Macroprudential policy and foreign interest rate shocks: A comparison of different instruments and regulatory regimes
Stellenbosch Working Paper Series No. WP15/2017Publication date: December 2017
Author(s):
[protected email address] (Department of Economics, University of Stellenbosch)
This paper presents a generic small open economy real business cycle model with banking and foreign borrowing. We incorporate capital requirements, reserve requirements, and loan-to-value (LTV) regulation into this framework, and subject the model to a positive foreign interest rate shock that raises the country risk premium and reduces the supply of foreign funds. The results show that these macroprudential instruments can attenuate the impact of such a shock, and that this attenuation property increases with the strictness of the regulatory regime. Capital requirements and LTV regulation deliver the largest attenuation benefits and are shown to be close substitutes. That being said, capital requirements are shown to be more effective at leaning against the financial cycle whereas LTV regulation is more effective at stimulating the financial cycle. The analysis indicates that capital and reserve requirements can interact such that reserve requirements are most effective when used to supplement existing capital requirement or LTV measures. We find that financial and macroeconomic stability objectives are aligned following a positive foreign interest rate shock such that a macroprudential response to such shocks can be to the benefit of both objectives. Lastly, our results show that capital requirements and LTV regulation exhibit decreasing returns to scale.
JEL Classification:E32, E44, E58, F38, F41, G28
Keywords:Macroprudential policy, Open economy macroeconomics, Financial stability, Business cycle, Welfare, DSGE
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Monday 28 July 202512:00-13:00
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18 Jul 2025 Encouraging data, but messy politics while US tariff deadline loomsThe big global data prints of the week came on Tuesday, with better-than-expected Chinese GDP growth for Q2 and US core CPI coming in lower than expected, but still (finally) reflecting some signs of tariffs being passed on to consumers. Locally, the uptick in mining production and retail sales was positive for Q2 GDP dynamics. In addition to the data,...
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