FFJ-BANQUE DE FRANCE WORKSHOP

Quo Vadis? Monetary and Fiscal
Interactions Revisited
8 March 2022
Online | In English
9.00 - 18.00 (France) | 17.00 - 2.00 (Japan) | 3.00 - 12.00 (ON, Canada)
Registration: https://forms.gle/sCsN1zZMuzkQyCqb8
Contact: events_ffj@ehess.fr
The age-old problem of how monetary and fiscal policy should interact has resurfaced around the globe. Inan era where fiscal policy was seemingly passive, and monetary policy was given pride of place to achievebusiness cycle stabilization, coordination problems between fiscal and monetary authorities was largely
set aside.
The series of financial crises in the advanced economies in the 2000s, and the ongoing COVID-19 crisis,
have combined to raise old questions in a new setting. Governments appear reluctant, at least in the short
to medium-term, to follow budget constraint rules and debt sustainability criteria. Central banks continue toargue that ultra-low interest rates, together with purchases of a wide variety of financial assets, deliver theneeded monetary policy accommodation necessary for the aggregate economy to heal.
In this context, it is useful to revisit the question of monetary-fiscal interactions. The relevant issues go
beyond responding to various economic shocks, how monetary policy ought to be conducted, and thestance of fiscal policy when growth is sluggish and interest rates are likely to remain depressed for sometime. There are also governance or institutional questions to be considered since simplistic notions ofcentral bank independence no longer describe the environment of the past several years. Indeed, existing
monetary policy strategies are also called into question. Relevant historical evidence can also be useful.
Finally, there is the issue of how autonomous institutions within government communicate policies in a
credible manner.

Programme
9.00 | Opening remarks
Sébastien Lechevalier (FFJ-EHESS)
Representative of Banque de France (Banque de France) - to be confirmed

9.05 | Climate, Monetary and Fiscal Policy Interactions
Warwick McKibbin (Australian National University)

9.35 | Keynote speech
Masazumi Wakatabe (Bank of Japan)

Session 1
10.35 | Monetary and Fiscal Policies: In Search of a Corridor of Stability
Claudio Borio (Bank for International Settlements)

11.05 | Central Bank Balance Sheets and Long-Term Interest Rates:
Revisiting Unconventional Monetary Policy Experiences
Jouchi Nakajima (Bank of Japan)

11.35 | Monetary, Fiscal and Demographic Interactions in Japan: Impactand a Comparative Assessment

Pierre Siklos (Wilfrid Laurier University, 2021 FFJ-Banque de France fellow)

Lunch break

Session 2
13.30 | Political Capital: Monetary-Fiscal Coordination Schemes in Europeand Japan
Sebastian Diessner (Leiden University, London School of Economics)

14.00 | Monetary-Fiscal Policy Interactions, Forward Guidance and Uncertain

Effective Lower Bound

Guido Traficante (Università Europea di Roma)

14.30 | The Political Economy of Currency Unions
Kai Arvai (Banque de France)

BreakSession 3
15.10 | Are All Central Bank Asset Purchases The Same? Different
Rationales, Different Effects

Paul Hubert (Banque de France, Science Po)

15.40 | No Country Is An Island. International Cooperation and Climate

ChangeMaria Sole Pagliari (Banque de France)

16.10 | Worse Than You Think: Public Debt Forecast Errors in Advancedand Developing Economies

Jonathan Ostry (International Monetary Fund)

Break

Session 4
16.50 | Does Central Bank Talk Matter for Forecasting? Evidence from

Untargeted Speeches of the BoE, FED, and ECB
Georgios Chortareas (King’s College London)

17.20 | Pandemic Recession, Helicopter Money and Central Banking: Venice,1630

Donato Masciandaro (Bocconi University)

17.50 | Concluding remarks