Search Results
Journal Article
Is the Fed being swept out of (monetary) control?
What are "reserves," and why do banks hold them? What are "sweep accounts," and how do they work? What?s the relationship between the two? And what?s the Fed?s role in all of this? In this article, Jeff Wrase considers the effect sweep accounts have had on the market for bank reserves and on the Fed?s job of managing reserves in the banking system. He also looks at changes the Federal Reserve has made to keep the federal funds rate from becoming too volatile as the use of sweep accounts spreads
Journal Article
The interplay between home production and business activity.
Jeff Wrase explores this influence and discusses the potential gains from incorporating household decisions about allocating resources between the home and the marketplace into models used to forecast and account for changes in economic conditions.
Journal Article
The euro and the European Central Bank
The formation of a monetary union by 11 European countries has received a lot of notice from the press since January 1, 1999, when the union's common currency, the euro, was officially introduced. To facilitate adoption of a single currency, these same countries have established a central bank that sets a common monetary policy for the members of the monetary union. In this article, Jeff Wrase gives some background on the European monetary union, outlines the procedure for introduction of the euro, and describes the workings of the European Central Bank. He also compares and contrasts the ...
Discussion Paper
Liquidity and real activity in a simple open economy model
We examine nominal and real exchange rates, interest rates, prices, and evolutions of real variables in a two-country, monetary general-equilibrium model that includes a financial sector and shocks to technologies and money growth rates. Qualitative properties of the model are provided and moment predictions from a calibrated version of the model are compared to moments of time series drawn from actual economies. We focus on international monetary shock transmissions, and effects of monetary innovations on nominal and real exchange rates and nominal interest rates.
Discussion Paper
Liquidity and real activity in three monetary models
This paper investigates interest rate determination and evolutions of nominal and real variables in alternative monetary, general equilibrium models. Three approaches to characterizing monetary transactions services are utilized: a cash-in-advance approach, in which agents face cash constraints on goods purchases; a transaction-cost approach, in which goods are sacrificed in transactions; and a shopping-time approach, in which leisure is sacrificed in transactions. Models which employ these approaches are used to examine liquidity effects of monetary innovations on interest rates and real ...
Working Paper
Exchange rates, monetary policy regimes, and beliefs
The authors investigate an international monetary business-cycle model in which agents face monetary policy processes that incorporate regime shifts. In any given period agents cannot directly observe the policy regime, but instead form beliefs that are updated via Bayesian learning. As a result, expectation adjustment displays inertia that adds persistence to the effects of monetary shocks. Monetary policy process for the U.S. and an aggregate of OECD countries are estimated using Hamilton's Markov-switching model. The authors then solve and calibrate a version of the model and examine its ...
Working Paper
Exchange rates and international relative prices and quantities in equilibrium models with alternative preference specifications
Dynamic open economy models with time-separable, deterministic utilities fail to account for observed dynamics of exchange rates and international relative prices and quantities. This paper examines the ability of extensions of existing open economy models to account for exchange rates, international relative prices, and international trade quantities. The extensions involve preferences with taste shocks and nontime-separable utilities in habit persistence form. Quantitative properties of calibrated versions of the models are examined in light of time series properties of key international ...
Working Paper
Dollarization hysteresis and network externalities: theory and evidence from an informal Bolivian credit market
This paper considers network externalities from currency acceptability as a determinant of observed persistence of dollarization in Latin American countries. A model with efficiencies from establishing a network of currency users is constructed. Model implications are then tested using a unique data set of daily loan records from an informal Bolivian credit market. Empirical results are consistent with dollarization hysteresis being driven by network externalities from currency adoption. The results also imply that credible exchange rate stabilization policy alone is not sufficient to achieve ...
Journal Article
Inflation-indexed bonds: how do they work?
In January 1997, the United States Treasury, after years of debate, issued its first inflation-indexed bonds. These securities differ from conventional bonds in that principal and interest payments are linked to a price index. Thus, the purchasing power of an investor's savings is protected from inflation. This article provides a simple description of the Treasury's new offering and discusses why indexed bonds may be useful to investors, the Treasury, and policymakers