Monetary Policy and Capital Accumulation Processes :How did the FED react to the Transition Phases ?

The present paper is related to the recent discussion about the efficiency of the Reserve Federal Bank on investment decisions. Our aim is not to propose an optimal policy rule but rather to appreciate and to understand the link between the monetary interventions of the FED and capital accumulation processes. Therefore, we propose to adopt a Smooth Transition Regression Model to take account of structural changes in capital stock for the sole equipment and computer goods. We also consider two sub-periods (1967-1981 and 1982-1997) that correspond to the policy changes of the Federal Reserve Bank occurring in the early eighties. We conclude to a strong heterogeneity of the exogenous variables between the sub-periods, and above all, to a modification of the effects of monetary policy during the transition phases. In fact, the different results over the two sub-periods could be explained by the instability of the relation linking the decisions of the FED to investment expenditur