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The federal funds rate and the implementation of monetary policy: estimating the Federal Reserve's reaction function

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Author Info
Allan D. Brunner

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Abstract

Several recent studies have reached quite different conclusions about which variable is the best indicator of the stance of monetary policy. These differences likely reflect varying assumptions about bank and Federal Reserve behavior. This paper takes a detailed and comprehensive look at the implementation of monetary policy and the identification of monetary policy shocks. The paper first outlines a general analytical model for studying and evaluating monetary policy procedures. The model is then used to estimate both the Fed's operational policy objectives and its intermediate objectives. The results can be summarized as follows: First, monetary policy shocks over the past several years have primarily affected the federal funds rate, even during periods when the Fed was reportedly targeting reserves. In addition, the paper finds a statistically-significant liquidity effect in all periods examined, although the effect is quite small. Finally, there is statistical evidence that suggests that the Fed's intermediate objectives have not been stable over time, and these differences appear to be economically important. Taken together, these results indicate that while monetary policy shocks can be uncovered by regressing the funds rate on appropriate variables in the Fed's information set, the reaction function should be estimated over subperiods rather than over the entire 1959-1993 period.

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Paper provided by Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.) in its series International Finance Discussion Papers with number 466.

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Date of creation: 1994
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Handle: RePEc:fip:fedgif:466

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Related research
Keywords: Federal funds market (United States) ; Monetary policy - United States;

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References listed on IDEAS
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. Barro, Robert J, 1978. "Unanticipated Money, Output, and the Price Level in the United States," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 86(4), pages 549-80, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Richard G. Sheehan, 1985. "The federal reserve reaction function: does debt growth influence monetary policy?," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, issue Mar, pages 24-33. [Downloadable!]
  3. Lombra, Raymond & Moran, Michael, 1980. "Policy advice and policymaking at the federal reserve," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 9-68, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Sims, Christopher A, 1980. "Macroeconomics and Reality," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(1), pages 1-48, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Feinman, Joshua N, 1993. "Estimating the Open Market Desk's Daily Reaction Function," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 25(2), pages 231-47, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. DeRosa, Paul & Stern, Gary H., 1977. "Monetary control and the federal funds rate," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(2), pages 217-230, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Leeper, Eric M. & Gordon, David B., 1992. "In search of the liquidity effect," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 341-369, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. Tinsley, Peter A, et al, 1982. "Policy Robustness: Specification and Simulation of a Monthly Money Market Model," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 14(4), pages 829-56, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Anderson, Richard G & Rasche, Robert H, 1982. "What Do Money Market Models Tell Us about How to Implement Monetary Policy?," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 14(4), pages 796-828, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Gordon, David B & Leeper, Eric M, 1994. "The Dynamic Impacts of Monetary Policy: An Exercise in Tentative Identification," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 102(6), pages 1228-47, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  11. Bernanke, Ben S., 1986. "Alternative explanations of the money-income correlation," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 49-99, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  12. John P. Judd & John L. Scadding, 1982. "What do money market models tell us about how to implement monetary policy: reply," Working Papers in Applied Economic Theory 108, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
  13. Bernanke, Ben S & Blinder, Alan S, 1992. "The Federal Funds Rate and the Channels of Monetary Transmission," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(4), pages 901-21, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  14. Brunner, Allan D & Lown, Cara S, 1993. "The Effects of Lower Reserve Requirements on Money Market Volatility," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(2), pages 199-205, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  15. Sims, Christopher A, 1972. "Money, Income, and Causality," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 62(4), pages 540-52, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(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. Daniel L. Thornton, 1998. "The Federal Reserve's operating procedure, nonborrowed reserves, borrowed reserves and the liquidity effect," Working Papers 1998-009, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Ben S. Bernanke & Ilian Mihov, 1995. "Measuring Monetary Policy," NBER Working Papers 5145, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  3. Michel Normandin & Louis Phaneuf, 2003. "Monetary Policy Shocks: Testing Identification Conditions Under Time-Varying Conditional Volatility," Cahiers de recherche 03-04, HEC Montréal, Institut d'économie appliquée. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Allan D. Brunner, 1996. "Using measures of expectations to identify the effects of a monetary policy shock," International Finance Discussion Papers 537, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). [Downloadable!]
  5. John Ammer & Allan D. Brunner, 1995. "When is monetary policy effective?," International Finance Discussion Papers 520, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). [Downloadable!]
  6. Redward, Peter & Saarenheimo, Tuomas, 1996. "From Policy Rate to Market Rates: An Empirical Analysis of Finnish Monetary Transmission," Research Discussion Papers 22/1996, Bank of Finland. [Downloadable!]
  7. Mohd Zaini Abd Karim & Amy Azhar Mohd Harif & Azira Adziz, 2006. "Monetary Policy and Sectoral Bank Lending in Malaysia," Global Economic Review, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 35(3), pages 303-326, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Michael S. Gibson, 1997. "The bank lending channel of monetary policy transmission: evidence from a model of bank behavior that incorporates long-term customer relationships," International Finance Discussion Papers 584, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). [Downloadable!]
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