There is a need to find better models and indicators for large disruptive events, not least in order to be more prepared and mitigate their effects. In this paper we take a step in this direction and discuss the performance of a financial stress indicator with a specific focus on the euro area....

While knowing there is a financial distress when you see it might be true, it is not particularly helpful. Indeed, central banks have an interest in understanding more systematically how their communication affects the markets, not least in order to avoid unnecessary volatility; the markets for...

The purpose of central bank minutes is to give an account of monetary policy meeting discussions to outside observers, thereby enabling them to draw informed conclusions about future policy. However, minutes are by necessity a shortened and edited representation of a broader discussion....

This paper reports and analyzes the results from a questionnaire sent to all present and former members of the Riksbank's Executive Board, the monetary policy committee (MPC) of the Swedish central bank. The questions cover a number of issues discussed in the growing literature on monetary...

It has been suggested that interest-rate smoothing may be partly explained by an omitted variable that relates to conditions in financial markets. We propose an alternative interpretation that suggests that it relates to measurement errors in the output gap.

An approach to decomposing and interpreting the inflation process is proposed. It suggests that the low U.S. inflation rate in recent years reflects a structural development, but that the low levels of unemployment may be a mainly cyclical phenomenon.

A new approach is proposed for estimating potential output and the NAIRU. Identification is achieved using Okun's law and a Phillips curve. The performance of the methodology is exemplified using data from Canada, the UK, and the US.

This paper reports the results from a survey on price-setting behavior of a large random sample of Swedish firms. Prices are found to adjust only infrequently; the median firm adjusts the price once a year. State-dependent pricing is found to be more common than is usually assumed and at least...

We analyze the influence of the Taylor rule on US monetary policy by estimating the policy preferences of the Fed within a DSGE framework. The policy preferences are represented by a standard loss function, extended with a term that represents the degree of reluctance to letting the interest...

The effects of monetary policy on the risks in the financial system are discussed intensively. One hypothesis that has attracted much attention is that monetary policy does not only act through the previously known channels, but also through a hitherto neglected channel – the risk-taking...