When examined for the period 1985-1992 as a whole, the impact of changes in the targeted Fed funds rate on U.S. treasury bill rates has been weaker than during previous periods. The period, however, should be viewed as three separate regimes. First, I show significant differences between the...

This paper investigates whether the degree and the nature of economic and monetary policy interdependence between the United States and the euro area have changed with the advent of EMU. Using real-time data, it addresses this issue from the perspective of financial markets by analysing the...

This paper investigates whether the degree of interdependence between the United States and the euro area economies has changed with the advent of EMU. It addresses this issue from the perspective of financial markets by analysing the effects of monetary policy and macroeconomic news on daily...

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...

From 2004 to 2006, the FOMC raised the target federal funds rate by 4.25 percentage points, yet long-maturity yields and forward rates fell. We consider several possible explanations for this "conundrum." The most likely, in our view, is a fall in the term premium, probably associated with some...

Controllability of longer-term interest rates requires that the persistence of their deviations from the central bank's policy rate (i.e. the policy spreads) remains sufficiently low. This paper applies fractional integration techniques to assess the persistence of policy spreads of euro area...

We employ a time series econometric framework to explore the structural determinants of the spread between the European Overnight Rate and the ECB's Policy Rate (EONIA spread) aiming to explain the widening of the EONIA spread from mid-2004 to mid-2006. In particular, we estimate a model on the...

While the target federal funds rate represents a policy instrument, the effective federal funds rate is determined in a competitive interbank market. The paper proposes a theory of its determination. This yields a specific term structure of interest rates, an account of why the money multiplier...

Major central banks remunerate reserves at negative interest rates and it is increasingly likely that they will keep rates negative for many more years. To study the long run implications of negative rates, we construct a dynamic general equilibrium model with commercial banks funding investment...