A new GLO Discussion Paper derives the exact shape of the “hysteretic” impact of changes in the interest rate on macroeconomic investment under scenarios of both certainty and uncertainty. Conclusions deal with the efficacy of central bank’s interest rate policy.
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GLO Discussion Paper No. 377, 2019
Interest Rate Hysteresis in Macroeconomic Investment under Uncertainty – Download PDF
by Belke, Ansgar & Göcke, Matthias
GLO Fellow Ansgar Belke
Author Abstract: The interest rate is generally considered as an important driver of macroeconomic investment. As an innovation, this paper derives the exact shape of the “hysteretic” impact of changes in the interest rate on macroeconomic investment under the scenarios of both certainty and uncertainty. We capture the direct interest rate-hysteresis on the investments and the capital stock and, explicitly, of stochastic changes on the interest rate-investment hysteresis. Starting with hysteresis effects on a microeconomic level of a single firm, we apply an explicit aggregation procedure to derive the interest rate hysteresis effects on a macroeconomic level. Based on our simple model we are able to obtain some conclusions about the efficacy of a central bank’s interest rate policy, e.g. in times of low or even zero interest rates and high uncertainty, in terms of stimulating macroeconomic investment.
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