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Monetary policy when the nominal short-term interest rate is zero

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Author Info
James Clouse
Dale Henderson
Athanasios Orphanides
David Small
Peter Tinsley

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Abstract

In an environment of low inflation, the Federal Reserve faces the risk that it has not provided enough monetary stimulus even when it has pushed the short-term nominal interest rate to its lower bound of zero. Assuming the nominal Treasury-bill rate has been lowered to zero, this paper considers whether further open market purchases of Treasury bills could spur aggregate demand through increases in the monetary base that may stimulate aggregate demand by increasing liquidity for financial intermediaries and households; by affecting expectations of the future paths of short-term interest rates, inflation, and asset prices; or by stimulating bank lending through the credit channel. This paper also examines the alternative policy tools that are available to the Federal Reserve in theory, and notes the practical limitations imposed by the Federal Reserve Act, The tools the Federal Reserve has at its disposal include open market purchases of Treasury bonds and private-sector credit instruments (at least those that may be purchased by the Federal Reserve); unsterilized and sterilized intervention in foreign exchange; lending through the discount window; and, perhaps in some circumstances, the use of options.

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Paper provided by Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.) in its series Finance and Economics Discussion Series with number 2000-51.

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Date of creation: 2000
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Handle: RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2000-51

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Keywords: Monetary policy ; Open market operations ; Liquidity (Economics);

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This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports: References listed on IDEAS
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  7. David E. Lebow, 1993. "Monetary policy at near-zero interest rates," Working Paper Series / Economic Activity Section 136, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
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  16. repec:bep:macadv:v:4:y:2004:i:1:p:1187-1187 is not listed on IDEAS
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  21. Günter Coenen & Athanasios Orphanides & Volker Wieland, 2003. "Price stability and monetary policy effectiveness when nominal interest rates are bounded at zero," Working Paper Series 231, European Central Bank. [Downloadable!]
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  22. Harold L. Cole & Narayana R. Kocherlakota, 1998. "Zero nominal interest rates: why they're good and how to get them," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, issue Spr, pages 2-10. [Downloadable!]
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  26. Jeffrey C. Fuhrer & Brian F. Madigan, 1997. "Monetary Policy When Interest Rates Are Bounded At Zero," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 79(4), pages 573-585, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  27. Wolman, Alexander L, 2005. "Real Implications of the Zero Bound on Nominal Interest Rates," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 37(2), pages 273-96, April.
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  29. Flint Brayton & Eileen Mauskopf & David Reifschneider & Peter Tinsley & John Williams, 1997. "The role of expectations in the FRB/US macroeconomic model," Federal Reserve Bulletin, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.), issue Apr, pages 227-245. [Downloadable!]
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(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Athanasios Orphanides, 2004. "Monetary policy in deflation: the liquidity trap in history and practice," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2004-01, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Alan Ahearne & Joseph Gagnon & Jane Haltmaier & Steve Kamin ... [et al.]., 2002. "Preventing deflation: lessons from Japan's experience in the 1990s," International Finance Discussion Papers 729, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). [Downloadable!]
  3. Takatoshi Ito, 2004. "Inflation Targeting and Japan: Why has the Bank of Japan not Adopted Inflation Targeting?," RBA Annual Conference Volume, in: Christopher Kent & Simon Guttmann (ed.), The Future of Inflation Targeting Reserve Bank of Australia. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Volker Wieland (Goethe University Frankfurt) & Günter Coenen (European Central Bank), 2004. "Exchange Rate Policy and the Zero Bound on Nominal Interest Rates," Computing in Economics and Finance 2004 65, Society for Computational Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Jean-Marc Natal, 2004. "Deflation and Deflationary Traps: The Situation in Switzerland," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 140(I), pages 127-170, March. [Downloadable!]
  6. Laurence H. Meyer, 2001. "Does money matter?," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, issue May, pages 1-16. [Downloadable!]
  7. Joerg Baumberger, 2003. "Aligning basic to intermediate macroeconomics to current central bank practice - new suggestions and some unfinished business," University of St. Gallen Department of Economics working paper series 2003 2003-10, Department of Economics, University of St. Gallen. [Downloadable!]
  8. Matt Klaeffling & Victor Lopez Perez, 2003. "Inflation targets and the liquidity trap," Working Paper Series 272, European Central Bank. [Downloadable!]
  9. Guenter Coenen & Volker Wieland, 2003. "The Zero-Interest-Rate and the Role of the Exchange Rate for Monetary Policy in Japan," CFS Working Paper Series 2003/09, Center for Financial Studies. [Downloadable!]
  10. William T. Gavin, 2003. "Inflation targeting: why it works and how to make it work better," Working Papers 2003-027, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. [Downloadable!]
  11. Günter Coenen & Volker Wieland, 2003. "The Zero-interest-rate bound and the role of the exchange rate for monetary policy in Japan," Working Paper Series 218, European Central Bank. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  12. Gauti B. Eggertsson, 2006. "Fiscal multipliers and policy coordination," Staff Reports 241, Federal Reserve Bank of New York. [Downloadable!]
  13. Takeshi Kimura & David Small, 2004. "Quantitative monetary easing and risk in financial asset markets," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2004-57, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). [Downloadable!]
  14. Miglierina Enrico & Molho Elena, 2002. "Well-posedness and convexity in vector optimization," Economics and Quantitative Methods qf0221, Department of Economics, University of Insubria. [Downloadable!]
  15. Shu Wu & Shigeru Iwata, 2004. "Estimating Monetary Policy Effects When Interest Rates are Bounded at Zero," Econometric Society 2004 Far Eastern Meetings 478, Econometric Society. [Downloadable!]
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