“A flow-of-funds perspective on unconventional monetary policy” by Bernhard Winkler

Past Event

Date
31 October 2014, 11:30am - 1:00pm

Location
Seminar Room 1, Oxford Martin School
34 Broad Street, (Corner of Catte and Holywell Street), Oxford, OX1 3BD

This seminar is hosted by The Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School

Speaker: Bernhard Winkler, European Central Bank

Abstract: This seminar reviews how the ECB used its balance sheet capacity during the financial crisis in comparison with the US Federal Reserve and provides a flow-of-funds perspective on the ECB’s non-standard measures. Bernhard will argue that central bank balance sheet policies not only matter through size and composition, but also via contingent commitments that have no immediate reflection in the balance sheet. The paper provides a typology of non-standard measures by sector and instrument and sets out the related transmission channels. It examines the extent to which the central bank liquidity support to banks has translated into lending to the private sector vs. providing support to government and corporate bond markets. The paper argues that a broader range of financing sources of corporates deserve consideration, including trade credit and trade bills, as traditional means of central bank liquidity provision to the real economy.