In this paper, we construct a simple model for communication between a central bank and money-market traders. It is demonstrated that there are multiple equilibria. In one equilibrium, traders truthfully reveal their own information, and by learning this, the central bank can make better...

This paper considers the implications of an important source of model misspecification for the design of monetary policy rules: the assumed manner of expectations formation. In the model considered here, private agents seek to maximize their objectives subject to standard constraints and the...

This paper estimates (pooled) Taylor-type rules based on real-time information for three monetary policy committees: the FOMC, the Bank of England’s MPC, and the Riksbank’s Executive Board. Tests for heterogeneity among committee members provide new empirical evidence on the distribution of...

How do financial markets incorporate news? This paper argues that one piece of news not only has direct effects on asset prices and market volatility, but it can also alter the relative importance of other news. Studying the reaction of UK short-term interest rates to the Bank of England’s...

This paper examines the effect of European Central Bank (ECB) communication on the price discovery process in the Euribor futures market using a new tick-by-tick data set. First, we show that two pieces of news systematically hit financial markets on Governing Council meeting days: the ECB...

Most central banks explain interest rate decisions, i.e., they provide a story. With committee decisions, it can be difficult to find a story that is both consistent with the decision and representative for the committee. We consider two alternative procedures: (i) vote on the interest rate and...

Since December 2008, the Federal Reserve’s traditional policy instrument, the target federal funds rate, has been effectively at its lower bound of zero. In order to further ease the stance of monetary policy as the economic outlook deteriorated, the Federal Reserve purchased substantial...

Methodological suggestions are made for two separate issues. First, I show how a consistent estimate of the level of the expected inflation can be gleaned from inflation swap rates. Second, I indicate how the dynamic general equilibrium model in question can be modified to generate the observed...

The recent boom-and-bust cycle in housing prices has refreshed the debate on the drivers of housing cycles as well as the appropriate policy response. We analyze the case of Spain, where housing prices have soared since it joined the EMU. We present evidence based on a VAR model, and we...

We investigate whether the anchoring properties of longrun inflation expectations in the United States, the euro area, and the United Kingdom have changed around the economic crisis that erupted in mid-2007. We document that surveybased measures of long-run inflation expectations remained fairly...