DOES RESERVE ACCUMULATION LEAD TO ENDOGENOUS MONEY SUPPLY IN CHINA?

Abstract

This study investigates the causality between reserve accumulation and money supply in China over the period of 2000:01–2016:11. The bootstrap Granger full-sample and sub-sample rolling window causality tests are utilized. The full-sample test supports that reserve accumulations lead to significant endogenous money supply. However, the sub-sample test suggests that the endogenous money supply caused by reserve accumulations mostly existed before 2007 when China implemented a compulsory exchange settlement system. Structural changes also exist as a result of the impacts of excess money supply and reserve accumulations, which suggests specific backgrounds should be taken into account when investigating this issue. The rolling window causality test provides a more accurate result when considering structural changes, which proves reserve accumulations are more likely to cause endogenous money supply in a compulsory exchange settlement system. The significant difference before and after 2007 suggests that the ending of the compulsory exchange settlement system is helpful to improve the monetary policy independence.