IMF Conference

Hosted by the European Central Bank
Frankfurt, 29-30 April 2014

  

On April 29-30, 2014, The European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund are hosting a conference on the international dimension of monetary policy in the post crisis environment. Prof. Charles Engel (University of Wisconsin) has agreed to deliver the keynote address.

Conference organizers

The European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund are hosting a conference on the international dimension of monetary policy in the post-crisis environment. Professor Charles Engel of the University of Wisconsin has agreed to deliver the keynote address. The organizing committee includes Stijn Claessens (IMF), Jonathan Ostry (IMF), Luca Dedola (ECB), Livio Stracca (ECB) and Isabel Vansteenkiste (ECB).

Paper submission

The conference will include invited contributions and other submissions. Full papers should be submitted in PDF format to ecbimfconference@ecb.europa.eu.

The deadline for paper submission is 3 February 2014. Decisions will be communicated to authors by early March 2014.

Travel

Travel and accommodation costs will be covered for academic speakers and selected invited speakers.

Publication

Papers given at the conference will be published in a special issue of the "The Journal of International Money and Finance", subject to the usual review process of the journal (guest editors: Stijn Claessens and Livio Stracca).

Key themes of the conference

Identifying and measuring monetary policy spillovers

• How large are the international spillovers of monetary policy? How important are conventional and unconventional policies in driving global financial cycles, i.e. developments in capital flows, asset prices and exchange rates? If there is a global leverage cycle, what is the importance of monetary policy as a factor relative to global bank behaviour?
• What are the channels for the international transmission of conventional and non-conventional monetary policies? How important are they? How do they vary by global, source country and destination country circumstances? Are these channels different for different types of policy, including different types of unconventional policy? Can we measure them? Do they also depend on specific features of source and destination countries such as the exchange regime and the degree of capital mobility?
• How do the cross-border effects of monetary policies on financial stability arise? Are effects largely price or largely quantity-based? How do they vary by source and destination country circumstances?

Implications for the international monetary system

• To what extent should the international monetary system evolve to take into account international spillovers of monetary policies?
• Could developments in the relative importance of reserve currencies reduce or increase the risk of spillovers and the need for policy coordination? Would (or should) a decrease in the dependence of the world financial system on the dollar reduce the risk of spillovers?
• Does the increasing importance of global financial factors and global banks make it even more difficult to make monetary policy independence compatible with free capital flows and floating exchange rates?
• Should capital flow management measures be considered in exceptional circumstances once other options for adjusting have been exhausted?
• Are global financial safety nets and central bank swap lines substitutes or complements in reducing risks?

Policy coordination issues

• Do spillovers imply that countries have less control over their own monetary and financial stability? What unilateral policy space do they have, in principle and in practice? What are their trade-offs in terms of internal and external policy goals?
• Are certain monetary policy frameworks more robust to the impact of global spillovers than others? For example, is it better to target core rather than headline inflation given the impact of global commodity price swings? Should reliance on conventional monetary policy be reduced to address cross-border financial flows and their impact on financial stability? Should the policy horizon (implicit) in domestic policy frameworks be adjusted to take global policy spillovers into account?
• Which aspects of spillovers give rise to relevant (negative or positive) externalities? What are the gains from and the scope for policy coordination in the monetary policy domain? To what extent do central banks already take into account cross-border spillovers in their monetary policy strategy? What dimensions of monetary policy spillovers are central banks unlikely to internalise? Does this argue for international coordination in principle?
• Is coordination of monetary policies among major central banks desirable and feasible in practice, given that they have mandates and are accountable domestically? Has past formal and informal coordination between central banks been successful?
• What steps would help strengthen coordination further, if needed? What types of coordination instrument are possible? What roles can international forums and international financial institutions play?