Money, output, price and causality in mainland China

Abstract

This paper re-examines the relationship between money and other macroeconomic variables in mainland China. The results of a four-variable VAR analysis are indicative of a bi-directional causality between narrow money supply and real income. However, contrary to most research work in this area, the findings support a uni-directional causality from broad money to real income, making the former a good intermediate target variable. Moreover, these results cast serious doubts about the relevance of the quantity theory of money for price determination in China.