Financial liberalization and the stationarity of money multiplier

Abstract

In countries without an explicit inflation targeting mechanism, a stable relationship between the monetary base and the money supply allows policymakers to implement changes in monetary policy with a reasonable degree of certainty about the impact on the money supply. The relationship can, however, be influenced by major structural shifts such as financial sector reforms. The present study finds that when structural change bought about by financial liberalisation is ignored, the unit root hypothesis is spuriously accepted. However, once this break is incorporated into the analysis, the multiplier exhibits no presence of a stochastic trend.

Keywords:

• Money multiplier
• financial liberalisation
• Caribbean