The question of how best to communicate monetary policy decisions remains a highly topical issue among central banks. Focusing on the experience of the European Central Bank, this paper studies how explanations of monetary policy decisions at press conferences are perceived by financial markets....

We estimate a reaction function for the European Central Bank (ECB) using forecasts of economic growth and inflation as regressors. We detect a shift after Lehman Brothers failed in September 2008 when the pre-crisis reaction function indicates that the zero lower bound may become a constraint....

We estimate empirical reaction functions for the European Central Bank (ECB) with ordered-probit techniques, using the ECB's Monthly Bulletin to guide the choice of variables. The results show that policy reacts to the state of the real economy, M3 growth, and exchange rate changes but not to...

This paper provides an assessment of central bank transparency for the efficiency of monetary policy implementation, using the introduction of balance-of-risks assessments by the Federal Reserve as a testing device. We find that markets anticipated monetary policy decisions equally well under...