Search Results
Working Paper
The dynamic effects of forward guidance shocks
We examine the macroeconomic effcts of forward guidance shocks at the zero lower bound. Empirically, we identify forward guidance shocks using unexpected changes in futures contracts around monetary policy announcements. We then embed these policy shocks in a vector autoregression to trace out their macroeconomic implications. Forward guidance shocks that lower expected future policy rates lead to moderate increases in economic activity and inflation. After examining forward guidance shocks in the data, we show that a standard model of nominal price rigidity can reproduce our empirical ...
Working Paper
Household Debt and the Heterogeneous Effects of Forward Guidance
We develop an incomplete-markets heterogeneous agent New-Keynesian (HANK) model in which households are allowed to lend and borrow, subject to a borrowing constraint. We show that, in this framework, forward guidance, that is the promise by the central bank to lower future interest rates, can be a powerful policy tool, especially when the economy is in a liquidity trap. In our model, the power of forward guidance is amplified by three redistributive channels, absent in a representative agent new- Keynesian model (RANK) or in a HANK model without private debt. First, expected lower rates imply ...
Working Paper
The Emergence of Forward Guidance As a Monetary Policy Tool
Forward guidance—the issuance by a central bank of public statements concerning the likely future settings of its policy instruments—is widely regarded as a new tool of monetary policy. The analysis in this paper shows that Federal Reserve policymakers from the 1950s onward actually accepted the premises of forward guidance: the notion that longer-term interest rates are key yields in aggregate spending decisions; and the proposition that indications of intentions regarding future short-term interest rate policy can affect longer-term rates. Over the same period, they were nevertheless ...
Working Paper
Forward guidance and the state of the economy
This paper examines forward guidance using a nonlinear New Keynesian model with a zero lower bound (ZLB) constraint on the nominal interest rate. Forward guidance is modeled with news shocks to the monetary policy rule. The effectiveness of forward guidance depends on the state of the economy, the speed of the recovery, the ZLB constraint, the degree of uncertainty, the monetary response to inflation, the size of the news shocks, and the forward guidance horizon. Specifically, the stimulus from forward guidance falls as the economy deteriorates or as households expect a slower recovery. When ...
Working Paper
Strengthening the FOMC’s Framework in View of the Effective Lower Bound and Some Considerations Related to Time-Inconsistent Strategies
We analyze the framework for monetary policy in view of the effective lower bound (ELB). We find that the ELB is likely to bind in most future recessions and propose some ways that theoretical models imply that the framework could be strengthened. We also discuss ways that commitment strategies, which are not part of the framework, may improve economic outcomes. These policies can suffer from a time-inconsistency problem, which we analyze.
Journal Article
Federal Reserve: The Future of Forward Guidance
For much of the Fed's history, its leaders prided themselves on their inscrutability. Alan Greenspan, who served as Fed chair from 1987 to 2006, famously perfected the art of "Fedspeak," carefully crafting his statements on monetary policy to be vague and obscure so that he could avoid roiling financial markets. But by the end of his tenure, the Fed had become increasingly transparent in its communications with the public. Today, Fed Chair Jerome Powell holds a press conference after every FOMC meeting, and the committee issues a post-meeting statement explaining both its current policy ...
Journal Article
Has Forward Guidance Been Effective?
A. Lee Smith and Thealexa Becker compare forward guidance announcements with changes in the effective federal funds rate and find the two policy measures have had similar macroeconomic effects.
Working Paper
Identification of Monetary Policy Shocks with External Instrument SVAR
We explore the use of external instrument SVAR to identify monetary policy shocks. We identify a forward guidance shock as the monetary shock component having zero instant impact on the policy rate. A contractionary forward guidance shock raises both future output and price level, stressing the relative importance of revealing policymakers' view on future output and price level over committing to a policy stance. We also decompose non-monetary structural shocks, and find that positive shocks to output and price level lead to monetary contraction. Since information on output and price level is ...
Newsletter
Past and Future Effects of the Recent Monetary Policy Tightening
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) has raised short-term interest rates over 500 basis points since early last year, but it recently slowed the pace of policy tightening and some participants have signaled that the current tightening cycle might be nearing its end. In making the decision to stop raising rates, an important consideration will be the extent to which the actions already taken by the Committee have yet to feed through to the economy. On the one hand, if substantial effects of past policy tightening are yet to come, that would argue for an earlier end to rate increases, all ...
Speech
Systematic policy and forward guidance
Money Marketeers of New York University, Inc., Down Town Association, March 25, 2014, New York, NY President Charles Plosser discusses the relationship between systematic policy and forward guidance. He explains how understanding both practices can provide insights into effective monetary policy in normal and unusual times, or in extreme conditions when policy is constrained by the zero lower bound on nominal interest rates.