Journal Article

Assessing monetary policy effects using daily federal funds futures contracts


Abstract: This paper develops a generalization of the formulas proposed by Kuttner (2001) and others for purposes of measuring the effects of a change in the federal funds target on Treasury yields of different maturities. The generalization avoids the need to condition on the date of the target change and allows for deviations of the effective fed funds rate from the target as well as gradual learning by market participants about the target. The paper shows that parameters estimated solely on the basis of the behavior of the fed funds and fed funds futures can account for the broad calendar regularities in the relation between fed funds futures and Treasury yields of different maturities. Although the methods are new, the conclusion is quite similar to that reported by earlier researchers-changes in the fed funds target seem to be associated with quite large changes in Treasury yields, even for maturities of up to 10 years.

Keywords: Federal funds rate; Monetary policy;

Status: Published in Proceedings of the Thirty-Second Annual Economic Policy Conference of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis : Monetary Policy Under Uncertainty

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Bibliographic Information

Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Part of Series: Review

Publication Date: 2008

Volume: 90

Issue: Jul

Pages: 377-394