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Journal Article
The Highs and Lows of Productivity Growth
Productivity growth shows evidence of switching between long periods of high and low average growth. Estimates suggest that the United States has been in the low-growth regime since 2004. Assuming this low growth continues, productivity growth in the year 2025 would be 0.6%. By dropping this assumption and allowing for a switch to consistent higher growth, an alternative estimate forecasts that the distribution of possible productivity growth across quarters could average about 1.1% in 2025.
Working Paper
Asset Purchases in a Monetary Union with Default and Liquidity Risks
Using a two-country monetary-union framework with financial frictions, we study sovereign default and liquidity risks and quantify the efficacy of asset purchases. Default risk increases with government indebtedness and shifts in the fiscal limit perceived by investors. Liquidity risks increase when the default probability affects credit market tightness. The framework indicates that shifts in fiscal limits, more than rising government debt, played a crucial role for Italy around 2012. While both default and liquidity risks can dampen economic and financial conditions, the model suggests that ...
Journal Article
Monetary Policy Stance Is Tighter than Federal Funds Rate
The Federal Reserve’s use of forward guidance and balance sheet policy means that monetary policy consists of more than changing the federal funds rate target. A proxy federal funds rate that incorporates data from financial markets can help assess the broader stance of monetary policy. This proxy measure shows that, since late 2021, monetary policy has been substantially tighter than the federal funds rate indicates. Tightening financial conditions are similar to what would be expected if the funds rate had exceeded 5¼% by September 2022.
Journal Article
Evaluating Monetary Policy with Inflation Bands and Horizons
Inflation targeting has become the dominant way countries approach setting monetary policy goals. However, central banks differ in how they conduct that policy and how they evaluate their success in meeting a stated inflation goal. A new assessment method combines a percentage range around a target, known as an inflation tolerance band, with central banks stating how long it will take for high or low inflation to return to that range, known as a time horizon. Comparing previously projected horizons with realized horizons can be used to evaluate policy success.
Working Paper
The Past and Future of U.S. Structural Change: Compositional Accounting and Forecasting
We explore the evolving significance of different production sectors within the U.S. economy since World War II and provide methods for estimating and forecasting these shifts. Using a compositional accounting approach, we find that the well-documented transition from goods to services is primarily driven by two compositional changes: 1) the rise of Intellectual Property Products (IPP) as an input producer, replacing Durable Goods almost one-for-one in terms of input shares in virtually all sectors; and 2) a shift in consumer spending from Nondurable Goods to Services. A structural model ...
Journal Article
Why Is the Fed’s Balance Sheet Still So Big?
The Federal Reserve?s balance sheet is significantly larger today than it was before the financial crisis of 2008?2009. Rising demand for currency due to greater economic activity is partly responsible for this increase. The balance sheet will also need to remain large because the Federal Reserve now implements monetary policy in a regime of ample reserves, using a different set of tools than in the past to achieve its interest rate target.
Working Paper
Asset Purchases in a Monetary Union with Default and Liquidity Risks
Using a two-country monetary union framework with financial frictions, we quantify the efficacy of targeted asset purchases, as well as expectations of such programs, in the presence of sovereign default and financial liquidity risks. The risk of default increases with the level of government debt and shifts in investors' perception of fiscal solvency. Liquidity risks increase when the probability of default affects the tightness of credit markets. We calibrate the model to Italy during the 2012 European debt crisis and compare it to key features of the data. We find that changes in ...
Journal Article
Anatomy of the Post-Pandemic Monetary Tightening Cycle
The Federal Reserve tightened monetary policy rapidly between 2021 and 2023. In addition, a weekly proxy federal funds rate shows that markets perceived the policy stance as tightening significantly even in weeks without explicit policy changes. The proxy rate uses financial market data to infer the broad stance of monetary policy as determined by funds rate changes, forward guidance about projected future rates, and balance sheet changes. Results show that the weekly proxy rate can capture changes that reflect both policy tools and market reactions to changing economic news.
Journal Article
Sudden Stops and COVID-19: Lessons from Mexico’s History
The COVID-19 pandemic produced a sharp contraction in capital flows in emerging markets during the spring of 2020. Such contractions are known as “sudden stops” and historically have been associated with significant downturns in a country’s economic activity. Evidence from Mexico’s financial crisis history suggests that sudden stops tend to exhibit a common pattern: the crisis lasts one to two years before a rapid but partial recovery, followed by years of protracted stagnation.
Briefing
Anatomy of a Pandemic Recovery Across Sectors and Regions
Many have highlighted the disproportionate effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on certain sectors of the economy. The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes data on employment by sector and state, which can show the fall and recovery in employment over the past two years at a disaggregated level. We find that just four of 10 sectors account for 75 percent of the fall in total employment during the pandemic. State-sector pairings with more dramatic falls in employment tended to see faster recoveries to compensate, indicating these job losses were often temporary separations. We also find evidence ...