The Effect of Central Bank's Monetary Policy on Unemployment and Inflation in Provinces of Iran: A GVAR Approach

The national economy of most countries is made up of various regions (provinces) with different industrial composition, financial structure, trade relations, and institutional environment. Depending on these characteristics, regions may respond differently to a uniform national macroeconomic policy. Policymakers should consider these heterogeneities to achieve the national development objective. Using separate VAR models to investigate the regional effects of a uniform policy neglects the spillover effects across regions. The GVAR approach models the links between units (such as regions) using the weighted average of different macroeconomic aggregates. Since Iran is a regionally dispersed country, this motivates us to analyze whether or not a standard monetary policy has different effects on its provinces' unemployment and inflation rates using a GVAR approach during 2005q1-2016q1 period. Results indicate that one standard deviation positive monetary shock at the national level can significantly reduce unemployment in some provinces. These responses are similar in terms of timing, but their intensity is different. Also, this positive shock has a positive effect on inflation in all provinces. All responses are approximately similar in terms of timing. Despite this similarity, shock responses vary in terms of intensity.