect a change in a tax base has on the corresponding tax revenue is a useful tool to better predict future tax revenues. This property is called a tax revenue elasticity but generally it does not get as much attention as it deserves, and when it does, key points like using data adjusted for the effects of tax reforms or distinguishing between the short-run (instantaneous) and the long-run (equilibrium) elasticity are often omitted. In my thesis, I am the first one to estimate the tax revenue elasticities for Slovakia. I use a unique dataset adjusted for the effects of tax reforms and tax changes to estimate both the short-run and the long-run elasticities for the three tax categories th at account for the majority of each year's tax revenue - Personal Income Tax, Corporate Income Tax and Value Added Tax. I obtain a long-run elasticity of 0.98, 1.28 and 0.94 for the Personal Income Tax, the Corporate Income Tax and the Value Added Tax respectively and a short-run elasticity of 3.51 and 1.93 for the Corporate Income Tax and the Value Added Tax respectively. I do not obtain a significant estimate in the case of the Personal Income Tax. Additionally, I find that it takes more than a year for the elasticity to reach its equilibrium value for all the three tax categories and that there...
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Impacts of Ethanol Policy on Corn Prices: A Meta-Analysis
Horáček, Přemysl ; Havránek, Tomáš (advisor) ; Janda, Karel (referee)
Deflecting a significant portion of corn production to ethanol for fuelling purposes increases the prices of corn. Although many studies examined the relationship between biofuels and agricultural commodity prices in the last decade, their estimates vary broadly (from nil to 85%). Without knowing the precise estimates of these impacts, policymakers can hardly set the biofuel policies optimally. I conduct a meta-analysis of over 150 estimates of the effect of corn ethanol production on corn prices to bring more clarity to the issue. Furthermore, I detect substantial selective reporting bias in the literature. After controlling for this bias with the use of various methods including the mixedeffects multilevel model, the results show that the true effect of a one billion gallon expansion in corn ethanol on corn prices is about 2-3%, which is less than commonly thought.
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The Elasticity of Trade with Respect to Trade Costs: A Meta-Analysis
Tlustá, Anna ; Havránek, Tomáš (advisor) ; Baxa, Jaromír (referee)
The goal of this thesis is to present a meta-analysis of studies that are focused on the relation between the international trade flow and the trade costs. The effect of trade costshasbecomeoneofthekeyelementstoresolvethesixmajor puzzles in the bilateral trade flow. I examine 1,090 estimates of the trade cost effect reported in 58 studies, codify 51 aspects of study design that may influencetheestimates.Iuse meta-regression analysis to investigate why trade costs effects vary. The results suggest that different methods and mainly data characteristics systematically affect the estimated trade costs effects. I find evidence for publication selection bias by using the appropriate tests. The authors of primary studies tend to report preferentially large estimates of the elasticity of trade with respect to trade costs. The evidence for publication selection bias is stronger for studies reported in peer-reviewed journals thanfor unpublished studies.
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Evaluating the Effects of Quantitative Easing in the UK Using the Synthetic Control Method
Molnár, Vojtěch ; Havránek, Tomáš (advisor) ; Malovaná, Simona (referee)
The thesis deals with quantitative easing (QE)-unconventional monetary policy, which was conducted by several central banks in the aftermath of recent financial crisis. Its goal is to boost the economy and to reach infla- tion target with key interest rates being already close to zero. The United Kingdom was one of the countries involved: Bank of England was conducting the policy in 2009-2012. The first part of the thesis focuses on quantitative easing in more detail; the policy is described in general, but special emphasis is put on Bank of England. The second part uses synthetic control method to estimate effect of the policy on real GDP and inflation of the United King- dom. The method does not lead to construction of appropriate control unit for GDP of the UK under unusual circumstances of the financial crisis. Pos- itive effect of quantitative easing on inflation is found, but its magnitude is surrounded by large uncertainty. 1
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