How Monetary Policy Worked in Japan: Was it as Effective in Practice as in Theory?

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Presently, most countries adopt financial policies in order to improve their economic and social conditions. However, those policies differ as there is not a policy that could be applied for every country. Monetary policy is one of the most widely used ones. The policy is usually implemented by the central bank. It uses an interest rate transmission mechanism in order to achieve its aims. According to Lipsey (2007), one of the main aims of the central bank is to control inflation. Although in theory the monetary policy is likely to succeed, in real life it is not always the case as it was with Japan in 1990s.

The central bank can introduce either expansionary or contractionary monetary policies. Interest rate transmission mechanism is used during both of them. The aim of the expansionary monetary policy is to increase the national income through decreasing the interest rate. Firstly, central bank increases money supply (MS). It can engage in open market operations. For example, central bank can increase MS through buying bonds from the market. Interest rate and demand for money (Md) have negative relationship. Therefore, the more is the interest rate the less is the demand for money. The key reason for that is the opportunity cost of holding money. If the interest rate is high enough consumers are willing to save money. However, if the interest rate is low consumers are likely to spend money on goods and services. Therefore, as MS increases, Md increases as well. As a result, the interest rate decreases. These can be observed on the diagram 1.

The initial equilibrium point is E1 (the intersection of MS1, i1, and Md1). The new equilibrium point is E2. However, it should be mentioned that all other variables are assumed to be unch...

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...l for expanding the economy. In theory, interest rate transmission mechanism is likely to work. However, this is not always the case. During the Japanese recession in 1990s the monetary policies has failed. Consequently, this led to the reconsideration of the policy’s effectiveness. There is less doubt that the policy can greatly assist in boosting the economy. However, all the other variables should be considered before policy implementation. This might help to avoid severe recessions as the one in Japan.

Works Cited

Horioka, C.Y. 2006. The causes of Japan's "Lost Decade": The role of household consumption. The National Bureau of Economic Research. http://www.nber.org/papers/w12142 (accessed May 10, 2011).

Krugman, P., and R. Wells. 2009. Economics. 2nd ed. Worth Publishers.

Lipsey, R., and A. Chrystal. 2007. Economics. 11th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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