Book Description

We consider the effect of interventions by the Bank of Japan in the foreign exchange market during the period 2000-2004. During this period the interventions are of substantial magnitude, relatively frequent, not co-ordinated and take place within the 'zero interest rate' monetary policy regime. Only scant evidence exists in the literature on the spillover effect and the impact on covariance in both daily and intraday frameworks, as well as on analyzing the characteristics of intraday volatility dynamics on both intervention days and non-intervention days. In contrast to earlier studies, our analysis does not hinge on the assumption that intervention always increases the volatility of the exchange rate. We perform rolling estimations of a Multivariate GARCH model, use the quartile plots of intraday volatility, and perform equal variance tests to investigate intraday volatility characteristics on intervention and non-intervention days using both daily and 15-minute data. Our findings suggest that Band of Japan interventions decrease the volatility of the yen/USD exchange rate. This result contrasts with the findings of earlier studies which typically find that interventions result in higher volatility. The effect of interventions on the yen/USD volatility depends on the different states that the market experiences and its impact is different under high and low levels of exchange rate volatility. We also find the intraday volatility is less heteroskedastic within the intervention day and this has implications for volatility forecasting. We find strong evidence that intervention in the USD/YEN increases the volatility of the Euro/Yen.