Challe, E. and Giannitsarou, C.

Stock prices and monetary policy shocks: a general equilibrium approach

Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control

Vol. 40(March) pp. 46-66 (2014)

Abstract: Empirical literature documents that unexpected changes in the nominal interest rates have a significant effect on real stock prices: a 100-basis point increase in the nominal interest rate is associated with an immediate decrease in broad real stock indices that may range from 2.2 to 9%, followed by a gradual decay as real stock prices revert towards their long-run expected value. We assess the ability of a general equilibrium New Keynesian asset-pricing model to account for these facts. We consider a production economy with elastic labor supply, staggered price and wage setting, as well as time-varying risk aversion through habit formation. We find that the model predicts a stock market response to policy shocks that matches empirical estimates, both qualitatively and quantitatively. Our findings are robust to a range of variations and parametrizations of the model.

Keywords: Monetary policy, Asset prices, New Keynesian general equilibrium model

JEL Codes: E31, E52, G12

Author links: Chryssi Giannitsarou  

Publisher's Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jedc.2013.12.005