Most central banks effect changes to their target or policy rate in discrete increments (e.g., multiples of 0.25%) following public announcements on scheduled dates. Still, for most applications, researchers rely on the assumption that the policy rate changes linearly with economic conditions...

I propose a simple framework that quantifies the stance of monetary policy as a 'shadow short rate' when the term structure is near the zero lower bound. I demonstrate my framework with a one-factor model applied to Japanese data, including an intuitive economic interpretation of the results,...

The uncertainty around future changes to the Federal Reserve target rate varies over time. In our results, the main driver of uncertainty is a "path" factor signaling information about future policy actions, which is filtered from federal funds futures data. The uncertainty is highest when it...

Over the past decade, many central banks reduced interest rates to near-zero levels. I show that this has important implications for the dynamics of asset prices. In both the US and Japan, one such effect was that the correlation of stock and nominal bond returns decreased sharply as the short...

The effects of credit and monetary policy shocks at the lower bound are analysed using a shadow rate term structure model of the Euro-Dollar interest rate futures and Treasury bond markets. This model uses three factors that are common to both markets and two spread factors that capture the term...

Through large-scale asset purchases, widely known as quantitative easing (QE), central banks around the world have affected the supply of safe assets by buying quasi-safe bonds in exchange for truly safe reserves. We examine the pricing effects of the European Central Bank's bond purchases in...

This paper examines the association between option-implied interest rate distributions and macroeconomic expectations in the context of a forward-looking monetary policy rule. We presume that market participants view the policy rule as a guide to the path of future policy rates and price...

We discuss the pros of adopting government-issued digital currencies as well as a supranational digital iCurrency. One such pro is to get rid of paper money (and coinage), a ubiquitous medium for spreading germs, as highlighted by the recent coronavirus outbreak. We set forth three policy...

The recent financial crisis caused dramatic widening and elevated volatilities among basis spreads in cross currency as well as domestic interest rate markets. Furthermore, the widespread use of collateral has made the effective funding cost of financial institutions for the trades significantly...

This paper brings historical evidence to bear on the stylized fact that the yield curve predicts future growth. The spread between corporate bonds and commercial paper reliably predicts future growth over the period 1875-1997. This predictability varies over time, however, particularly across...