Title: Monetary policy transmission in an undeveloped South Pacific Island country: a case study of Samoa

Authors: T.K. Jayaraman, Jauhari Dahalan

Addresses: Faculty of Economics and Business, University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji. ' Faculty of Economics, Universiti Utara Malaysia, 06010 Sintok, Kedah, Malaysia

Abstract: Amongst the South Pacific|s least developed small island countries, Samoa has emerged as a successful economy. Its achievements of low inflation and high growth rates have been due to sustained fiscal adjustment programmes and appropriate monetary policy measures. This paper undertakes an empirical study of transmission mechanism of monetary policy by adopting a VAR approach and using quarterly data over a 17-year period (1990-2006). The study findings are that money and exchange rate channels are important channels in transmitting monetary impulses to Samoa|s output.

Keywords: monetary policy; transmission mechanisms; monetary aggregate; econometric modelling; cointegration; error-correction model; Granger causality; variance decomposition; impulse response functions; South Pacific; least developed countries; Samoa; small islands; economic development.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMEF.2008.021146

International Journal of Monetary Economics and Finance, 2008 Vol.1 No.4, pp.380 - 398

Published online: 06 Nov 2008 *

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