Japan's Lost decade: Does money have a role?

We study the contribution of the stock of money to the macroeconomic outcomes of the 1990s in Japan using a small-scale structural model. Likelihood-based estimates of the parameters are provided and time stabilities of the structural relationships analyzed. Real balances are statistically important for output and inflation fluctuations and their role has changed over time. Models which give money no role give a distorted representation of the sources of cyclical fluctuations. The severe stagnation and the long deflation are driven by different causes.