Search Results
Working Paper
Reserve Balances, the Federal Funds Market and Arbitrage in the New Regulatory Framework
We study developments in reserve balances and the federal funds market in the context of two banking regulatory changes: the widening of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) assessment base and the introduction of the Basel III leverage ratio. Using a novel data set that includes FDIC fees and balance sheet data for depository institutions, we find that, as most foreign banks were not subject to the FDIC fee, they absorbed increasing amounts of reserve balances. Furthermore, foreign banks experienced positive and improving conditions for arbitraging between borrowing reserve ...
Discussion Paper
Overnight Reverse Repurchase (ON RRP) Operations and Uncertainty in the Repo Market
In this note, we analyze the effects of the ON RRP operations on daily repo rate uncertainty--based on revisions to the repo rate forecast--and intraday repo rate volatility.
Working Paper
Bank Deposit Flows to Money Market Funds and ON RRP Usage during Monetary Policy Tightening
Using the historical experience from past monetary tightening cycles and the market-expected path of the federal funds rate for the current tightening cycle, we project that the flows from bank deposits to money market funds (MMFs) would be relatively small, at about $600 billion through the end of 2024, or about 3 percent of current bank deposits. Of these potential inflows to MMFs, about $100 billion are projected to flow into the overnight reverse repo (ON RRP) facility, or about 7 percent of MMFs’ recent take-up. Other factors such as the private demand for repo funding and the ...
Working Paper
Sectoral allocation, risk efficiency and the Great Moderation
This paper argues that the decline in U.S. real GDP growth volatility after the mid 1980s was an outcome of more risk efficient and more diversified sectoral allocations. Using a portfolio approach, I distinguish between the two determinants of GDP growth volatility: sectoral covariances and sectoral allocations. I use the sectoral growth and covariances to compute the growth-volatility frontier of the economy. I define the efficiency of the actual sectoral allocation as the distance of the economy from the frontier, measured in the (volatility, growth) space. There are three main findings. ...
Working Paper
Demand Segmentation in the Federal Funds Market
This paper outlines a model of demand segmentation in the federal funds market with two types of borrowers - the "interest on reserves (IOR) arbitrage'' type and the "regulatory'' type - which have different reservation prices and cannot always be separated. When fed funds trade above IOR, the "regulatory" type is revealed and consequently pays an interest rate closer to its real reservation price, pushing the fed funds rate further up. When fed funds trade below IOR, a decrease in the fed funds rate encourages entry in the market for IOR arbitrage purposes thus counteracting the downward ...
Working Paper
LCR Premium in the Federal Funds Market
We document the existence of a regulatory premium in the federal funds market related to the implementation of the Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR). We use difference-in-differences analysis and confidential bank level data on borrowing in the fed funds and Eurodollar markets to compare the interest rates paid by banks subject to daily reporting of their liquidity profile (daily reporters) relative to other banks. We find that, after the implementation of LCR, daily reporters paid a higher rate compared to other banks when borrowing in the fed funds market given the LCR-favorability of many of ...
Working Paper
Sectoral Dynamics and Business Cycles
I construct an index of sectoral dynamics to characterize changes in the sectoral composition of economic activity. There is evidence of asymmetry in different phases of business cycles with recessions being associated with larger changes in sectoral composition than expansions. I find that the correlation between dynamics in sectoral employment and aggregate output has weakened since the 1990s. Also, sectoral changes appear to be smaller and spread across more sectors, while their contribution to aggregate volatility has been increasing. I also perform a simulation exercise and replicate ...