A política monetária não convencional: o quantitative easing (QE) nos EUA, Reino Unido e Japão e o involuntary easing (IE) no Brasil

Abstract

This study investigated the unconventional monetary policy adopted by central banks in the US, Japan and the United Kingdom after the subprime crisis. This policy, known as quantitative easing (QE), is based on the economist Milton Friedman's explanation of the Great Depression that occurred in the US in the 1930s. According to Friedman the fault for the depression was the FED, which allowed the stock of US currency fall around 30% in less than one year. Based on the interpretation of Friedman, central banks of the above countries, at the height of the crisis in 2008 initiated an unprecedented expansion of the monetary base at the time that the money stock began to signs that was falling. This increase of the monetary base avoided the mistake of the 1930s and averted a new Great Depression in the economy. The Brazil experienced an unconventional monetary policy different from countries that have done QE. Even at high interest rates, Brazil had a strong expansion of credit, which went from 24% of GDP in 2003 to 50% in 2014. This policy this work called Involuntary Easing (IE) occurs since the central bank still has a tight monetary policy, but there is a favorable economic environment, the credit increases. In comparison with the QE in IE even without increases in the monetary base, the money stock increases. In order to study the QE and IE we used monetary aggregates as the main monetary policy instrument through the ARDL approach. The first article analyzes the impact of QE on the product of the three countries that have adopted it between 2008-2014. The second article investigates the spillover of QE in the stock market of these countries. The third article examines the impact of IE in Brazilian product between 2003 to 2014. The conclusion we reached was that there are evidences that the QE had a positive impact on GDP and the stock market of the countries that have adopted it. In the case of IE in Brazil, there are few indications that it had an impact on the Brazilian economy between 2003-2014, this could have occurred mainly by macroeconomic shift in Brazilian economic policy after the subprime crisis.