Since the mid-1990s, the asset portfolios of Japanese banks have continuously tilted toward government bonds, while lending to firms has declined. In this paper, we investigate the causes and consequences of such changes in banks' behavior by introducing banks' asset portfolio decision into an...

We analyse the interaction between private agents' uncertainty about inflation target and the central bank's data uncertainty. In our model, private agents update their perceived inflation target and the central bank estimates unobservable economic shocks as well as the perceived inflation...

Using a model of island economy where financial markets aggregate dispersed information of the public, we analyze how two-way communication between the central bank and the public affects inflation dynamics. When inflation target is observable and credible to the public, markets provide the bank...

We propose a simple and tractable method to estimate linear DSGE models with the zero lower bound on nominal interest rates. Our method makes use of forward rate curves in order to take into account the effects of the zero lower bound on equilibrium endogenous variables without relying on...

This paper analyzes whether or not Japanese nominal wages are rigid downward. By using time series cross section data on wages from the Japanese Wage Census, we find that wages do not exhibit serious downward rigidity. They do decline when macro labor market conditions worsen even in periods of...

This paper provides an empirical investigation of monetary policy in Japan in the zero interest rate environment that has held sway since 1999. In particular, we focus on the effects of the zero interest rate commitment and of quantitative monetary easing on medium- to long-term interest rates...