This paper investigates the effectiveness of nine non-interest rate policies on house prices and housing credit using data from 57 economies and periods of up to three decades. We find that introductions or reductions in the maximum debt-service-to-income ratio, and increases in housing-related taxes, have significant negative effects on housing credit, with a typical tightening action lowering the real credit growth rate by 4–6 percentage points and by 3–4 percentage points, respectively, over the subsequent four quarters. Increases in housing-related taxes moderate house price growth, with a typical increase slowing real house price appreciation by 3–4 percentage points over the same horizon.

Asset portfolios of open-end mutual funds reflect both the fund flows from ultimate investors as well as discretionary trading by the fund managers. We propose a method for decomposing the change in mutual fund asset holdings into the parts due to investor flows, fund manager discretionary sales, and valuation effects. We find that discretionary sales tend to reinforce the sales due to investor redemptions. We also find that 100 dollars’ worth of bond sales is associated with around 4 dollars’ worth of valuation losses. Finally, we show that a one percentage point increase in emerging market economy (EME) bond yields is associated with a 9−10% decline in the dollar value of EME bond fund holdings.

This paper provides a comparative assessment of the effectiveness of macroprudential policies in 12 Asia-Pacific economies over 2004–2013, using databases of domestic macroprudential policies and capital flow management (CFM) policies. We find that banking sector CFM policies and bond market CFM policies are effective in slowing down banking inflows and bond inflows, respectively. We also find some evidence of spillover effects of these policies. Finally, regarding the interaction of monetary policy and macroprudential policies, our empirical findings suggest that macroprudential policies are more successful when they complement monetary policy by reinforcing monetary tightening, than when they act in opposite directions.

Using quarterly data on macroprudential policy (MaPP) measures and capital flow management measures (CFMs) in 39 economies over 2000–2020, we analyse how domestic credit and cross-border capital flows respond to such measures. We distinguish price- and quantity-based MaPP measures and CFMs, and examine if the level of financial development matters in explaining policy effectiveness. Tightening MaPP measures significantly reduce household credit when the level of financial development is relatively low, and this is driven more by price-based MaPP measures. Also, price- and quantity-based CFMs slow down bank inflows with the former effective at relatively low levels of financial development and the latter at relatively high levels. Finally, we present evidence on leakages associated with quantity-based measures. Tightening quantity-based CFMs increases offshore bond issuance when the level of financial development is relatively low, while tightening quantity-based MaPP measures increase bank and bond inflows when financial development is relatively high.