This paper uses population-wide data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and the Survey of Consumer Finances to resolve the conflict between overtrading and inactivity shown in administrative data on brokerage and retirement accounts, respectively. Considerable inertia is found and linked to...

The paper assesses the communication strategies of the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, and the European Central Bank and their effectiveness. We find that the effectiveness of communication is not independent from the decision-making process. The paper shows that the Federal Reserve has...

Many central banks share the practice of "purdah", a guideline of abstaining from communication around policy meetings. Although seemingly contradicting the virtue of transparency by withholding information precisely when it is sought after intensely, it has been justified on grounds that such...