For comparison,
the first line of the table reports
the results using the full-sample
“baseline” estimates described
above and shown in Figure 1; the
second line reports the results
using just the postwar sample.
The remainder of the table
reports results from other
studies. In particular, these
studies use different methods to
identify exogenous movements
in monetary policy than the
approach I described earlier. The
table reports the percent change
in house prices and a measure of
economic activity (typically real
GDP) two years after a monetary
policy shock. The results have
been scaled so that the initial
movement in the short-term
interest rate is 1 percentage
point. In cases where I could not
get the precise estimates from the author, the numbers reported in the table are estimates based on a
visual inspection of the charts included in the papers.
Although the individual estimates differ, the estimated ratios of the effect on house prices relative to that
on real GDP after two years tend to be clustered between 3 and 6, with a median estimate of about 4. It is
worth noting that one of the outliers likely in part reflects the specific measure of economic activity used:
Ungerer (2015) reports industrial production, which tends to be more cyclically sensitive than GDP.
Overall, the results on the ratio of the effects on house prices relative to GDP appear to be robust,
especially for studies that include a large set of countries.
To put this in perspective, consider the magnitude of the run-up in house prices in the United States over
2000–06. Figure 2 shows the U.S. house price-to-rent ratio over the past 40 years. In the five years
running up to the peak in the spring of 2006, the house price-to-rent ratio increased over 50%. Based on
the empirical estimates described above, to offset this increase using monetary policy would require a
decline in real GDP per capita of over 12%. That is far larger than the 5½% peak-to-trough decline in real
GDP per capita the United States actually experienced in the Great Recession. Jordà, Schularick, and
Taylor (2015b) conduct a similar analysis using a different measure of house price overvaluation, and
reach the same overall conclusion.