Monetary policy in Germany: A cointegration analysis on the relevance of interest rate rules

The paper attempts to identify an empirical relationship that characterizes the way the Bundesbank adjusted its short-term rate with respect to various objectives. By building on a careful exploration of the properties of the variables involved, it is established that interest rate rules -often remarkably similar to the Taylor rule- remain valid and relevant in a Vector Error Correction framework, and thereby proposing a distinctive interpretation of German monetary policy during the period 1975-1998.