Based on ordered Probit models and twenty years of euro area data, we estimate empirical reaction functions for the ECB´s monetary policy and augment them with communication indicators. First, we find that the ECB responded to risks to price stability in line with its primary objective, and...

We quantify the importance of non-monetary news in central bank communication. Using evidence from four major central banks and a comprehensive classification of events, we decompose news conveyed by central banks into news about monetary policy, economic growth, and separately, shocks to risk...

Money markets play a central role in monetary policy implementation. Money market functioning has changed since the financial crisis. This arguably reflects the interaction of two forces: Changes in monetary policy, and changes in regulation. This interaction is not yet well understood. We focus...

Throughout the crisis, the ECB implemented a number of unprecedented measures with a wider and wider reach. These measures included a decrease of the policy rate to virtually zero, the extension of the maturities of its liquidity providing operations, an expansion in total liquidity injected in...

We investigate how the forecasting performance of the Federal Reserve Greenbooks has changed relative to commercial forecasters between 1974 and 2009. To this end, we analyze time variation in the Greenbook coefficients in forecast encompassing regressions. Assuming that model coefficients...

In response to the Great Recession, the Federal Reserve resorted to several unconventional policies that drastically altered the landscape of the federal funds market. The current environment, in which depository institutions are flush with excess reserves, has forced policymakers to design a...

This article investigates the relationship between central bank credibility and the volatility of the key monetary policy instrument. Two main contributions are proposed. First, we propose a time-varying measure of central bank credibility based on the gap between inflation expectations and the...

With a unique loan portfolio maintained by a top-20 universal bank in Germany, this study tests whether unconventional monetary policy by the European Central Bank reduced corporate borrowing costs. We decompose corporate lending rates into refinancing costs, as determined by money markets, and...

To "ensure depth and liquidity," the European Central Bank intervened in sovereign debt markets through its Securities Markets Programme (SMP), providing a unique opportunity to estimate the effects of large-scale asset purchases on sovereign bond liquidity premia. From reduced-form estimates,...

This paper examines the effectiveness of several of the Fed's unconventional monetary policies from 2007 to 2010 by comparing interest rate spreads with forecast estimates based on either the pure expectations hypothesis or the preferred habitat theory. We find that the effectiveness of these...