Japan has been in a benign liquidity trap since 1990. In a benign liquidity trap, interest rates approach zero, prices decline, and monetary policy is ineffective but output and employment perform decently. Such a pattern contradicts traditional macro theories. This paper introduces a monetary...

Against the background of the recent discussion whether the smoothing behavior of the Fed detected by empirical Taylor rules is indeed a fact or rather a statistically fiction, this paper re-examines the empirical evidence for interest rate smoothing for the case of the ECB. Based on data...

In this paper we show that interest rate rules lead to multiple equilibria when the central bank faces a limit to its ability to print money, or when private agents are limited in the amount of bonds that can be pledged to the central bank in exchange for money. Some of the equilibria are...

When the monetary policy rate increases, banks increase loan rates fairly quickly and by roughly the same amount. However, when the policy rate falls, bank loan rates adjust more slowly and not completely. I develop a model with which I show that this asymmetry in interest rate pass-through can...

In this paper, we explore the interest rate setting behavior of newly appointed central bank governors. We use the Kuttner and Posen (2010) sample, which covers 15 OECD countries, and estimate an augmented Taylor (1993) rule for the period 1974–2008. We find, first, that newly appointed...

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...

In a provocative paper, Galí (2014) showed that a policymaker who raises interest rates to rein in a potential bubble will only make a bubble bigger if one exists. This poses a challenge to advocates of lean-against-the-wind policies that call for raising interest rates to mitigate potential...

The interest rate channel of monetary transmission is the link through which variations in Central Bank real interest rates influence aggregate output and prices. To check fluctuation in prices, the Central Bank of Nigeria has kept the monetary policy rate stable at 12 percent for the past three...

Policy rates in advanced economies are at record lows and central banks have resorted to unconventional policy tools, but there are concerns that the low policy rates have not been transmitted to lending rates for households and non-financial firms. In this special feature, we investigate...

Today, the prime aim of central banking is to achieve price stability and, to a lesser extent, output stability. To this end, central banks use various monetary policy rules. This paper intends to provide a broad survey of the literature on Taylor-type monetary policy rules with a time-varying...