Research On Monetary Neutrality: Evidence From Exchange Rate And Trade Balance Of G-7 Countries

Abstract

According to a recent paper by Fisher and Huh (2002), in contrast to a long-run neutrality hypothesis, nominal shocks have long-run effects on a country’s real exchange rate and trade balance. However employing a similar method (VAR) with identical restrictions (long-run neutrality and short-run recursive hypotheses), this paper shows that the effects on the real exchange rate are much shorter in this G-7 country study than what Fisher and Huh (2002) contend. Further, the trade balance improves for a short period of time, from which it can conclude there is a shorter existence of the depreciation effect in response to expansionary monetary shocks, which supports the long-run neutrality hypothesis in an open macroeconomic framework.