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Journal of Financial Stability Vol. 21 2015

Debt deflation effects of monetary policy

Li Lin; Dimitrios P. Tsomocos1; Alexandros Vardoulakis2,3

1 University of Oxford · 2 Federal Reserve Board of Governors · 3 Federal Reserve

open access

Abstract

We assess the role that monetary policy plays in the decision to default using a General Equilibrium model with collateralized loans, trade in fiat money and production. The monetary authority extends long-term credit against risky collateral along with its traditional monetary operations. The value of collateral depends on traditional monetary policy and agents can optimally choose to default depending on the relative value of the collateral to the face value of the loan. Default results in foreclosure, higher borrowing costs, inefficient investment and a decrease in total output. We show that pre-crisis contractionary monetary policy interacts with Fisherian debt-deflation dynamics and can increase the probability that a crisis occurs.

DOI
10.1016/j.jfs.2015.10.005
Volume
21
Pages
81-94
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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