Dr Alexis Stenfors, a Senior Lecturer in Economics and Finance, has received a Toshiba International Foundation Grant to examine the Bank of Japan’s monetary policy.
The project ‘Unconventional Monetary Policy and Financial Stability: Japanese Lessons and Global Challenges’ is part of a broader international research project that started in 2016 and now includes 15 researchers from 11 institutions in Europe, Asia and North America. The research also involves Dr Stenfors PhD student Ayhan Nadiri.
The sluggish growth and problems with labour productivity in many developed economies (which bear similarities to the economic situation in Japan) makes an assessment of Japan’s efforts highly relevant to other countries.
This latest phase of the project will last one-year and provide general guidance for policymakers as well as international financial institutions (such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank), which are currently concerned with the issue of advanced-country slow-down and the threat of deflation.
The findings will form a forthcoming book co-edited by Dr Stenfors and Professor Jan Toporowski, from SOAS University of London, published by Routledge.
This research project assesses those measures critically and examines what they mean for the theory and practice of economic policy. It is a collaborative effort, which focuses on discussion and development of new financial and economic approaches to assess the impacts of these measures on and via domestic and international financial markets.
The funding will provide a major workshop in Japan during autumn 2019 with participants from both academia and policymaking. It will also help Dr Stenfors to disseminate the research findings and intensify and broaden research cooperation even further.
Dr Stenfors said: “In recent years, Japan has taken unconventional monetary policy and financial stability measures to the extreme – ultimately with the aim to recover the dynamism of the Japanese economy.
“This research project assesses those measures critically and examines what they mean for the theory and practice of economic policy. It is a collaborative effort, which focuses on discussion and development of new financial and economic approaches to assess the impacts of these measures on and via domestic and international financial markets. The purpose of this is to generate an understanding of why and how such measures were introduced, and how the Japanese system has changed regarding governance, financial markets and the financial system as a whole.
“Ultimately, the aim is to use the Japanese policy response as a lens to investigate the extraordinary measures that policymakers in a range of countries have taken and are still pursuing since the financial crisis of 2008-09 – to seek out the lessons that can be learned for Japan, as well as globally.”